Do you have experience working abroad? Do you have top tier skills in whatever field you do? Why is a company going to pay 5-10x more for you, when they could conceivably get locals? They certainly have engineers, medics and strong men in Africa.
When I got out of school (Mech Eng) I wanted basically the exact same thing. The romance of travel and living abroad and all that. You know what? Even Americans when they found out I was Canadian wouldn't look twice. The bottom line was I had no experience. You really need to bring something to the table. So like Scotian said, I started with an Oil and Gas service company in Canada, and after 2.5 years moved to Texas, 1.5 years more, finally got to Indonesia, but that still took a lot of pushing on my end. I brought experience to the table. Despite not being able to drive, speak the language well, or knowing the cultural niceties, they paid me like 5-6x what they paid the locals because I had the experience in exactly what they needed, and was willing to put up with the nonsense living conditions. Basically I'd go out with local engineers, they'd handle all the talking and basic shit, then when it got more involved I'd watch, help and teach.
The other thing I'd recommend and make sure some huge multinational company has your back, either by being a contractor to them, or a direct employee. They have the knowledge and clout to deal with all the BS that goes with corrupt third world countries and the games played. Try not to rely on other small businesses, or hell even having employees if you can. Our company hired some local courier in Indo to deliver $80,000 cash (cash is basically the only thing that flies there) to gov't for a "truck registration", and surprise surprise the guy got "robbed" and basically they said it was our problem. Now they have local clout, but then we have fixers with contacts in the police and army to make sure stuff goes smooth. Somehow it got resolved and they found it, but again local culture and politics dominated, and I'm sure it wasn't squeaky clean. Talking to people who rented jet skis or ran bars, or any other small business type thing in Mexico/Thailand etc, you're viewed as the rich foreigner. Everything will take twice as long, be half the quality, you're sort of relegated to dealing with people who know English, and you'll pay for that privilege. You can't be competitive. Being viewed as rich, employees will steal from you if you aren't there. I lived for 1.5 yrs on the US border. The culture is exclusively Mexican. My boss was from away, all the engineers were too, and all the bottom line operators lived there their whole lives. Even though it was the US, Mexican culture prevailed, and they looked after their own. They knew we would all be gone in a couple years on to different assignments. When trucks broke down, it was their friends' shop who fixed them. Tools would go missing, hell even when we were changing shops a flat screen TV we used for our job board 'got lost in the move'. Basically the point is that to drop into a completely new culture from outside and get fast loyalty is damn near impossible.
Part of the reason I think is that the education system in these places isn't great, and the average person often isn't all that intelligent or thinking long term. They know you're probably not here for the long haul where as they are, and in short their priority is to get as much money of you, as quickly as possible, often by hook or crook. Now this varies country to country, in Indonesia for instance, you had crooked cabs, and then you had a couple brands which were renowned for their honesty, and they flourished. You'd think people would get the hint.
The other thing that is mentioned, when any ethnic group has their shit together and goes into a different country and is successful, this can breed immense resentment from the locals. This can put you in a very bad situation, because if locals aren't doing so well, "those damn ethnics took all our jawwwwbs" is a convenient excuse to ethnically cleanse you and seize your assets. Despite the fact the economic argument could be made that if your neighbor is rich selling better farming techniques, you too profit from more and cheaper food, but again, when you don't have a job, you get very myopic. You need to look no further than the whites in SA, Jews in Germany, Chinese in Indonesia, as mentioned Japanese in Peru, or even Mexicans in the states. This can extend from simply resentment, to full blown, burning down your shop and shooting you.
I'm really not trying to be harsh, but the main point is that you almost sound like me nearly a decade ago fresh out of university. I can't believe how green and ignorant I was. If you were anywhere ready to be working internationally in shit holes, you probably wouldn't be posting these sorts of questions.
Now on the other hand, I'm sorry if I sound like its all complaining, because it was really a valuable interesting experience. I definitely met a lot of great people, and saw a lot of cool shit, and made decent money. If you get the opportunity to do it I'd jump on it in a second, but at the same time, I don't think that life style is sustainable long term. You're literally trading your life for cash.
When I got out of school (Mech Eng) I wanted basically the exact same thing. The romance of travel and living abroad and all that. You know what? Even Americans when they found out I was Canadian wouldn't look twice. The bottom line was I had no experience. You really need to bring something to the table. So like Scotian said, I started with an Oil and Gas service company in Canada, and after 2.5 years moved to Texas, 1.5 years more, finally got to Indonesia, but that still took a lot of pushing on my end. I brought experience to the table. Despite not being able to drive, speak the language well, or knowing the cultural niceties, they paid me like 5-6x what they paid the locals because I had the experience in exactly what they needed, and was willing to put up with the nonsense living conditions. Basically I'd go out with local engineers, they'd handle all the talking and basic shit, then when it got more involved I'd watch, help and teach.
The other thing I'd recommend and make sure some huge multinational company has your back, either by being a contractor to them, or a direct employee. They have the knowledge and clout to deal with all the BS that goes with corrupt third world countries and the games played. Try not to rely on other small businesses, or hell even having employees if you can. Our company hired some local courier in Indo to deliver $80,000 cash (cash is basically the only thing that flies there) to gov't for a "truck registration", and surprise surprise the guy got "robbed" and basically they said it was our problem. Now they have local clout, but then we have fixers with contacts in the police and army to make sure stuff goes smooth. Somehow it got resolved and they found it, but again local culture and politics dominated, and I'm sure it wasn't squeaky clean. Talking to people who rented jet skis or ran bars, or any other small business type thing in Mexico/Thailand etc, you're viewed as the rich foreigner. Everything will take twice as long, be half the quality, you're sort of relegated to dealing with people who know English, and you'll pay for that privilege. You can't be competitive. Being viewed as rich, employees will steal from you if you aren't there. I lived for 1.5 yrs on the US border. The culture is exclusively Mexican. My boss was from away, all the engineers were too, and all the bottom line operators lived there their whole lives. Even though it was the US, Mexican culture prevailed, and they looked after their own. They knew we would all be gone in a couple years on to different assignments. When trucks broke down, it was their friends' shop who fixed them. Tools would go missing, hell even when we were changing shops a flat screen TV we used for our job board 'got lost in the move'. Basically the point is that to drop into a completely new culture from outside and get fast loyalty is damn near impossible.
Part of the reason I think is that the education system in these places isn't great, and the average person often isn't all that intelligent or thinking long term. They know you're probably not here for the long haul where as they are, and in short their priority is to get as much money of you, as quickly as possible, often by hook or crook. Now this varies country to country, in Indonesia for instance, you had crooked cabs, and then you had a couple brands which were renowned for their honesty, and they flourished. You'd think people would get the hint.
The other thing that is mentioned, when any ethnic group has their shit together and goes into a different country and is successful, this can breed immense resentment from the locals. This can put you in a very bad situation, because if locals aren't doing so well, "those damn ethnics took all our jawwwwbs" is a convenient excuse to ethnically cleanse you and seize your assets. Despite the fact the economic argument could be made that if your neighbor is rich selling better farming techniques, you too profit from more and cheaper food, but again, when you don't have a job, you get very myopic. You need to look no further than the whites in SA, Jews in Germany, Chinese in Indonesia, as mentioned Japanese in Peru, or even Mexicans in the states. This can extend from simply resentment, to full blown, burning down your shop and shooting you.
I'm really not trying to be harsh, but the main point is that you almost sound like me nearly a decade ago fresh out of university. I can't believe how green and ignorant I was. If you were anywhere ready to be working internationally in shit holes, you probably wouldn't be posting these sorts of questions.
Now on the other hand, I'm sorry if I sound like its all complaining, because it was really a valuable interesting experience. I definitely met a lot of great people, and saw a lot of cool shit, and made decent money. If you get the opportunity to do it I'd jump on it in a second, but at the same time, I don't think that life style is sustainable long term. You're literally trading your life for cash.