Expatriate Experience Research Articles

‘You’re not big, you’re just in Asia’: Expatriate embodiment and emotional experiences of size in Singapore

This article brings together work on privileged migration with critical geographical work on body size. In uniting these areas together I focus on the role of embodiment within expatriate experiences of migration to Singapore. I argue that despite a developing body of critical work on migration, this work has failed to explore embodied experiences of size. To counter this gap, this research demonstrates the importance of recognising how sized narratives and experiences are shaped through gendered migration and the need to explore the multiplicity of experiences of women in different places of the city. Drawing upon empirical research with expatriate women in Singapore I advance work within critical geographies of body size by presenting original work that challenges dominant and medicalised understandings of fatness as inherently bad. Furthermore, I contribute to the growing area of work that places emphasis on the subjective nature of size through recognition of work on migration. In this article, I explore how migration was embodied and discussed through size, firstly by looking at how women discussed losing their sense of identity. Secondly, the temporal and spatial embeddedness of size. Finally, how women rejected and resisted dominant discourses through humour and indifference.

Expatriates Perceptions toward Hofstede’s Indonesia Cultural Dimensions

The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of expatriates in Indonesia, related to Hofstede’s Indonesia cultural dimensions. This study applied a phenomenological qualitative study and used purposive sampling to select the participants. Data were gathered using the semi-structured interview with appointments set before the meeting. The interviews were conducted on an individual basis and were recorded. Then, the data were transcribed and analyzed through coding and categorizing until sets of themes occurred. The results show that the majority of participants agree Indonesia has collectivism and low uncertainty avoidance culture. Meanwhile, the expatriates’ experiences toward high power distance dimension in Indonesia vary.

Repatriation of international dual‐career couples

Combining the realities of dual‐career couples (DCCs) and the requirements of international careers can be difficult. In order to improve the understanding of the repatriation experiences of international DCCs, we conducted interviews with both partners in 14 DCCs. Contrary to expectations, the majority of the interviewed couples reported very successful repatriation experiences, and only a few adjustment challenges were raised. The interviews address the factors explaining such repatriation adjustment issues, and also elicit four key factors (active self‐management of the expatriation process, earlier experience of expatriation and repatriation, the successful integration of work life and family life, and the realization of dual‐career interests upon repatriation) connected with successful repatriation adjustment experiences.

Contextual determinants in disclosing one’s stigmatized identity during expatriation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to add to the understanding of the international work experiences of lesbian and gay self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) with a particular focus on the effects of different contexts on their disclosure decisions. In doing so, this study responds to the call for more empirical and extensive studies of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) expatriates.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on in-depth analysis of four interviews of lesbian and gay SIEs.FindingsThe findings presented in this paper support three contextual determinants – personal, organizational, and country-level context. These contextual determinants significantly influence lesbian and gay SIEs’ disclosure decisions and their overall international work experience.Originality/valueGiven the rapid globalization and dynamic business environment, workforce diversity has become a business imperative over the past few decades. Diversity in today’s workforce includes not simply gender and racial diversity, but also age, culture, sexual orientation, religion, education, and disabilities as primary categories of diversity. Moreover, new technologies require highly skilled labor the world over, exacerbating existing global talent shortages. These advancements in technology, accompanied by massive shortfalls in skilled labor, have expanded the pool of potential expatriates to include those non-traditional ones who have been excluded from international assignments. Particularly, as LGBT rights to equal employment opportunity and their potential contributions to international assignments have been increasingly recognized worldwide in recent years, attention to LGBT expatriates has grown exponentially. Nevertheless, neither their experiences as lesbian and gay SIEs in international assignments nor the effects of contexts on those experiences, including disclosure decisions, have yet to be fully explored. In this sense, this paper provides a contribution to the deeper understanding of lesbian and gay SIEs in multidimensional contexts of an international assignment. Although the study examined lesbian and gay expatriates, results suggest insights into the entire LGBT expatriate community.

An exploratory study into organizational repatriates’ emotional support network

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how repatriates’ emotional support network affects their experience of re-entry.Design/methodology/approachThis inductive, qualitative study is based on 27 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Belgian organizational repatriates.FindingsThe analyses suggest that expatriation empathy is a key attribute of organizational repatriates’ main emotional support providers. In addition, the results show that although partners are a main source of emotional support on re-entry, they are also important potential causes of distress. Lastly, the results suggest that the cultural diversity of a repatriate’s emotional support network is linked with characteristics of the assignment and that it affects the experience of repatriation.Research limitations/implicationsThe results provide empirical evidence that the expatriation empathy of repatriates’ support providers is a more informative characteristic to consider compared with whether they have personal experience of expatriation. In addition, the results suggest that research should also take into account the negative side of social support, and, for example, consider the influence of crossover distress of partners who experience relocation difficulties themselves.Practical implicationsThis study points to the possible benefits of organizing social activities or training for repatriates and their partner and any children, as well as the advantages of encouraging expatriates to invite home-country friends to visit.Originality/valueAlthough most scholars agree on the importance of support for expatriates’ well-being, the sources of relevant emotional support have received little research attention so far, as has how this influences the repatriation experience.

Using narratives to understand the motivational factors and experience of being a self-initiated academic expatriate in South Africa

Orientation: A growing movement of foreign nationals is settling in South Africa. Given this, there is a need to understand not only those factors influencing foreign nationals to settle in South Africa but also their lived experiences as a basis for individual career development.Research purpose: To investigate the expatriation motivational factors and experiences of selfinitiated academic expatriates in South Africa.Motivation for the study: Calls have been made within the careers literature for more empirical focus on understanding career development using some of the neglected sample groups.Research approach, design and method: The interpretive paradigm was adopted to understand the main purpose of the study. Guided by study objectives, unstructured interviews were conducted using a sample of foreign academics working in South Africa (n = 25).Main findings: Individual stories and narratives highlighted that academics relocated for the following reasons: (1) individual preference, (2) economic meltdown and (3) political conditions. Furthermore, the lived experiences of the expatriates reflected discrimination within the workplace and the community of residences in South Africa.Practical and managerial implications: Research findings indicate that the human resources (HR) function can come up with interventions that positively influence the lived experience and career development of foreign academics working in South Africa.Contribution: The expatriate experience framed in this study provides a picture of the career development processes of neglected sample groups in the extant literature. Such an understanding is key in advancing literature and proposing interventions. All this is important given the global trend on labour and skills movement added to the role South Africa plays in the international arena.

Why do self-initiated expatriates quit their jobs: The role of job embeddedness and shocks in explaining turnover intentions

Retaining self-initiated expatriates is a challenge for many organizations. Self-made expatriates tend to be mobile. They are willing to manage their own careers and to take up opportunities to live and work in countries of their own choice. Despite their importance as a source of human capital there are few studies on the work experiences of self-initiated expatriates and on the factors that affect their decisions to stay or leave their jobs. This article examined the effects of both job embeddedness and shocks on the turnover intention of self-initiated expatriates. Drawing on a sample of 204 self-initiated expatriates working in public healthcare organizations in the United Arab Emirates we found that both on-the-job embeddedness and shocks played a key role in predicting turnover intentions. The study also revealed that off-the-job embeddedness moderated the relationship between shock and turnover intentions such that self-initiated expatriates were more likely to consider leaving their organizations when they were firmly embedded in their community. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.

She Stoops to Conquer: An Irish Expatriate Comedy

Abstract Oliver Goldsmith’s representation of two English gentlemen visiting a country house allegorizes Irish expatriate experience in She Stoops to Conquer. The play mocks a distinctive urban masculinity, the macaroni, by showing how ridiculous such fashionable characters become when removed from London. Resembling expatriates in this new, uncomfortable setting, the self-exiled gentlemen prompt Tony Lumpkin’s waggery, which is enhanced by Kate Hardcastle’s mockery of Marlow, her prospective husband. Goldsmith adapted elements of his plot from The Beaux Stratagem, a comedy by his Irish expatriate precursor George Farquhar, and he also incorporates autobiographical aspects of his Irish youth and recent English past. The laughter evoked by his fine gentlemen includes self-mockery, the result of Goldsmith’s double perspective on balancing the roles of outsider and insider, comic Irishman and fashionable Londoner.

“China, why not?”: serious leisure and transmigrant runners’ stories from Beijing

The purpose of this study was to examine how amateur, serious distance runners negotiate their running practices upon transnational migration to China. Despite the extensive body of research into expatriate experiences and adaptation, serious leisure as a site where meaning-making occurs has not been studied in existing research. Through interviews with five female and two male expatriates, we studied the ways in which Western runners brought meaning to the transition experience and negotiated meanings and bodily practices associated with running. Through narrative analysis, we identified three core narratives of migration (possibility, necessity and growing up) and two emergent narratives (community and running to feel like oneself) about shifting meaning in running. We conclude with implications for future research in serious leisure and migration studies.

Emotional support on re-entry into the home country: Does it matter for repatriates’ adjustment who the providers are?

This study examines the influence of repatriates’ emotional support providers (home country friends/relatives, host country friends/relatives, and friends/relatives with expatriate experience) on both their psychological and sociocultural adjustment on re-entry into their home country. The study builds on social identity theory and examines the mediating role of the salience of repatriates’ international role identity. Predictions are tested using a quantitative survey data of 121 repatriates. The results show a positive indirect effect of the amount of support repatriates receive from home country friends/relatives on both dimensions of adjustment through a decreased salience of their international role identity. Furthermore, analyses show a negative indirect effect of maintaining supportive connections with host country friends/relatives on both psychological and sociocultural adjustment through an increased salience of repatriates’ international role identity. The results also show a direct effect of having or not having host country friends/relatives as emotional support providers in such a way that repatriates who do not have supportive host country friends/relatives are better psychologically adjusted upon re-entry. This study raises new questions about generally accepted advice for the adjustment strategies of expatriates, such as building connections with host country nationals.

Psychological contracts: enhancing understanding of the expatriation experience

In this introduction, we undertake a critical review of the state of research examining psychological contracts (PCs) as they pertain to the experience of expatriation and expatriates. Though expatriation as an activity has diversified greatly in recent decades – with the growth of self-initiated expatriation, more short-term, flexible and commuter assignments and a broadening of the expatriate profile with a wider range of people choosing to expatriate – there has been limited research published thus far examining expatriates’ perceptions of their PC and how it is affected by working inter-culturally. This introduction briefly traces the history of PC research and expatriates/expatriation and the employment relationship, and then considers the extant research specifically examining PCs in relation to expatriates/expatriation. The articles included in the special issue address a range of areas identified in the call for papers and provide valuable insights into expatriation and expatriates’ experience including: expatriate PC breach; expatriate PC fulfilment; pre- and post-assignment PC as perceived by repatriates; PC of flexpatriates; and, episodic formation of expatriate PCs. Given the relatively underexplored area of expatriate/expatriation-related PC research, the special issue establishes a platform for undertaking future research in this field.

Expatriate 2.0: New media for new expatriates

Abstract In the aftermath of global financial crisis, a new generation of western expatriates from developed countries have chosen mainland China as their destination for temporary migration. Using case studies and in-depth interviews, this article explores how this group of transient migrants comes to define their identities as ‘new expatriates’ in China by creating their own media. From lifestyle magazines to podcasts, western expatriates are cultivating their own niche to support expatriate communities despite institutional barriers and marginalized status. This study provides insights into the motivations of creating expatriate media that connect media practices with the everyday life experiences of western expatriates in China.

Gestão internacional de recursos humanos: Adaptabilidade intercultural na expatriação de brasileiros

Este artigo problematiza as experiências de brasileiros expatriados para desvendar os desafios e as oportunidades com os quais se deparam em outras culturas. Com base na literatura, destacamos a necessidade de humanizar o processo de internacionalização porque a expatriação é fenômeno multifacetado que requer abordagem multidisciplinar. Em termos empíricos, analisamos dados coletados por meio de entrevistas em profundidade com dezesseis expatriados. Os resultados indicam que o processo de expatriação é uma questão a ser tratada com mais atenção pela área de Gestão Internacional de Recursos Humanos. Destacamos os desafios da fragilidade da chamada adaptabilidade antecipada, das estratégias de retorno, do repatriamento e suas implicações para o plano de carreira, assim como, a necessidade de programas específicos de treinamento intercultural. Por outro lado, os relatos dos expatriados registram conotações positivas as oportunidades profissionais e pessoais das missões internacionais. Ao considerar estes resultados, a área de Gestão Internacional de Recursos Humanos poderia aproveitar a intensa experiência dos expatriados para reformular políticas e práticas e, consequentemente, usufruir do mindset global.

An episodic framework of outgroup interaction processing: Integration and redirection for the expatriate adjustment research.

Cross-cultural research has traditionally emphasized predicting adjustment, treating it as a level to be achieved more than a change process to be understood and controlled. The lack of focus on process integration has inhibited our understanding of precisely why and how adjustment processes unfold and ultimately cause (dys)functional change in criteria. In response, we review the motives and processes of cross-cultural adjustment and integrate these into a theoretical framework, examining the discrete episode of expatriate-host national interaction as the focal vehicle for change. First, we synthesize the general causal sequence within an interaction episode. We then summarize state inputs that condition processing. Next, we describe identity management and learning processing in depth. Then, we discuss key interactions among the motive and processing categories. Finally, we orient the cross-cultural interaction episode within the nomological network of cross-cultural adjustment predictors and criteria. This framework prescribes that an expatriate should initially reduce acculturative stress through repeated, functional identity management and learning processing of novelty encountered in cross-cultural interaction episodes. To do so, one must avoid inhibitory input states and the many potential processing failures identified here. If the expatriate experiences enough such functional interaction episodes, a "Stage 2" is reached where the motive to reduce stress has been largely overcome, and thereafter, interaction episode processing proceeds more functionally in general. (PsycINFO Database Record

Rewarding Self‐Initiated Expatriates: A Skills‐Based Approach

AbstractExpatriate compensation is considered one of the most difficult issues in expatriate policy, yet it is an important area of international HRM since it can attract and retain high‐skilled employees, increasing satisfaction and reducing turnover. Most of the literature on expatriate compensation has focused on traditional organizational expatriates (OEs). This article uses insights from the OE compensation literature to discuss the compensation of an overlooked group of expatriates known as self‐initiated expatriates (SIEs). We first define SIEs, discuss their motivations to pursue an expatriate experience, and categorize them into three different groups based on their skill level. Then we focus the discussion on rewarding high‐skilled SIEs, a valuable group of expatriates that are receiving increased attention by MNEs. We argue that to attract high‐skilled SIEs, HR managers should consider using more nonfinancial rewards in addition to financial rewards. This article has implications for both academic research and organizational practice. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Expanding horizons on expatriate adjustment: A look at the role of emotional display and status

As organizations are becoming increasingly global, the number of expatriate workers around the globe is increasing. Although expatriate adjustment has been well researched, other aspects of the expatriate's cross-cultural experience have not been examined in depth. This review explores one such aspect, the role of emotion in cross-cultural experiences, and examines literature from the 1990's to present on emotion and status as it could relate to the expatriate experience. Specifically, the authors examine the role of emotion across cultures, emotional display rules and status in order to deepen our understanding of how emotion could affect international adjustment and the training process. In addition, the authors provide avenues for future research.

Privilege, Innocence, and “Petro-Guilt” in Maria Sødahl’s Limbo

Maria Sodahl's Limbo (2010) opens with an evocative sequence that is emblematic of the film's complex thematic structure. In a medium shot, three men are seen from behind, seated on a tropical beach sharing a joint as they look out across the water at an oil platform. Dexter, a black Trinidadian of African descent, is flanked by Jo, a white Norwegian, and Daniel, a white Australian. Dexter comments sardonically: You guys have a bad influence on me, you know. The camera cuts to a close-up of Jo as he takes a hit, chuckles, and says: Yes, we (Limbo 2010). The sequence sends mixed signals. On the one hand, the three men are depicted as equals bonding over illicit recreational drug use. It is well known that marijuana is deeply embedded in a number of Caribbean cultures, so the fact that it is the Caribbean Dexter who claims to feel corrupted rather than the white Westerners creates a humorous irony. Yet, on the other hand, the presence of the oil platform looming on the horizon and marring the idyllic setting creates a sense of foreboding, and the placement of Jo and Daniel on either side of Dexter ever so slightly suggests some kind of coercion; the two white men lean casually toward the black man, who sits uncomfortably upright between them. In what follows, I will trace the questions of privilege, innocence, and guilt in relation to ethnic and economic inequalities in the Global South that this scene and indeed the rest of Limbo raises. The film depicts the consequences of transnational corporate life for a group of people on the island of Trinidad. The film's point of view lies mostly with one character, Norwegian housewife Sonia Wang Moe, who brings her two young children, Nina and Herman, to Trinidad to be reunited with her husband, Jo Moe, a Norwegian engineer stationed there while working for an American oil drilling company, the fictional Alpha Oil. The film depicts a complex constellation of cross-cultural relationships: Sonia and Jo's two children must integrate at a strict Catholic school; Jo has taken a Trinidadian lover during his months alone; Sonia must adjust to having servants; Sonia is befriended by another expatriate wife, Charlotte from Sweden; Jo and Charlotte's Australian husband Daniel struggle to relate both to their Trinidadian co-worker Dexter and to Doyle, the American who runs the company; and the viewer is also presented with glimpses of inter-Trinidadian ethnic tensions. The film's action takes place in 1973, when communication and information across national borders was less immediately accessible than it is now. The decision to set the film back 40 or so years in time allows Sodahl to create a believable sense of newness and naivete in the intercultural encounters that take place among her ensemble of characters. The film's title resonates on a number of thematic levels. On the most concrete level, viewers are presented with a sequence in which Sonia and her two children do the limbo, a dance that has its origins in the Caribbean, in their tropical garden. The dance ends when Sonia falls on her back giggling just as Jo arrives home after work; as they laugh about Sonia's fall, Jo sends the children off and starts a discussion with her about her decision to remove their children from Catholic school without consulting with him. Thus the delicate balance of the dance becomes a metaphor for the constant cultural negotiations that the film depicts. Within Catholicism specifically, limbo denotes a belief (not sanctioned by the Vatican) in a realm inhabited by the souls of the unbaptized. More generally, limbo refers to an indeterminate state or period of time, a time of waiting for resolution, or even a state of neglect (Tulloch 1997, s.v. limbo). This is a state of being often associated with the expatriate experience, and it certainly reflects the emotions of Sonia and Charlotte as trailing spouses, beholden to the whims of their husbands' employer. Geopolitically speaking, limbo also seems to refer in the film to the situation of the recently decolonialized developing nation; Trinidad and Tobago is an independent nation-state according to international law, yet, in practice, it is to a large extent economically dependent upon transnational corporations and to a certain degree powerless to resist the efforts of these corporations to divert resources and revenues back to its formal colonial powers. …

Ups and downs of the expatriate experience? Understanding work adjustment trajectories and career outcomes.

We examine changes in work adjustment among 179 expatriates from 3 multinational organizations from predeparture through the first 9 months of a new international assignment. Our 10-wave results challenge classic U-shaped theories of expatriate adjustment (e.g., Torbiorn, 1982). Consistent with uncertainty reduction theory, our results instead suggest that expatriates typically experience a gradual increase in work adjustment over time. Two resources that expatriates bring to their assignments (previous culture-specific work experience and core self-evaluations) moderate the trajectory of work adjustment. Trajectory of adjustment predicts Month 9 career instrumentality and turnover intention, as well as career advancement (job promotion) 1.5 years further. Implications for theory, as well as for changes in expatriate management practices, are discussed.

Looking for global talent in all the right places: a critical literature review of non-traditional expatriates

Our goal in this Special Issue is to explore the experiences of non-traditional expatriates and in so doing contribute to balancing the picture that existing research provides of the profile of expatriates. Specifically, we aim to: (i) define and examine types of non-traditional expatriates; (ii) address the gap in research that has not sufficiently addressed the experiences of this segment of the global talent pool; and (iii) propose a future research agenda to guide more scholarly work in this area. The Special Issue sits within the broader debate about diversity and inclusion within organizations, and specifically international diversity in expatriation – not just in terms of gender diversity, but also disability, sexual orientation and age. Papers selected for publication in the Special Issue consider each of the outlined aims and provide innovative and leading edge insights into the opportunities and challenges faced by non-traditional expatriates. We must, however, provide a note of caution: research on non-traditional expatriates is a relatively new field of enquiry and continues to evolve, thus the papers presented here, while addressing new ground, also raise more questions than they answer. The overall value of the Special Issue, then, is to stimulate a future research agenda that considers expatriates whom sit outside of the context of traditional expatriates that have been conceptualized and studied to date.

Women and expatriate assignments

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is twofold – first, to explore the role of perceived organizational support (POS) during the three critical stages of the female expatriate experience, with a view to explaining the disproportionately low numbers of females in expatriate roles; and second, to offer specific suggestions to multi-national enterprises to help them create a level playing field so females can compete for expatriate assignments. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw upon the theory of POS to explore how the perceived lack of support from their organization during the critical stages of expatriate assignments affects women’s interest, and potentially their performance, in expatriate assignments. The authors develop and present relevant propositions. Findings – This is a conceptual paper that offers a process model of the impact of POS on the three stages of selection of females for expatriates. Research limitations/implications – From a theoretical perspective it is clear that POS can play an important role in the willingness of females to accept international assignments. Thus POS can be a critical determinant of the potential levels of female participation in expatriate assignments. Previously, scholars have argued that the low numbers of female expatriates may be a result of a lack of interest on their part, or because they may not be welcomed in many countries. However, subsequent theses have argued, and many studies have shown, that females can be equally successful. The proposed process model helps to better understand how organizations might dismantle the barriers faced by potential female expatriates, by addressing the key issues at each stage. Practical implications – Multinational enterprises need to ensure that they are drawing from their full pool of talent, if they are to compete effectively against other multinational enterprises. By paying attention to the suggestions, and adopting and executing the propositions, they will be able to avoid the possibility that their qualified female employees may withdraw from the organization if they believe that they are not likely to be considered for expatriate assignments, simply because of their gender, even though they are interested. Social implications – From a societal perspective, it is indeed critical that qualified females are provided the same opportunities that are made available to males. Given that roughly half the population is female, multi-national enterprises that fail to treat their female employees fairly will be seen as poor corporate citizens. Originality/value – This is the first paper to address the critical issue of low numbers of females on expatriate assignments by drawing upon the tenets of the theory of POS. The authors offer several propositions to help multinational enterprises understand the impact of the gender imbalance in expatriate assignments, and offer suggestions on how organizations might improve the participation of females in expatriate assignments.