Be it for the purposes of business expatriation or self-initiated expatriation, when moving abroad one of the main factors that matters is the expat’s destination, namely the host location. According to the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) 2014 Global Livability Rankings, the top ten choices for relocation would be (ordered from highest to lowest rank) Melbourne, […]
Are We Really Living in a Globalized World?
I am an expatriate, with experience of living and working in six different countries. I am currently residing in Spain, working for a globally oriented institution, and frequently travelling abroad for business. When at work, I interact a lot with international students, foreign colleagues, and expatriate managers. On my way home from work I feel […]
Expat Health: When Illness is a Matter of Social Integration
It is fairly common knowledge that the more stress one experiences, the higher one’s susceptibility to illness. While the link is not that straightforward and many possible stress mechanisms continue to be under debate the relationship between stress and health is established by now. What I find even more interesting in light of this blog […]
International Experience: Value with Limited Practicality?
If I would be asked for advice on writing an attractive resume of a young professional, I would suggest highlighting teamwork and international experience. Indeed, I believe that these are two current buzzwords in the global talent market given that potential employees are required to be able to cooperate with others, and increasingly do so […]
Global Virtual Teams – a Challenge or an Opportunity?
Today’s globally dispersed business landscape and technological progress have created a nurturing environment for global virtual teams. On one hand, globally dispersed businesses are in dire need of such forms of work, to save on travel and expatriation costs while still keeping international teams connected and working on common projects. On the other hand, modern […]
The Rise of ‘Bleisure’ Travel
Are people working more today than they did in the past? Without providing any statistics here, my gut feeling would say ‘Yes’. I believe that a couple of decades ago people had more work-life balance than today: most worked a fixed 9-to-5 schedule, and there was less overtime. Indeed, ‘taking work home’ back then would […]
Global Mobility in a Day
Today I would like to share with you one peculiar insight I recently became aware of when planning the forthcoming weeks in my calendar. Specifically, I was invited to attend an event hosted by the Barcelona city council, which is meant specifically for expats in the area. The event is part of a campaign for […]
Business Travelers: Benefiting the Business while Risking Family Life?
International travel is a natural part of today’s borderless and interlinked business environment. As noted in my previous post on this topic, global business travel is accessible and, even more importantly, brings benefits to multinational companies. Yet, as usual, possible benefits come with possible risks. Foremost, business travel is accompanied by travel stress. For example, […]
The Big Escape: When the Grass at Home Has Lost Its Green
Looking through the literature on cross-cultural travellers, you may notice that the adjustment processes and coping mechanisms across different traveller groups, such as expats, immigrants and international students, are quite similar. Yet, one group of cross-cultural travellers does differ, which is the group of refugees. Like other groups, refugees are confronted with demands of adapting […]
What Keeps Expats Awake at Night? Nagging Challenges despite Increased Support
Throughout my blog posts, I aim to raise concerns, challenges, ideas, and possible solutions that relate to expat populations. Speaking about company-initiated assignments, so far the most pronounced expat challenges at the individual level have been family concerns, such as family adjustment and dual-career issues; assignee adjustment in the host country, such as lack of […]
Empathy in Global Leadership: Don’t Think You Can Rush
Cross-cultural psychologysuggests that we may experience difficulties in cross-cultural interactions due to differences in communication styles. For instance, one of these differences concerns the communication context. Specifically, countries like England, US, and Germany are considered to be low-context cultures, in which information is conveyed directly and explicitly, and which rely heavily on verbal communication. In […]
Global Business Environment: Comparing the Then and Now
It really is fascinating how quickly the global business environment develops and changes. The latest Insight article in the McKinsey Quarterly magazine illustrates the point very well, highlighting the fifty years gap between then and now. For example, exactly 50 years ago, in 1964, IBM made a breakthrough in computer technologies with their System/360 mainframe, […]
Returning Back Home: Losing All the Magic?
Alongside the topic of cross-cultural adjustment upon relocation, the topic of repatriation back home is also receiving increasing attention. Multinational organizations are concerned with the turnover of repatriated expats, the population of international workers and students are made aware of reverse culture shock, and travel bloggers write about feeling misplaced and having the insatiable travel […]
The Short-Termism of Expatriates: Ideas and Implications
Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to buy a piece of clothing just for one single event or occasion, knowing that you would not use it much afterwards? If so, I bet you didn’t spend much time to pick it and much money to spend on it. Similarly, have you ever […]
Exile: The Philosophy Behind Uprooting
I believe that the notions of expatriation, immigration, and borderless travel are hardly surprising to anyone nowadays. Globalization has established cross-cultural mobility as a necessity for multinational companies, as an expectation for potential global employees, as a widely used and recognized organizational and educational practice, and as a normal transition within many different life events. […]
Sending Expats to Emerging Markets: Can You Really Afford That?
If I would be asked to name the most expensive cities in the world, it wouldn’t take me long to come up with an answer. My common sense and travelling experience would suggest Oslo, London, New York, Moscow, Tokyo, Paris and Geneva, for a start. There would probably be some debate about the relative ranking […]
