40, no english, no experience, from Serbia = Absolutely no chance.

Cynical

Cynical yes but, unfortunately, brutally true. At 40 he'd be hard pushed to get the necessary training in to become even a roustabout or roughneck (if those terms still apply these days). He'd be better off trying for onshore construction work in the oil & gas industry, lack of English is less of a barrier there and there's plenty of work going down in places like Roumania and Kasakhstan.

Tell the 40 year old man to learn a little Amenglish and a little Texmexican, travel to Mexico, walk, swim across the northern border and head for nearest workover unit and he will get on a payroll. Seriously, as has been noted by several posters most of the oil sectors around the world use English as the primary language. Parts of S. America are a glaring exception as are some of the Russian Fields.

Shame really, hes got a family of 4 living Thai style in a studio and hes already doing back breaking work. He is fitter than most 30 yr olds and looks it so that's not an issue for him personally but the lack of trade and ENGLISH will make it tough. I will forward this thread to his daughter who can translate for him so he can make up his own mind. Being family I'm happy to pay his ticket to wherever but only if there is some chance of employment and looks like construction may be the way to go.