The Spouse as “the Forgotten Other”: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Expatriation Literature

Abstract

In this paper, we explore how the spouse is discursively constructed and represented in the expatriation literature since the publication of “The influence of the spouse on American expatriate adjustment and intent to stay in Pacific Rim overseas assignments”, the most cited article related to the expatriate spouse, published by Black and Stephens (1989). Using a qualitative content analysis, we review 185 academic articles and identify four key discourses around the expatriate spouse, namely domestication, de-professionalization, objectification, and denunciation. We highlight the essentializing and gendered assumptions concerning the spouse and its role in the expatriation process that the expatriation literature builds on. By doing so, we hope to reinvigorate a critical discussion concerning the current limitations and the gendered nature of the research on spouses in the expatriation literature.