Research Handbook of Global Families: Implications for Theory and Practice (Research Handbooks in Business and Management series) 1788112865, 9781788112864

Table of contents :
Front Matter
Copyright
Contents
Figures
Tables
Contributors
Foreword
1. Global families: an evolving concept
Part I Expatriate families
2. Expatriate families: historic development of the research field and future outlook
3. Adjustment of expatriate families: a holistic approach
4. The trailing spouse: an evolving global phenomenon
5. Dual-career expatriation: definitions and concepts
Part II Migrant families
6. African female migrants, family-planning decision-making and work–family balance: the influence of culture and religion
7. Migrants and transnational family life in South America: between new families and old practices
Part III Mobility communities
8. Missionary families: a case study of expatriation in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
9. Expatriate children: lessons learned from missionary kids (MKs)
10. Global families in transnational education
11. Global families in sport: the case of the international yachting fraternity
Part IV Emerging forms of global family mobility
12. Global rainbow families
13. Split family expatriation: perspectives from expatriates and their career spouses
14. Long-distance commuting ‘FIFO’ families: the work–family interface
Index

Citation preview

RESEARCH HANDBOOK OF GLOBAL FAMILIES

Research Handbook of Global Families Implications for Theory and Practice

Edited by

Yvonne Kallane School of Arts and Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Australia

Joanne Mutter Department of Management and International Business, University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand

Heidi Collins School of Graduate Studies, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA

© Yvonne Kallane, Joanne Mutter and Heidi Collins 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Published by Edward Elgar Publishing Limited The Lypiatts 15 Lansdown Road Cheltenham Glos GL50 2JA UK Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc. William Pratt House 9 Dewey Court Northampton Massachusetts 01060 USA A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2023943048

This book is available electronically in the Sociology, Social Policy and Education subject collection http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781788112871

ISBN 978 1 78811 286 4 (cased) ISBN 978 1 78811 287 1 (eBook)

EEP BoX

Contents

List of figuresvii List of tablesviii List of contributorsix Forewordxvii Ruth Van Reken 1

Global families: an evolving concept Yvonne Kallane, Joanne Mutter and Heidi Collins

PART I

1

EXPATRIATE FAMILIES

2

Expatriate families: historic development of the research field and future outlook Jan Selmer and Sebastian Stoermer

3

Adjustment of expatriate families: a holistic approach Arno Haslberger and Thomas Hippler

46

4

The trailing spouse: an evolving global phenomenon Yvonne Kallane and Betty Jane Punnett

72

5

Dual-career expatriation: definitions and concepts Joanne Mutter and Yvonne Kallane

PART II

29

125

MIGRANT FAMILIES

6

African female migrants, family-planning decision-making and work–family balance: the influence of culture and religion Lovanirina Ramboarison-Lalao, Allane Madanamoothoo, Jean-Luc Cerdin and Chris Brewster

7

Migrants and transnational family life in South America: between new families and old practices Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel

161

182

PART III MOBILITY COMMUNITIES 8

Missionary families: a case study of expatriation in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Charles M. Vance, Mark E. Mendenhall and Fred E. Woods v

202

vi  Research handbook of global families

9

Expatriate children: lessons learned from missionary kids (MKs) Cheryl Doss and Braam Oberholster

231

10

Global families in transnational education Jodie Trembath

259

11

Global families in sport: the case of the international yachting fraternity279 Joanne Mutter

PART IV EMERGING FORMS OF GLOBAL FAMILY MOBILITY 12

Global rainbow families Varina Michaels and Georg Tamm

302

13

Split family expatriation: perspectives from expatriates and their career spouses Kate Hutchings and Yvonne Kallane

14

Long-distance commuting ‘FIFO’ families: the work–family interface 356 Libby Brook and Graeme Ditchburn

327

Index389

Figures

2.1

Academic research articles on expatriate families 1970s–2010s

30

3.1

Crossover and spillover

53

3.2

Family types

60

3.3

Family adjustment

61

6.1

Influence of religion and culture of origin on the global family decision in the search of a good work–family balance: towards a fivefold typology

174

8.1

Multidimensionality of the construct of family in Latter-day Saint ideology

203

8.2

Expatriation activity in the Latter-day Saint Church, 1837 to present day

207

9.1

TCK profile

235

12.1

The disclosure continuum for global rainbow families

311

vii

Tables

2.1

Themes in academic research articles on expatriate families 1970–201932

2.2

Most frequent authors of academic research articles on expatriate families 1970–2019

36

2.3

Annual average number of research articles on expatriate families per decade 1970s–2010s

37

2.4

Shares of late contributions to the themes in academic research articles on expatriate families

38

6.1

African female migrants sample characteristics

167

7.1

Summary of transnational families in South America

192

12.1

Key terminology to describe LGBTQ+

306

12.2

Overview of studies of global rainbow families in the international business field 2010–23

308

14.1

Definitions of long-distance job mobility

358

14.2

WFC means and sample characteristics

369

14.3

WFC correlates by FIFO type

372

14A.1 Roster characteristics

388

viii

Contributors

Chris Brewster (PhD, London School of Economics, UK) is Professor of International Human Resource Management at Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK. He was successively a steeplejack, a union official, worked in the UK’s Ministry of Labour, and as a personnel manager in the construction and aviation industries, a journalist, and consultant. During that time, he obtained his doctorate from the LSE before becoming an academic and in 2006 Chris was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Vaasa, Finland. He has written or edited nearly forty books, including, recently, Working Internationally: Expatriation, Migration and Other International Work (Edward Elgar, 2019) with Yvonne McNulty. He has published over 150 book chapters and more than 275 articles in refereed journals. He is a regular reviewer for many journals and has guest edited half a dozen special issues. Libby Brook (DPsych, Murdoch University, Australia) is an Organizational Psychologist, psychological health and safety specialist, and adjunct lecturer at Murdoch University, Australia. She has approximately 20 years’ experience as a psychologist, working across a range of private and public industries, including prisons, construction, mining and resources, education and for a work health and safety regulator. Her Masters and Doctoral degrees are in Occupational/Organizational Psychology, with dissertations researching fatigue, organizational commitment, turnover, and mental health outcomes in shiftworkers and Fly in/Fly out (FIFO) workers. After living as an international FIFO worker's partner during the mining boom in Western Australia, she developed an interest in the impact of FIFO and has conducted extensive research in this area. She has contributed to articles published in the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Community Psychology, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Accident Analysis and Prevention, Safety Science, and Journal of Global Mobility, among others. She is passionate about organizational psychology and psychological health and safety in workplaces. Jean-Luc Cerdin (PhD, Toulouse University, France) is Professor of International Human Resource Management at ESSEC Business School, France. He researches, publishes, and consults in three primary areas: global mobility, human resource management in MNCs, and global careers and talent management. He has contributed numerous articles to international academic journals including Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Human Relations and Human Resource Management. He also serves on several editorial boards. He has published books on expatriation and career management. Jean-Luc has been a visiting scholar at Wharton and a visiting professor at Rutgers University and University of Missouri St-Louis. ix

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Heidi Collins (PhD, Swinburne University of Technology, Malaysia) has a personal, professional, and academic life that has encompassed global mobility in many forms, including experiences as an international exchange student, migrant, expatriate, parent to cross-cultural children, business traveller, relocations consultant, and travel agent. Heidi began her academic career lecturing in the fields of international human resource management and leadership at Swinburne Sarawak, Swinburne University of Technology’s branch campus in Malaysia. She simultaneously undertook her PhD which explored the identity adjustment of expatriate spouses. Heidi’s additional interest in the development and supervision of doctoral researchers has resulted in her publishing in both higher education journals and international human resource management publications. Heidi recently repatriated to New Zealand to take up her current role of Doctoral Experience Manager at the University of Auckland. She leads a team that works across faculties and service providers to design and deliver a wide range of development and engagement opportunities that supports and enhances the experiences of higher degree research students. Graeme Ditchburn (PhD, Birkbeck College, UK) is an organizational psychologist and Academic Chair of Organizational Psychology at Murdoch University. Dr Ditchburn’s areas of interest include measurement design, individual differences (e.g. personality and motivation), and determinants of employee perceptions (e.g. engagement, safety, and well-being) and behaviour (performance, OCBs, and CWBs). Graeme holds an Honours in Psychology (Goldsmith’s College, London), a Masters in Occupational and Organizational Psychology (University of Surrey) and a PhD in Psychology, and is registered with the Psychology Board of Australia and the United Kingdom’s Health Care Professions Council. Prior to joining Murdoch University, Dr Ditchburn was European Research Director at Towers Perrin-ISR (Willis Towers Watson) where he oversaw research on employee attitudes and behaviour. Dr Ditchburn has worked with organizations across the public and private sector including those in the construction, education, finance, FMCG, manufacturing, oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals sectors such as AstraZeneca, BHP, BP, Cargill, Rio-Tinto, Schering-Plough, and Unilever. Cheryl Doss (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, USA) is adjunct professor of mission at Andrews University in Michigan, USA and recently retired director of the Institute of World Mission, the missionary training organization of the Seventh-day Adventist world church. The child of missionaries, she served with her husband, a Seminary professor, as a nurse and teacher in the country of Malawi for sixteen years. After returning to the USA, she received a PhD in Educational Studies with a minor in Intercultural Studies at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and began researching and writing in the areas of missionary family transition and intercultural education for missionaries. Since joining the Institute of World Mission in 2000, she has travelled extensively providing intercultural training and support for missionary children and adults from around the world.

Contributors  xi

Arno Haslberger (PhD, Johannes Kepler Universität, Austria) retired as a Senior Research Fellow at Middlesex University (UK). He researched cross-cultural adjustment and expatriate management. His research has appeared in Human Resource Management (USA), Journal of Managerial Psychology, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, European Journal of International Management, Human Resource Management Review, and others. He has edited Self-initiated Expatriates: A Neglected Source of the Global Talent Flow (Springer, 2013) with Vlad Vaiman, and his book (with Thomas Hippler and Chris Brewster) Managing Performance Abroad: A New Model for Understanding Expatriate Adjustment (Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development) was published in 2014. He served on the editorial board of the European Journal of International Management, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, and European Management Review. Arno has been an expatriate for 25 years. Besides his native Austria, he has lived and worked in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain. Aside from working in academia, he has held human resources positions in multinational corporations. In addition to his doctorate in sociology, Arno also holds a Master of Science in Industrial Relations from Loyola University, Chicago. Thomas Hippler († 2018. PhD, University of Limerick, Ireland) was a Senior Lecturer in International Management at the University of Essex (UK). His research interests focused on global mobility management including international assignments and expatriate adjustment. Questions relating to conceptual and methodological considerations in expatriate adjustment research were at the core of his later work. Other interests related to the motives for seeking or accepting global mobility opportunities. Prior to joining University of Essex, Thomas held faculty positions in human resource management and international business at Swansea University (UK) and Queen’s University Belfast (UK). His work has been published in Human Resource Management (USA), The International Journal of Human Resource Management, and others. His book (with Arno Haslberger and Chris Brewster) Managing Performance Abroad: A New Model for Understanding Expatriate Adjustment (Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development) was published in 2014. Thomas was a member of the Academy of Management, Academy of International Business, and the International Academy of Intercultural Research. He served on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Journal of Global Mobility. Kate Hutchings (PhD, University of Queensland, Australia) is Professor of HRM in the Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources, Griffith University, Australia. Kate has previously been employed at three other universities in Australia and has held visiting research and teaching positions in eight countries. Kate has undertaken, and presented, research in a wide range of countries in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, and North America. Kate’s research has involved public, private and not-for-profit organizations in the construction, education, government,

xii  Research handbook of global families

healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, resources, and tourism and hospitality sectors. Kate’s streams of research include expatriates/global mobility; HRM in developing economies (especially Asia-Pacific and Middle East); HRM practices including attraction, selection and retention, training and development; and diversity in organizations (age, culture/ethnicity, disabilities, diverse genders and sexualities/ LGBTIQA+, women). Amongst others, her research has appeared in British Journal of Management, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Journal, International Journal of Human Resource Management, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of World Business, and Management International Review. Yvonne Kallane (PhD, Monash University, Australia) has lived and worked all over the world, holding senior academic posts in the USA, Asia and Australia while serving as Associate Editor on three ranked academic journals including The International Journal of Human Resource Management and Journal of Global Mobility. As a highly cited expert on labour mobility, she established and ran a successful business, Expat Research, where she consulted on workforce mobility strategy for Deloitte, EY, KPMG and other multinationals. With a PhD in International Business from Monash awarded in the top 5 per cent globally, for over 20 years she has bridged the academia–industry divide with first-in-market research on vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities to create genuine change. During her career, Yvonne has received 16 academic awards and is the lead author of four books including Working Internationally: Expatriation, Migration and Other Global Work (Edward Elgar, 2019) and the Research Handbook of Expatriates (Edward Elgar, 2017). She has written over 100 peer-reviewed academic articles, book chapters and conference papers on labour mobility for A-ranked publications such as the Journal of World Business and International Journal of Intercultural Relations. Yvonne’s academic work has been quoted extensively in the media, including The New York Times, BBC Radio, ABC Radio National and Economist Intelligence Unit. Dr Kallane is currently repositioning her academic research and practitioner focus to social justice to bring about meaningful and positive change for those experiencing family and domestic violence (FDV) in Australia. Yvonne commenced a second PhD in social justice at the University of Notre Dame, Australia in January 2023. Her research examines the criminalization of coercive control behaviours in Australia, with the aim of guiding high-level Australian government policy and legislative outcomes relating to FDV and coercive control behaviours nationally. Yvonne holds a Masters degree in Human Rights (with Distinction) from University of London, and currently serves as Associate Editor at The International Journal of Human Rights. Allane Madanamoothoo (PhD, University of Toulouse, France) is Associate Professor of Private Law at EDC Paris Business School, France and member of the OCRE Research Lab. Allane previously worked at Neoma Business School and South Champagne Business School (Y Schools). Her research focuses mainly on bio-

Contributors  xiii

ethics law, women & bioethics, biomedical innovation and the reproductive market. She contributes to these fields through her publications and communications at both national and international levels. Her work is published both in law and management journals, amongst others, in European Journal of Health Law, Journal of Business Research, Management & Avenir, Journal International de la Bioéthique, Les Etudes Hospitalières and Kluwer Law International. Mark E. Mendenhall (PhD, Brigham Young University, USA) holds the J. Burton Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership in the Gary W. Rollins College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. Mark is an internationally recognized scholar in the field of global leadership and international human resource management. He has held the Ludwig Erhard Stiftungsprofessur endowed chair at the University of Bayreuth and has been a visiting professor at the Europa-Institut at the University of Saarland, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), and Reykjavik University. He has co-authored/edited 30 books, the most recent being Responsible Global Leadership: Dilemmas, Paradoxes, and Opportunities (Routledge), and has published numerous journal articles/scholarly book chapters in a variety of publications, including Academy of Management Review, Journal of International Business Studies, Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Human Relations, Organizational Dynamics, Human Resource Management, and Journal of Management Inquiry. He is a past president of the International Management Division of the Academy of Management and has travelled widely. He has lived overseas for a total of nine years in New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, and Germany. Varina Michaels (PhD, University of New South Wales, Australia) is a leading expert in identity, diversity, culture and leadership. Her PhD focused on the intersectional identities of expatriates. She is Director for Research and Advocacy at Women of Colour Australia (WoCA), a not-for-profit organization which champions Australia’s Women of Colour through programmes of education, community support initiatives, and advocacy work. Dr Michaels draws from her widely-cited research and 18 years’ experience to design, develop and implement innovative, research-driven solutions for business. In her day job, Dr Michaels is a Diversity and Inclusion Project Lead working with some of the most senior business leaders across the world. She uses an evidence-based and human-centred approach to tackle complex business problems. She has presented her academic and professional research on intersectional management, identity and learning across the globe and continues to advocate for building policy, practices and cultures that move from ‘tick-the-box’ exercises to the meaningful engagement of stakeholders. Joanne Mutter (PhD, Massey University, New Zealand) is an emerging academic with previous commercial experience in finance and banking spanning more than a decade. Her early career included periods of frequent international business travel, self-initiated expatriation, and a number of years as a traditional trailing spouse. Since transitioning into academia her research to date has primarily focused on the home

xiv  Research handbook of global families

lives and careers of stay-behind families in global mobility. Her research has been published in the International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Global Mobility, and New Zealand Journal of Human Resource Management. Her broader research interests include dual-careers on the domestic and global stage, the increasing utilization of alternative forms of global mobility, the future of hybrid working, and career equality. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Auckland where she teaches post-graduate organizational behaviour and human resource management. Braam Oberholster (DBA, Nova Southeastern University, USA) is Professor of International Business at Southern Adventist University in Tennessee, USA. In his home country South Africa, he served as lecturer and later as higher education administrator where he worked with, and administered, expatriate member care. Prior to his current appointment he and his wife worked as a missionary expatriate family in Indonesia and Malawi as development project leader, hospital administrator, and higher education administrator. His years of experience in three world regions (Africa, Asia, North America) equip him for the challenges cross-cultural managers face and help him identify with missionary expatriates and inpatriates. He continues to be active in the international arena with presentations, research, and teaching on international business and community development topics in Argentina, China, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. His current research focuses on the areas of missionary expatriation, and exploring biblical foundations on business topics. Betty Jane Punnett (PhD, New York University, USA), a native of St Vincent and the Grenadines, is Professor Emerita of International Business and Management at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies. She has published papers in a wide array of international journals as well as book chapters, books, and encyclopedia entries. She is currently one of the editors of a series of short-form texts with Routledge on Management in Africa and co-authored Essentials of General Management in Africa (with Lemayon Melyoki, 2021) and Essentials of Organisational Behavior in Africa (with Thomas Senaji, 2022). Other recent books include Management: A Developing Country Perspective and International Perspectives on Organizational Behavior. For the past thirty plus years, she has taught international business/management, most recently in Barbados. Since retiring, she has taught in a variety of countries and continued to be active in research. Her research interests are broadly culture and management, with a focus on Caribbean issues in management and more recently Africa and the African Diaspora through the LEAD project. Professor Punnett has been a Fulbright Fellow and was made an Academic Fellow of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes in 2015. Lovanirina Ramboarison-Lalao (PhD, University of Strasbourg, France) is an Associate Professor of HRM at EM Strasbourg Business School France and a member of the HuMaNiS-EA7308 research laboratory of the University of Strasbourg. He

Contributors  xv

has worked for various international non-profit organizations funded by the EU and USAID in Madagascar before coming to France to complete his PhD. His research focuses on diversity in terms of gender, religion and origin, and in particular on the issue of international mobility of workers from developing countries. Jan Selmer (PhD, Stockholm University, Sweden) is Professor, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Denmark. His research interest lies in cross-cultural management with a special focus on expatriation, and lately virtual global mobility. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Global Mobility, now celebrating its first decade anniversary. He has published ten books and almost two hundred journal articles and book chapters in international peer-reviewed outlets. His book, Expatriate Management: New Ideas for International Business, has become a classic text. Research Handbook of Expatriates, co-edited with Yvonne McNulty, is the first academic research handbook about expatriates. Sebastian Stoermer (Dr., University of Göttingen, Germany) currently holds the Junior Professorship in Business Administration, esp. Human Resources Management at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany. His main research interest is expatriate management. He has published in the Journal of International Business Studies and The International Journal of Human Resource Management, amongst others. He serves as an associate editor with the Journal of Global Mobility. Georg Tamm (MA, University of Melbourne, Australia) is an emerging scholar in the diversity and inclusion field. He is currently completing his PhD at the University of Melbourne and is also Chair of the Pride in Action Network. As a researcher, he is interested in the career experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals and has recently published a systematic review of sexual orientation in management. Outside of academia, Georg works for the Centre for Cultural Diversity in Ageing, providing diversity mentoring support for aged care providers looking to be leaders in providing culturally inclusive aged care. Coming from a culturally and linguistically diverse background himself, Georg is passionate about creating organizations and services that meet the needs of potentially excluded or marginalized groups. Jodie Trembath (PhD, Australian National University, Australia) is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University, as well as Senior Policy Analyst in the International Policy Team at Universities Australia. She has been the Director of Research at a cultural policy think tank, and a researcher and lecturer in professional and business communications at universities in Vietnam and Australia. Jodie publishes in the areas of expatriate and academic management, academic labour practices, anthropological methods and actor network theory, and university communications. Her PhD was an anthropological study of expatriate academics’ incidental marketing activities at an international university in Vietnam. Jodie also holds degrees in education, communications and social research methods, and has worked as an internal communications specialist

xvi  Research handbook of global families

in a range of international environments. She is the former Managing Editor of the podcast The Familiar Strange, and currently sits on the board of Arts Capital. Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel (PhD, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) is Professor of International Relations at Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM-POA), in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is a senior fellow at the South American Institute for Politics and Strategy (ISAPE), and leader and researcher of the Observatory of International Migration in Rio Grande do Sul (OBMIGRARS). He participates in research activities at the Laboratory State and Territory (LABETER/ UFRGS/CNPq) and Actors and Agendas in International Relations (ESPM-POA/ CNPq) research groups. Dr Uebel has recently published two books in the field of humanities and social sciences, Teoria das Relações Internacionais (Reader) and Sociologia Geral e da Comunicação (Unicesumar). He recently completed his post-doctorate in Geography at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, where he studied the impacts of COVID-19 on the mobility of international immigrants in Brazil. Charles M. Vance (PhD, Syracuse University, USA) is Professor Emeritus at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, where he has taught undergraduate, MBA, and executive MBA courses related to management and international business. He has authored over 100 scholarly publications and creative works, as well as three books, including Mastering Management Education (Sage), Managing a Global Workforce, 4th edition (Routledge), and Smart Talent Management, 2nd edition (Edward Elgar). He has twice served as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, and has been active as a guest instructor and consultant in several countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas related to global talent management, training, and business curriculum development. Fred E. Woods (PhD, University of Utah, USA) is Professor of Religious Education at Brigham Young University since 1998. Professor Woods has frequently lectured at many universities both domestic and internationally and is a prolific author and documentary filmmaker. Professor Woods is a bridge builder and his most recent book, Bright Lights in the Desert: The Latter-day Saints of Las Vegas (University of Nevada Press, 2023), looks at how LDS people have joined hands with their friends of other faiths to bring light and goodness to their local neighbourhoods and communities.

Foreword Ruth Van Reken This is a book whose time has definitely come. From the very first paragraph, I am impressed with the fresh approach taken by the Editors to consider the many ways and reasons families are globally mobile. As someone who has worked in the field of global family living for nearly 40 years, I have seen first-hand the evolving history and various realities these families face, which is described in detail throughout the pages of this Handbook. These families are real, and their lives and experiences are important. In the mid-1980s, I began studying and working with ‘expatriate families’ – those who are globally mobile by choice and generally do so as a career choice. During those earlier years, I met a growing number of people who had begun to write from their grass root experiences about the many benefits and challenges of their global journeys. In 1993, Jo Parfitt wrote A Career In Your Suitcase to help other accompanying partners understand how they, too, could have a dual or portable career as they traversed the globe with their significant other. Around the same time, Robin Pascoe published several insightful books about global family living including Culture Shock: A Wife’s Guide. These women had no choice but to self-publish their work because no publisher deemed the topic of enough significance to sell many books. At that point in time, trailing spouse challenges were essentially invisible. The same could be said for the situation of third culture kids (TCKs) – the name given in the 1950s by Michigan State sociologist Ruth Hill Useem to children who accompany their parents into another culture because of the parents’ employment. In 1993, when trying to find a publisher for my own work with Dave Pollock to extend the TCK profile developed by Useem Hill, only one publisher was interested (Intercultural Press). All the others believed the audience for such a topic was too small and thus not likely to be commercially successful. Our work is now the classic seminal text that is read and cited by thousands all over the world, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, currently in its third edition (2017). During this time, I watched friends work on their PhD and MA proposals in an attempt to study these and other aspects of global family life. Yet, most were rejected, with decision-makers stating the topic wasn’t academic enough to warrant extensive research. From this, I learned that there was a difference between the heuristic loosely defined approach of myself and others who lived the practical experience of global family life, versus the rigours and demands of deeply theoretical academic research. I came to discover that our work was seen as speculative and unempirical, despite the many thousands of hours we spent doing ‘ethnography’ – listening to and observing story after story about the challenges and opportunities of global family life at conferences and schools around the world. xvii

xviii  Research handbook of global families

I understood then the need for rigorous academic research about global family living, but also knew it wasn’t what played to my strengths. And, so, I kept listening to stories, and I kept observing the outcomes of those stories, continually thinking about what it all meant. As the years went by, I tried to place each new piece of the phenomenon into the mental puzzle forming in my mind. As I did that, it became evident that we needed to extend the mobility phenomenon beyond only TCKs. While the conference presentations grew and our reach expanded, the language that was supposed to help describe the experiences of globally mobile children began to get in the way. The people we met at events showed us that not every child goes abroad because of parent’s employment. Some grow up as children of refugees or immigrants. Others attend schools in a different culture from the one they live in at home, engaging in something akin to ‘mini’ expatriations and repatriations on a daily basis. The list goes on and on. The question then became: Who exactly can and cannot be a TCK? This epiphany led me to look at what was happening in our world, from which it became clear we needed new language to compare and contrast the different types of experiences of globally mobile children. I developed a new model in which all globally mobile children can be identified as cross-cultural kids (CCKs), with TCKs being one subset in which parents’ employment is a criterion for their reason to be living abroad. My sense was that lessons learned from the practice-based published work about TCKs could translate to other cohorts of CCKs, including the children of refugees and immigrants, and even possibly international adoptees. The next logical step, obviously, was to generate meaningful discussion that includes all these groups, to explore central and differing themes and to determine what is unique for each. That has been mulling over in my head for some time. And, then, I picked up the manuscript for this Handbook. Finally, here it is – all in one place! I have not been able to put it down, with each chapter bringing to the fore yet another truth, yet another explanation, and so much insight. To see global families formally recognized in empirically driven academic research encourages me greatly. This collection of chapters clearly identifies differences in the cross-cultural experiences of the various members of the global family community and, importantly, represents a significant step forward in acknowledging their experiences as (finally) worthy of rigorous academic study. It is now the responsibility of others, including readers of this Handbook, to leverage this monumental work and press forward with new studies and better theories. From my perspective, the extension of our knowledge about the different types of global family experiences is exceedingly helpful for the field. As is necessary for any scientific discipline, putting ‘global family studies’ on the map, as this Handbook does, is a key step in that process. Chapter 1 by the Editors continues to clearly identify and name both the likenesses and differences in the way that global families

Foreword  xix

live out their experience. The Editors’ own insight, as working mothers living global family life every day, makes it obvious that something new and global is afoot in our world. Like a picture on the outside of a puzzle box, we can be assured that something bigger and beautiful is emerging when mobility is part of the experience of modern family life … we just need to find out where each piece goes …1

NOTE 1. Ruth Van Reken (Hon Litt. D.) is co-author of Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds (3rd edn, Nicholas Brealey), and co-founder of Families in Global Transition (http://​www​.figt​.org).

1. Global families: an evolving concept Yvonne Kallane, Joanne Mutter and Heidi Collins

INTRODUCTION Global families are everywhere. They are the families of doctors, engineers, nurses and teachers that relocate internationally to fulfil the demands of governments with high-skilled labour shortages (Cerdin, Abdeljalil-Diné and Brewster, 2014; Parsons, Rojon, Rose and Samanani, 2020). They are expatriate families employed by large corporations, working abroad to draw upon their expertise or to develop their own cross-cultural competencies (McNulty and Brewster, 2019). They are the maids and nannies in Asia and Europe in transnational family arrangements that spend years living apart from their children to earn a living to support their families back home (Erel, 2020; Hoiting, 2022). We see them as people serving coffee at the local corner store who, a few months earlier, were refugees in a displacement camp in Poland, having fled their Ukrainian hometown due to Russian-invaded war; they now wait to be with their loved ones again via reunion visas (Hernes, Deineko, Myhre, Liodden and Staver, 2022; Oleinikova, 2020). And they are the people with a different skin colour to us but who sound just like we do; citizens who come from second-generation migrant families whose parents emigrated to another country when they were just babies to give their family a ‘better life’ (Drouhot and Nee, 2019; Giuliani, Tagliabue and Regalia, 2018). Families that live together; families that live apart. Families that see each other every day, families that see each other once a decade. Whatever their shape or form, global families are among us everywhere we go. They are neither defined by race or religion, by occupational status or wealth, or by gender. Rather, they are defined by enacting family life across two or more countries. Global family life can be an exhilarating and vibrant experience. The opportunities to learn from other cultures and to embrace different ways of thinking about the world are hard to beat. There is a richness to global family life that is both unique and diverse, which for many is an overwhelmingly positive journey of discovery, personal growth and resilience. Yet, it is also not for the fainthearted; for all the exoticness and glamour that the ‘globalness’ of family life conjures up in our minds, the intersection of work and the family on the global stage is a hard-core undertaking filled with unexpected stressors, cumulative loss and grief, and sometimes devastating sacrifice. Few can really understand it until they have lived it. As editors, we say this with some certainty: each of us is an academic scholar living and working in the field of global families in different contexts, meaning we bring our own home life to work every day. It is why we each co/author several chapters in this Handbook and why we chose to team up to do this Handbook together in the first place. Our 1

2  Research handbook of global families

singular mission in doing so has been to ‘keep it honest’ and to ‘go deep’, which has resulted in multiple rounds (and rounds, and rounds) of chapter revisions and some brutal editorial decisions that has culminated in a Table of Contents of 14 chapters, with notable and acknowledged gaps we hope to address in a second edition. It has also meant navigating some deeply personal challenges along the way that global family life has presented to us. One outcome of those challenges has been the delay in publishing this Handbook, a project that was started in 2017 and which has needed to be extended several times due to international relocations (some forced), compassion fatigue, and mental health sabbaticals (always welcome!).

THE NATURE OF GLOBAL FAMILY LIFE Employment is the principal driver for geographical mobility across country borders (Bartolini, Gropas and Triandafyllidou, 2017; McNulty and Brewster, 2019; World Bank Group 2019), far exceeding other drivers such as natural disaster, war, ethnic cleansing or political conflict (Guo, Al-Ariss and Brewster, 2020; Reade, McKenna and Oetzel, 2019). Global families enact their family life predominantly for work reasons of one or more family members, moving to another country for a better standard of living and/or lifestyle (Castles, De Haas and Miller, 2013; Derenoncourt, 2022; Krawatzek and Müller-Funk, 2020; Tharmaseelan, Inkson and Carr, 2010), including decisions to engage in return migration (Rajan and Pattath, 2022; Schewel, 2020). Such mobility across borders has been undertaken by an estimated 3.3 per cent of the world’s total population (OECD 2017; IOM 2017), or more than one quarter of a billion people, and with an increase of over 50 million in just the last ten years (King and Okólski, 2019; UNPD 2019). Since 2014, for example, more than 600,000 African migrants have arrived in Italy (with 120,000 in 2017 alone) with economic factors as the main reason for migrating (Kirwin and Anderson, 2018). It is notable that the majority of these people are workers of working age (20–59 years), and every second person is a woman (ILO 2015; UNPD 2018).1 Almost half of governments worldwide have policies in place to attract qualified workers and their families (Parsons et al., 2020), with an increasing demand from employers in many developed countries for unaccompanied unskilled workers who are willing to do the jobs that locals won’t do. Nearly 50 years ago, Kanter (1977) introduced a fundamental shift in the way we think about the work-family interface suggesting the simple idea that, much as we might try, work and family are not separate entities but intricately linked in ways that we would do well to understand and embrace. Since that time, research in every academic field has been influenced in some way by the study of the work-family interface, from psychology, sociology, law, medicine and social work, to public policy, migration, labour mobility, organizational behaviour and education. Research has flourished and been published in some of the top journals as scholars began to look at the undeniable ways in which work encroaches into the lives of families and families impact the livelihoods of workers (e.g. Bianchi and Milkie, 2010;

Global families: an evolving concept  3

Frone, Russell and Cooper, 1992; Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Jaskiewicz, Combs, Shanine and Kacmar, 2017). One consequence of its inter-disciplinary roots is that work-family research now touches nearly every facet of daily life – from the smaller moments when mums and dads ‘bring their kids to work for a day,’ to the much bigger moments when families migrate to another country for work, leaving behind everything they know about their old life to start a new one (Portes and Böröcz, 1989). The tension that arises from the simultaneous commitment to family and to employment is at the heart of this Research Handbook of Global Families. Although global employment offers opportunities for economic and career advancement (Benson and Pattie, 2008; Deshingkar, 2019), it is undeniable that global families experience substantial and disruptive challenges when some or all family members decide to relocate abroad (Fukuda and Chu, 1994; Schütter and Boerner, 2013; Shaffer, Kraimer, Chen and Bolino, 2012). This is coupled with the knowledge that international relocation is not just a physical, but also a psychological, move (Arnett, 2002). Families play a critical role when international relocations take place. Regardless of context and drivers for a move, family members provide the first point of support and contact for each other when they enter unfamiliar environments and as they begin to unravel the webs of new societies, cultures and communities they are exposed to. In this sense, families provide kinship, solidarity and bonding during a time that is frequently anxiety-ridden. The strategic importance of their place in migration has never been underestimated (Kloosterman and Rath, 2003; Leyendecker et al., 2018; Van Hook and Glick, 2020) nor has their resiliency and drive to succeed (Grande, Schwarzbözl and Fatke, 2019; İçduygu and Diker, 2017; Xu, Drennan and Mathews, 2019). How does a global family manage the simultaneous exposure to multiple cultures (Berry, 1990; Schlossberg, 1981, 2011), which surfaces when some or all family members are placed into new multicultural settings? Multiculturalism refers to a psychological attitude which accepts and supports cultural plurality in a society (Hong, Wan, No and Chiu, 2007). Individuals who cross cultural boundaries may not always be perceived positively by others, which can impact on family members in the global family unit (Firth, Chen, Kirkman and Kim, 2014). Acculturation can impact on and change a person’s psychological and behavioural resources (Hoersting and Jenkins, 2011; Sussman, 2000; Ward and Geeraert, 2016), including the degree to which they are willing to interact with members of a new/host culture (Pekerti and Thomas, 2016). Over time, global families acquire important skills that become crucial to the success of international work arrangements; attitudes, competencies, behaviours, strategies and practices that helps them adapt to new contexts and ways of doing and thinking about things, including openness to cultural realties both locally and globally while embracing multiple perspectives. These global family ‘traits’ enable all family members to value differences and to manage complexity (Kefalas, 1998) as they develop cultural intelligence to navigate completely different environments to those they are familiar with (Earley, Murnieks and Mosakowski, 2007). These traits include curiosity, language abilities, personal histories across multiple realities, and authenticity (Lazarova, Westman and Shaffer, 2010). Psychological resources

4  Research handbook of global families

include hope, efficacy, resilience and perseverance, along with agility, wisdom and optimism (Lazarova, McNulty and Semeniuk, 2015). The value of global family studies is not just in understanding why these people move or who in the family moves with them, but in understanding the importance of family as a metaphorical ‘home’ that possesses emotional implications, provides some degree of stability, and serves as a reference point for memories and meaning. The study of global families has increased significantly over the decades since the earliest research first appeared (Boyd, 1989; Massey et al., 1993). Recent reviews in the migration and expatriation literatures especially have been helpful in framing the issues of global family life clearly and constructively (e.g. Beigi and Shirmohammadi, 2017; Bianchi and Milkie, 2010; Glick, 2010; Grillo, 2008; Jaga and Guetterman, 2021; Lin and Lin, 2021; Mazzucato and Schans, 2011; Shaffer, Joplin and Hsu, 2011; Van Hook and Glick, 2020). An analysis of these reviews, which have been published in several prominent outlets for research in these areas (Work, Family & Community, Journal of Marriage and Family, The International Journal of Human Resource Management and Journal of Global Mobility among them), highlights a number of key topics that have remained consistent over the years. Among them is the changing nature of the global family, its characteristics and its family members, trends in global family movements, acculturation, spouse and family concerns, and career impacts for workers and their families. Other topics include global families in dangerous locations and the displacement of families due to crises. We discuss below some critical foundational elements of the study of global families and leave other important topics to the chapter contributors in this Handbook, who do an outstanding job of explaining what you need to know.

TRENDS IN GLOBAL FAMILY MOVEMENTS Global families have for a long time been studied in the context of high-status expatriation – people on well-paid, long-term international assignments, predominantly within large private-sector multinational corporations (MNCs) that physically relocate temporarily from one country to another, undertaking legally paid work (Takeuchi, Tesluk, Yun and Lepak, 2005; McNulty and Brewster, 2019). Expatriation is a voluntarily undertaking meaning these families choose to live in another country other than their home country. Some of these are assigned expatriates (AEs), sent by an organization (Tung, 1986; McNulty and Brewster, 2017). Others make their own way to a country, either to take up a job they have applied for or to find employment when they get there: these are self-initiated expatriates (SIEs; Suutari and Brewster, 2000). Less attention has been paid to global families in low-status expatriation. This involves people who relocate from developing economies to more developed countries, seeking to earn more money. These moves are almost invariably self-initiated among individuals that get no allowances or support and must pay their own way (Haak-Saheem and Brewster, 2017), and who often face injustice and abuse (Ozçelik,

Global families: an evolving concept  5

Haak-Saheem, Brewster and McNulty, 2019). Such people nearly always relocate alone – indeed, many countries expressly forbid the relocation of dependent family members, who stay behind. The research about high-status expatriate families is extensive, particularly in the management field (Collins and Bertone, 2017; Harvey, Napier and Moeller, 2009; Haslberger and Brewster, 2008; Lazarova et al., 2010, 2015; McNulty, 2012, 2015a; Mutter and Thorn, 2019), while studies about low-status expatriate family life is growing and situated in fields such as population, migration, and demography (e.g. Acedera and Yeoh, 2020; Yeoh, Somaiah, Lam and Acedera, 2020). However, scholarly attention to the needs of left-behind family members is scant, and more is needed (e.g. Haak-Saheem, Liang, Holland and Brewster, 2022; Lam and Yeoh, 2019; Mutter and Thorn, 2021). Also needed is more research when some or all family members encounter crises abroad (e.g. Bader, Faeth, Fee and Shaffer, 2022; Haist and Kurth, 2022; Larson, 2022; McNulty, Lauring, Jonasson and Selmer, 2019). Like expatriation, the migration of global families comes in several forms (McNulty and Brewster, 2019). Migration involves voluntarily deciding to live outside one’s country of citizenship but is intended to be a permanent move (Hajro, Brewster, Haak-Saheem and Morley, 2022; see also Uebel, Chapter 7, this volume). Most migrants relocate with their families, or hope to do so (Bonjour and Kraler, 2015), but sometimes the process is disjointed with family members joining the lead migrant at some later point. Skilled migrants have qualifications that receiving governments often welcome; economic and/or unskilled migrants have fewer qualifications and relocate permanently to other countries for financial reasons, motivated by a desire to improve their family’s situation and lifestyle (Bonjour and Chauvin, 2018; Boucher, 2020; Czaika, 2018; Liu-Farrer, Yeoh and Baas, 2021; Shirmohammadi, Beigi and Stewart, 2019). Both skilled and unskilled migrants can be asylum seekers, refugees or both – an example of the way that the boundaries between categories of ‘global’ worker and their families can be fungible, fuzzy and varied. The term migrant often has a negative and ethnically-related connotation, being used as a synonym to refer to people moving from a developing to a developed country. Scholars in this field contend that because the term often carries a stigma of racial inferiority (which is not helped by chronic problems of migrant underemployment; Al Ariss, 2010, 2013; Al Ariss and Crowley-Henry, 2013), there is much confusion about the true nature of migration, its drivers and its outcomes (see, as an example, Ramboarison-Lalao, Madanamoothoo, Cerdin and Brewster, Chapter 6, this volume). Definitions of ‘migrant’ and ‘migration’ continue to be varied and are often laden with the political, discriminatory, and racial undertones of the various countries engaging in migration systems in terms of their migrant-sending, migrant-receiving and transit-State positionalities (Adamson and Tsourapas, 2019). More research is needed to clarify the boundary conditions that constitute migration and which differentiates it from other forms of mobility for global families. Also missing from studies of migration is a clearer understanding of family migration decision-making (e.g. Bushin, 2009; Mincer, 1978).

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Beyond expatriation and migration are families engaging in ‘other’ forms of global mobility experiences. These are work arrangements where some family members are employed in another country but who do not relocate or settle in that country with their families (Suutari, Brewster, Riusala and Syrjäkari, 2013). So, whilst migrant families move abroad in the hope of settling there (or at least in the expectation that they will be there for a very extensive period), and expatriate families relocate for a more limited period, there are other people moving around the world and working in countries besides their own – and alone – but who retain a permanent home in their own country where their family resides (Mäkelä, Sarenpää and McNulty, 2017). Among them are transnational family arrangements (see above discussion) that require geographical separation from family members for weeks, months or years as low-status expatriates. There are also international ‘fly in/fly out’ (FIFO) families and oil rig workers on monthly rotations, often referred to as ‘international commuters’ because the destination does not change (Brook and Ditchburn, Chapter 14, this volume; Taylor and Simmonds, 2009) or international business travellers whose work frequently takes them to different international locations (Mäkelä et al., 2017). Short-term business travellers can live and work away from home, unaccompanied, for up to a year (Crowley-Henry and Heaslip, 2014; Starr and Currie, 2009; Thomas, Sampson and Zhao, 2003), while expatriate international business travellers (‘expat IBTs’ for short) relocate with their family as high-status expatriates to (for example) Singapore or Paris and then engage in regular international business travel from that city as part of the job (McNulty and Brewster, 2019). Separation from partners and children arising from these other work arrangements is stressful, both for the employee and for their family at home or left behind (Mäkelä, Bergbom, Tanskanen and Kinnunen, 2014; Ranford, Willcocks and Anderson, 2012; Weston, 2007). The negative side seems to depend on how much of it there is: one trip every quarter is different from thirty trips a year or travelling every week. Regular absences from home add an irregularity to the family’s life, and some find it difficult to maintain positive relationships and a healthy lifestyle when one partner is unavailable to fulfil her or his family-related roles (de Burgh, White, Fear and Iversen, 2011; Forsyth and Gramling, 1990; Roehling and Bultman, 2002). There may be psychological problems for the stay-at-home partner before and after the traveller’s trip. Home and family stressors can be prominent, including planning for the absence with (often) inadequate quality time with the family before leaving (DeFrank, Konopaske and Ivancevich, 2000). During the trip, the stay-at-home partner is alone while the traveller often suffers from tiredness and jetlag. On returning, there can be an imbalance between the needs of the tired and still busy returnee and those of the waiting family (Morrice, Taylor, Clark and McCann, 1985; Slišković and Juranko, 2019; Ulven, Omdal, Herløv-Nielsen, Irgens and Dahl, 2007). The result is that different tensions can arise at different phases of the work arrangement affecting family members unequally (Westman and Etzion, 2002; Westman, Etzion and Gattenio, 2008). But technological improvements are making a difference (Bonache, Brewster, Suutari and Cerdin, 2018): transport connections are continually improving and speeding up; and the increased use of digital communication

Global families: an evolving concept  7

technologies has helped (Carter and Renshaw, 2015; Panozzo, 2015). Today’s internationally mobile workers are able to stay much more connected to, and involved in, what is happening at home – even remotely – thanks to Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime, WeChat, and the like. We still know very little about the benefits and challenges of these other work arrangements for the families involved, nor the types of support they may require from employing companies, the residential communities in which they live, and/or the family unit itself (Baker and Ciuk, 2015; Shaffer et al., 2012; Shaffer et al., 2016). We also know very little about the decision-making process that leads to a family agreeing to take up these ‘other’ family living arrangements. Of the very little research in this area, we are able to determine that when organizations do not address additional financial costs (for example, child care) arising from the employed partner’s absence, and when couples feel coerced into accepting these types of arrangements, there are more negative outcomes for the families involved (Copeland, 2009a, 2009b). These include children with behavioural problems; and the at-home partner being more depressed and likely to consider divorce. The career of the at-home partner can also be compromised (Mutter and Thorn, 2019). The positive side shows that, when both partners feel that they are ‘in this together’, they have more positive feelings about their relationship. Factors found to contribute to marital and overall life satisfaction for the family include the traveller doing more housework when at home, lower levels of concern about safety at home for the stay-behind spouse, when the fundamental relationship and way of parenting can remain unchanged, and when the at-home partner appreciates the benefits arising from the absence of the traveller (for example, increases in family income). The most recent and perhaps contentious forms of mobility that global families undertake are those where dangerous locations are involved (Bader and Berg, 2013; Faeth and Kittler, 2017). It is a common requirement amongst aid workers, for example, to work in dangerous conditions – war zones or where there is disease or some natural disaster (Fee, 2017; Fee, McGrath-Champ and Berti, 2019). Human rights workers are similarly exposed to fragile contexts in which their lives may be at risk (Bliesemann de Guevara and Bøås, 2020; Peterson et al., 2022). Most studies of global families have focused on dangerous locations as conflict zones in the political context of failed States, military presence, and border issues, among others. These situations, such as is typical among international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), necessitate that the entire family relocates internationally to a designated ‘safe country’ for security reasons, from which the employee then engages in regular commuting to their place of work, which is considered too dangerous for their dependants to live in (Fee and McGrath-Champ, 2017). Relatively little attention has been given to the impact of these situations on global families (e.g. Faeth and Kittler, 2020).

8  Research handbook of global families

NATURE OF THE GLOBAL FAMILY: CONCEPTUAL CHARACTERISTICS A key criticism of the global family concept is that the examples and illustrations provided in most research seem more relevant to ‘international’ than ‘global’ families per se. A person who has lived and worked for several decades in other countries and has a relatively high-status international lifestyle very often lives in an expatriate community bubble that goes with them everywhere they go, thus detaching them from the local community that hosts their stay. They may be rootless – but in what sense are they global? How do they compare to transnational families embedded in local communities, whose family members live apart in different countries and whose lifestyle isn’t remotely status or wealth-driven? The central question becomes, what are the specific reference points for identifying ‘global families’? And why does it matter? Three conceptual characteristics are important in identifying what ‘counts’ as a global family for the purposes of scholarly research. It is important because the very narrow lens adopted to conceptualize and define a global family thus far continues to impact on what we research and the generalizability of the findings. Until recently, with few and intermittent exceptions (e.g. McNulty, 2014, 2015a; McNulty and Hutchings, 2016), research on expatriates and their families has continued to focus on the experiences of a traditional family with a spouse and children, which is insufficiently representative of the diversity of family forms. It also ignores rapid and diverse changes in the global labour market and the different reasons people have to move for work. Conceptualizations to date leave us with a lopsided and only partial view of the global family phenomenon. A better conceptual understanding of global families has the potential to improve inferences from research and to advance how we assess and compare findings across studies (Cappelli, 2012; McNulty and Brewster, 2017). The first conceptual characteristic of a global family is that some or all family members experience physical relocation across two or more countries. This may mean cohabitating in the same location or being geographically separated across country borders. Despite these differences, global families are defined by maintaining ‘familyhood’ (Kazemi, 2020). An important feature of global families is the multi-stakeholder nature of the decision to enact family life across borders (Takeuchi, 2010), which means that when a relocation is instigated for only one person’s family role (e.g. breadwinner), everyone in the family is impacted by the decision (Johnson and Stoll, 2008). Such impacts may change as the family system progresses through various life stages (e.g. Bryceson, 2019; Wilding and Baldassar, 2009), for example, when children attend school in another country being geographically separated from their parents for long periods of time in pursuit of a ‘good education’ (Hill, 1986; Lee and Koo, 2006; Zhou, 1998). A good example of maintaining familyhood is in military life where nuclear families endure long periods of separation from extended families due to repeated and non-negotiable within-country relocations, which is then exacerbated when the

Global families: an evolving concept  9

serving family member is deployed and separated from his or her nuclear family, or the family relocates abroad into an international military post (Heinecken and Wilén, 2019; Mancini, O’Neal, Martin and Bowen, 2018; Sheppard, Malatras and Israel, 2010; Tomforde, 2015). The nature of family life in the military is a process of relocation-separation-and-reunion (Bóia, Marques, Francisco, Ribeiro and dos Santos, 2018; Drummet, Coleman and Cable, 2003), which is further strained by temporary housing, spousal unemployment and underemployment, and unpredictably long working hours (Dursun and Sudom, 2015; Dandeker, Eversden, Birtles and Wessely, 2015). Studies of military family life contend that at the core of successful ‘familyhood’ is a strong bond of belonging among family members, which manifests as connections to the family’s place and culture, participation in family social life, and affirmation of one’s identity (Cafferky and Shi, 2015; Knobloch, Pusateri, Ebata and McGlaughlin, 2015). Emerging from this sense of belonging is emotional support, resilience, an ‘improvised partnership’ approach, and dedication to the serving member’s commitment to his or her country (Cramm, Norris, Venedam and Tam-Seto, 2018; Eran-Jona, 2010; Lysak, 2019; Merolla, 2010). The second conceptual characteristic is that global families enact family life through familial ties, sharing common goals (‘family aspirations’; Herrero-Arias, Hollekim and Haukanes, 2020) and having long-term commitments to one another (Cho and Allen, 2019). Activities that define global family life include connecting with and taking care of each other through financial resources (Stark and Lucas, 1988; Wilding and Baldassar, 2009), modalities of care (Gammage, 2021; Yeoh et al., 2020), and maintaining communication ties (Parreñas, 2001; Poeze, 2019; Wilding, 2006). These families experience various contexts in which their mobility unfolds; they may engage, for example, in high-status expatriation or skilled migration where all family members relocate together (Al Ariss and Syed 2011; Haslberger and Brewster, 2008; Legrand, Al Ariss and Bozionelos 2019), or in low-status expatriation/unskilled worker migration (people that are commonly referred to as ‘migrant workers’; Alberti, Holgate and Tapia 2013; Kitching, 2018; Ozçelik et al., 2019) whose families remain behind in the home country. Such people number in the millions worldwide constituting over 10 per cent of the population in some countries (Bal 2016; Lahaie, Hayes, Piper and Heymann, 2009; Spindler-Ruiz 2020). These families may also be refugees and asylum seekers (Mexi, 2023; Walsh, 2021) – displaced families in cohabitating or separated arrangements as they navigate crises in their homeland that forces them to live in another country, at least temporarily until it is safe to go home. All of them retain a commitment to one another, regardless of the drivers for their mobility and the privileged or unprivileged nature of their moves. The third conceptual characteristic is that global families constitute a range of family situations beyond traditional heterosexual and nuclear family contexts. Research about this had received little attention until the past half-century when rapid developments in the globalization of work led to significant changes in the nature and structure of the family unit (Rothausen, 1999; McLachlan, 2005). As immigration policies have opened up new possibilities for non-traditional families to relocate internationally (Goldin, Cameron and Balarajan, 2011), and

10  Research handbook of global families

since women have increased their participation in the labour force (Boris, 2019; Hood, 1983; Oppenheimer, 1994), the traditional portrayal of a nuclear family has changed. Prior to then, most families moving across country borders were thought of as a heterosexual legally married couple with two children and a dog. Numerous studies (e.g. Franklin, 1990; Lazarova et al., 2010; McNulty, 2104, 2015a; McNulty and Hutchings, 2016; Takeuchi, Yun and Tesluk, 2002) have expanded what we now conceptualize as constituting a family, to include married, de facto, live-in or long-term partners of the opposite or same sex, with or without children, and legally separated or divorced (single) adults with children (McNulty, 2015b). Family situations and living arrangements for global families today can resemble lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) families (see Michaels and Tamm, Chapter 12, this volume), transracial adoption families (Heimsoth and Laser, 2008), and blended families with some children in the host-location and other children in the home location where the other biological parent lives (Grayson, 1994; McNulty, 2015a). Families may consist of multigenerational members and relatives (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2014; McNulty and Hutchings, 2016), and households characterized with family-like significant other relations among friends who are very important to the family regardless of blood ties (e.g. Richardson, 2006). The definition of family is also to some extent based on one’s cultural background. The Western-based conceptualization of a nuclear family may not apply to definitions of family in Asian contexts, which often includes clusters of immediate family members as well as grandparents, great-grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, and friends and neighbours that play a family role (Burton and Stack, 1993; Gupta, Banerjee and Gaur, 2012). These conceptualizations illustrate that there is no ‘one size fits all’ definition of the global family that adequately captures the varying contexts and drivers of mobility that families experience. It is enough to say that the traditional family should no longer be the default conceptualization as researchers seek to expand our understanding of global family experiences. This section has provided an overview of the conceptual characteristics that constitute the ‘global family’ that, up to this point, has undoubtedly been missing in the literature. Coming back to our earlier question about why it matters, we know from our own work in this field that construct clarity is the foundation of all good research; knowing who we are researching and being very clear about that is as important as what we wish to know about them, such as their motivations for moving, their successes, and their challenges. Establishing construct clarity is the bedrock for comparing studies within and across disciplinary fields (Molloy and Ployhart, 2012; Suddaby, 2010; see McNulty and Brewster, 2017 for an illustration in studies of expatriates), with the added potential to move the study of global families forward in rigorous and impactful ways.

Global families: an evolving concept  11

MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL FAMILY As one would expect, the global family phenomenon comes with its own terminology unique to the cohort of people it represents, which is reflected in the chapters in this Handbook. In this section, we discuss members of the global family and the roles they play in family mobility. The typically male adults/partners in cohabitating global families are often referred to as leading expatriates or lead migrants (McNulty and Brewster, 2019), whose work is the reason for an entire family to relocate abroad. People in these roles are primary income earners whose employment legally supports the family’s ability to live in another country and reside there, and which economically funds family life in the host country. They most often do so through institutional employment with public or private companies, who pay them generous salaries that affords the family good levels of housing and education for their children, health insurance and protection, pensions and other allowances (ECA International 2020; McNulty and Brewster, 2019). Companies pay particular attention to how to retain these workers in the host country (Cerdin et al., 2014; Reiche, Kraimer and Harzing 2011) and how to ensure the international work arrangement benefits their careers (Suutari, Brewster, Dickmann, Mäkelä and Tornikoski, 2018). Companies also try hard to overcome accompanying family challenges, which are often the cause of performance-related issues at work (Black and Stephens, 1989; Shaffer and Harrison, 1998; Takeuchi, Lepak, Marinova and Yun, 2007) and the common reason for ending a relocation and returning home (Haslberger and Brewster, 2008; Lazarova, Westman and Shaffer 2010; Shaffer, Harrison, Gilley and Luk, 2001). These people cost their receiving companies and governments a lot, meaning they are typically in managerial or specialist technical positions where they can generate significant value (Harzing, Pudelko and Reiche, 2016; Zikic, 2015). Global breadwinners (also referred to as low-status expatriates and migrant workers) are typically conceived as engaging in transnational family life (Cho and Allen, 2019; Levitt and Jaworsky, 2007), moving to another country unaccompanied by family members to take up employment there, and leaving their family behind at home (or in another country) to await their return weeks, months or years later (Acedera and Yeoh, 2020; Johnson and Stoll, 2008; Pratt, 2012). They do this in order to send money back to their families via remittances. Latest estimates show that there are approximately 150 million individuals in global breadwinner roles. Most of them have no, or limited, educational background, including the 11.5 million of whom are domestic workers (ILO, 2015). Global breadwinners are nearly always low-paid in relative terms to the host countries they work in, in jobs that are manual and menial across several industries in typically richer countries, working as security staff, building site labourers, drivers, and maids (Carrasco, 2010; Platt, Baey, Yeoh, Khoo and Lam, 2017; Schmalzbauer, 2004). They have few social rights (Frantz, 2013) and are motived to work abroad in order to improve the standards of living for themselves and their families. Many of them live in their employer’s premises or in compounds or in shared apartments, often many to a room. The financial gains

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arising from employment come at a price – children growing up separately from their parents and the worker’s parents dying without their own children in attendance. Trailing spouses are the partner that is following, or ‘trailing’, their partner but whose own job or career is not the reason for relocating. In various contexts, the trailing spouse has been referred to as an accompanying partner and/or tied migrant. The trailing spouse covers a wide range of people from those choosing to go abroad with their spouse and family, to those in non-negotiable moves (for example, in the military), to those left behind who do not go at all (see Mutter, Chapter 11, this volume) and thus avoid becoming a trailing spouse altogether. As the vast majority of people sent abroad for their work as lead partners are still men (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021; see Blackstone, 2003 for a critique), the traditional trailing spouse is typically conceived as a woman accompanying her husband and family. The issues, challenges and opportunities for trailing spouses can be equally applied to expatriate and high-skilled migrant spouses with only subtle differences (e.g. DeLaet, 1999; Geist and McManus, 2012), noting that trailing spouses are typically educated and high-skilled people commensurate with the types of moves they undertake (Permits Foundation, 2022). The rise in dual-earner and dual-career couples presents issues when international relocations occur as there is a much greater likelihood that one spouse will face a disruption to, or cessation of, their career once the couple moves (Ridgway, 2021; Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, Waibel, Fliege, Bellinger and Rüger, 2022), particularly to countries where finding employment is difficult or subject to legal restrictions (Vijayakumar and Cunningham; 2020; see Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume). Women are thus disproportionately disadvantaged compared to their lead spouses in global family moves (Bikos et al., 2007; Venugopal and Huq, 2022), particularly for migrant women from culturally or ethnically restrictive backgrounds where gender norms prevail (Escriva, Bermúdez Figueroa and Minguela, 2022; Kesler, 2018; Santero and Naldini, 2020). Stay-behind families are those that do not accompany the lead expatriate or lead migrant abroad for his or her global work arrangement (Kim and Froese, 2012; Mutter and Thorn, 2019). Stay-behind situations are the norm for global breadwinner transnational families, as the nature of low-status expatriation and/or migrant work is such that most families are not permitted to relocate with the worker to the host country, or the family cannot afford for dependants to accompany the worker (McNulty and Brewster, 2019). Stay-behind families are also very common in domestic relocations, where it has been well-established as a family-friendly work arrangement for some time (e.g. Lindemann, 2019; Polegato and Barras, 1984; Sallee, 2021). However, it has been rarely applied to high-status expatriation and/or skilled migration contexts until only recently (e.g. Gupta et al., 2012; Konopaske, Robie and Ivancevich, 2005). In the context of dual-career concerns, stay-behind families are emerging as an alternative to trailing spouse arrangements where family members live geographically apart out of professional necessity (see Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume). It also emerges as a preferred arrangement when there is a preference to avoid disruption to children’s lives, especially in their education, thus providing stability for

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them in their home context (Haour-Knipe, 1989; Patton, Doherty and Shield, 2014; Van der Klis and Mulder, 2008). Children are not usually involved in the decision to relocate despite them constituting one of the main drivers for parents considering an international move (Orellana, Thorne, Chee and Lam, 2001; see Tan, Wang and Cottrell, 2021 for an excellent review). Expatriate and migrant children are often referred to as third culture kids (TCKs; Useem and Downie, 1976; Useem and Useem, 1967; Van Reken, Pollock and Pollock, 2017) and/or global nomads (Ender, 2002; McCaig, 2002, 2011). They are children that move due to their parents’ career or life choices who, as result of what is often a high level of international mobility in economically privileged contexts such as corporate, diplomatic, military, or NGO sectors (cf. Tanu, 2015, 2018), grow up in one or more countries that are typically not their country of citizenship. These children can be members of families with origins in different countries, possibly hold more than one passport, and speak several languages (Van Reken et al., 2017; Selmer, McNulty and Lauring, 2022). They often attend international schools (Hayden, 2011; Langford, 1998; McLachlan, 2007), boarding schools (Hartman, 2022) or, depending on the tuition level the family can support, they can just as easily attend a local school (Wrobbel, 2021). As they grow up, they develop bicultural or multicultural perspectives about their lifestyle (Hanek, 2017; Moore and Barker, 2012). Whatever the context for their move(s), these children experience numerous life and identity disruptions during their developmental years by relocating with their parents between countries, continents and cultures (Doherty, Patton and Shield, 2014; Nathanson and Marcenko, 1995; Nette and Hayden, 2007; Peterson and Plamondon, 2009). Many are born abroad away from their parents’ home country (Le Bigre, 2015), meaning that the first intercultural transition they undertake without the support of the family unit is often to attend university in their country of citizenship, despite that they may have never previously lived there (Espada-Campos, 2018; Jeon, 2022; Purnell and Hoban, 2014). With this particular transition, children can simultaneously face re-entry shock if they are repatriating to their passport country, the loss of a primary psychosocial support network, and identity loss and grief (Gilbert, 2008; Hervey, 2009; Lijadi and Van Schalkwyk, 2017; Schaetti, 2002). There are special challenges for TCKs as they transition into adulthood (Fail, Thompson and Walker, 2004), which has spurred a separate body of literature about their experiences as adult third culture kids (ATCKs; Bonebright, 2010; Bushong, 2013; Kwon, 2019; Lauring, Guttormsen and McNulty, 2019; Tarique and Weisbord, 2013; Useem and Cottrell, 1996).

CONCLUSION Our goal in this Handbook, and in this chapter in particular, has been to highlight those issues and topics that provide a solid and cohesive understanding of global family studies, which enhances knowledge, and which critically assesses where we need more research going forward. We are indebted to the specialist authors in this

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Handbook that deliver to us important research in a way that captures the complexity of the topic while also uncovering the humanity of the people behind it. What they bring to us in their writings are peeks into global family life that demands our attention and which rewards us greatly as observers of phenomena experienced by others. This Research Handbook of Global Families is, first and foremost, a book about the work–family interface. In the chapters that follow, we have strived to broadly embrace the impacts of work and employment-related decisions on family life, and vice versa. For the most part, we think we have succeeded by bringing to publication chapters that are as diverse as the contexts in which work unfolds (e.g. migration, expatriation, but there are others) and the contexts in which family members live in mainstream society today (among them, lesbian and gay families, trailing spouses, missionaries, and FIFO families). But it is more than just a book about research. We encourage readers to look at the contributors section and to delve between the lines; many authors are also insiders of the phenomena they write about, which lends enormous credibility and insight to their work, and which has helped them to frame central issues in a clear and concise manner. While we are not even sure there is a field of ‘global family’ studies, there should be. It is impossible to ignore the ways in which movements of families around the world have impacted the very fabric of our everyday lives. Nor is it possible to estimate the impact global families have made to the societies in which they live and have settled, or worked, even temporarily. The study of global families is undoubtedly an exciting and vibrant area of research, for which we hope this Handbook makes an important contribution.

NOTE 1. In the UK, as an example, the fastest growing category of foreign-born workers is in low-skilled sectors and occupations, such as transport drivers and food, drink and tobacco process operators (Rienzo 2015). In the Middle East and Far East regions, foreign labour constitutes a substantial proportion of the workforce; 91 per cent of the resident population in Dubai (De Bel-Air 2018), and over one-third of the resident labour force in Singapore (Ministry of Manpower 2020a, 2020b).

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26  Research handbook of global families

parison of assigned and self- initiated expatriates’, Human Resource Management, 57(1), 37–54. Takeuchi, R. (2010), ‘A critical review of expatriate adjustment research through a multiple stakeholder view: progress, emerging trends, and prospects’, Journal of Management, 36(4), 1040–64. Takeuchi, R., D. Lepak, S. Marinova and S. Yun (2007), ‘Nonlinear influences of stressors on general adjustment: the case of Japanese expatriates and their spouses’, Journal of International Business Studies, 38, 928–43. Takeuchi, R., P. Tesluk, S. Yun and D. Lepak (2005), ‘An integrative view of international experience’, Academy of Management Journal, 48(1), 85–100. Takeuchi, R., S. Yun and P. E. Tesluk (2002), ‘An examination of crossover and spillover effects of spousal and expatriate cross-cultural adjustment on expatriate outcomes’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 655–66. Tan, E. C., K. T. Wang and A. B. Cottrell (2021), ‘A systematic review of third culture kids empirical research’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 82, 81–98. Tanu, D. (2015), ‘Toward an interdisciplinary analysis of the diversity of “third culture kids”’, in S. Benjamin and F. Dervin (eds), Migration, Diversity, and Education: Beyond Third Culture Kids, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 13–35. Tanu, D. (2018), Growing up in Transit: The Politics of Belonging at an International School, Kindle Ebo, New York: Berghahn Books. Tarique, I. and E. Weisbord (2013), ‘Antecedents of dynamic cross-cultural competence in adult third culture kids (ATCKs)’, Journal of Global Mobility, 1(2), 139–60. Taylor, J. and J. Simmonds (2009), ‘Family stress and coping in the fly-in fly-out workforce’, The Australian Community Psychologist, 21(2), 23–36. Tharmaseelan, N., K. Inkson and S. Carr (2010), ‘Migration and career success: testing a time-sequenced model’, Career Development International, 15(3), 218–38. Thomas, M., H. Sampson and M. Zhao (2003), ‘Finding a balance: companies, seafarers and family life’, Maritime Policy Management, 30(1), 59–76. Tomforde, M. (2015), ‘The emotional cycle of deployment’, in M. René, M. Andres, G. Bowen and P. Manigart (eds), Military Families and War in the 21st Century: Comparative Perspectives, Abingdon: Routledge. Tung, R. (1986), ‘Corporate executives and their families in China: the need for cross-cultural understanding in business’, Columbia Journal of World Business, 21(1), 21–5. Ulven, A. J., K. A. Omdal, H. Herløv-Nielsen, A. Irgens and E. Dahl (2007), ‘Seafarers’ wives and intermittent husbands – social and psychological impact of a sub-group of Norwegian seafarers’ work schedule on their families’, International Maritime Health, 58(1–4), 115–28. UNPD (2018), Sustainable cities, human mobility and international migration, New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, United Nations. UNPD (2019), International migrant stock 2019, New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, United Nations. Useem R. H. and A. B. Cottrell (1996), ‘Adult third culture kids’, in C. D. Smith (ed.), Strangers at Home, Bayside, NY: Aletheia, pp. 22–35. Useem R. H. and R. D. Downie (1976), ‘Third-culture kids’, Today’s Education, 65(3), 103–5. Useem, R. and J. Useem (1967), ‘The interfaces of a binational third culture: a study of the American community in India’, Journal of Social Issues, 22(1), 130–43. Van der Klis, M. and C. Mulder (2008), ‘Beyond the trailing spouse: the commuter partnership as an alternative to family migration’, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 23(1), 1–19. Van Hook, J. and J. E. Glick (2020), ‘Spanning borders, cultures, and generations: a decade of research on immigrant families’, Journal of Marriage and Family, 82(1), 224–43.

Global families: an evolving concept  27

Van Reken, R. E., D. C. Pollock and M. V. Pollock (2017), Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, Yarmouth, ME: Nicholas Brealey. Venugopal, V. and A. Huq (2022), ‘Migrant trailing spouses: Career adaptability and occupational downshifting’, International Migration, 60(2), 143-159. Vijayakumar, P. B. and C. J. L. Cunningham (2020), ‘Impact of spousal work restrictions on expatriates’ work life and overall life satisfaction’, International Journal of Psychology, 55(6), 959–63. Walsh, P. W. (2021), Asylum and Refugee Resettlement in the UK, Migration Observatory briefing, COMPAS, University of Oxford. Ward, C. and N. Geeraert (2016), ‘Advancing acculturation theory and research: the acculturation process in its ecological context’, Current Opinion in Psychology, 8, 98–104. Westman, M. and D. Etzion (2002), ‘The impact of short overseas business trips on job stress and burnout’, Applied Psychology: An International Review, 51(4), 582–92. Westman, M., D. Etzion and E. Gattenio (2008), ‘International business travel and the work-family interface: a longitudinal study’, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 81(3), 459–80. Weston, M. (2007), Alone at home … : The Practical Guide for Those Coping Alone, USA: Swift Transitions. Wilding, R. (2006), ‘“Virtual” intimacies? Families communicating across transnational contexts’, Global Networks, 6, 125–42. Wilding, R. and L. Baldassar (2009), ‘Transnational family-work balance: experiences of Australian migrants caring for ageing parents and young children across distance and borders’, Journal of Family Studies, 15, 177–87. World Bank Group (2019), Migration and Development, Brief 31, Washington, DC: World Bank Group. Wrobbel, K. A. (2021), The Globally Mobile Family’s Guide to Educating Children Overseas, Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. Xu, K., J. Drennan and S. Mathews (2019), ‘Immigrant entrepreneurs and their cross-cultural capabilities: a study of Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia’, Journal of International Entrepreneurship, 17(4), 520–57. Yeoh, B. S., B. C. Somaiah, T. Lam and K. F. Acedera (2020), ‘Doing family in “times of migration”: care temporalities and gender politics in Southeast Asia’, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 110(6), 1709–25. Zhou, M. (1998), ‘“Parachute kids” in Southern California: the educational experience of Chinese children in transnational families’, Educational Policy, 12, 682–704. Zikic, J. (2015), ‘Skilled migrants’ career capital as a source of competitive advantage: implications for strategic HRM’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(10), 1360–81.

PART I EXPATRIATE FAMILIES

2. Expatriate families: historic development of the research field and future outlook Jan Selmer and Sebastian Stoermer

In the context of research in general, the study of global families has only recently started to gain momentum. This is surprising given that individuals and their families have been relocating to far-away regions throughout the history of mankind for a multitude of reasons: be it poor food supply, war and persecution, colonization, or economic motives (Eng, Collins, and Yeoh, 2013; Manning, 2012; McKeown, 2004). Fortunately, the emerging streams in the literature on globalization, expatriation, and migration (Al Ariss and Crowley-Henry, 2013; Haslberger and Brewster, 2008; Kilkey and Palenga-Möllenbeck, 2016; Lazarova, Westman, and Shaffer, 2010; McNulty, 2015a; Mills, 2014) have provided important stimuli advancing our understanding of the concerns and challenges of global families. Extant research has, for instance, elucidated the critical role played by spousal career concerns for successful expatriation (see Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume), or zoomed-in on the adjustment of children and adolescents (Dimitrova, Chasiotis, and van de Vijver, 2016; Weeks, Weeks, and Willis-Muller, 2009). In this chapter, we focus on expatriate families as a subgroup of global families. Expatriate families are distinct from migrant families. By definition, expatriation entails temporary relocation to a foreign destination, while migration is normally associated with settling permanently and eventually obtaining citizenship of the host country (McNulty and Brewster, 2017). Consequently, the situation and future outlook of expatriate and migrant families are likely to vary fundamentally (see Ramboarison-Lalao, Madanamoothoo, Cerdin, and Brewster, Chapter 6, this volume; Uebel, Chapter 7, this volume). Further, building on the extant literature that has established/examined different categories of expatriates (e.g. Andresen, Bergdolt, Margenfeld, and Dickmann, 2014; Cerdin and Pargneux, 2010; Cerdin and Selmer, 2014), there are two major types of expatriate families: the families of assigned expatriates (AEs) and those of self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). AEs are seconded from corporate headquarters (HQ) to foreign subsidiaries to assume management duties. After the assignment, they return to their jobs in HQ or take on another foreign assignment. The relocation of SIEs is not company-backed as they self-dependently decide to work abroad and find jobs themselves in the host country (Andresen et al., 2014; Cerdin and Selmer, 2014). Inspection of the collective body of studies about expatriate families strongly implies that this research strand has expanded recently and, hence, evolved into its own field of inquiry. After a slow start in the 1970s beginning with only three articles (Baker, 1976; Howard, 1974; Useem and Downie, 1976), four further articles 29

30  Research handbook of global families

about expatriate families were published in the 1980s, rising to an annual average of 3.6 articles published per year in the 1990s, and continuing to 6.1 articles annually during the 2000s. Currently, from 2010 until 2019, 12.6 articles have been published annually about expatriate families (Figure 2.1). The interpretation of these numbers and findings of pertinent studies convey a growing awareness for the intricate interdependency between expatriates’ career success and a fulfilled family and marital life (Cole and Nesbeth, 2014; Lazarova et al., 2010; McNulty, 2015a; McNulty and Hutchings, 2016; Shaffer and Harrison, 2001). As such, relocation, be it with or without the accompaniment of partner and family, comes with many challenges for expatriates and their families, and ideally, these two domains need to be examined in an integrated manner. This necessity is further reflected in present surveys providing an overview of the role of family in expatriation, indicating that 66 percent of expatriates are in a relationship, with the vast majority (88 percent) living together with their partner, and 23 percent raising their child(ren) abroad (Internations, 2018).

Figure 2.1

Academic research articles on expatriate families 1970s–2010s

The aim of this chapter is to establish a concise historic overview of the academic research on expatriate families and to outline future research avenues. We accomplish this goal by firstly identifying central themes that have laid a solid foundation of where the field of expatriate family studies has been, and, secondly, carving-out emerging themes warranting further attention by researchers. Likewise, we outline the ‘go to’ authors for those interested in pursuing studies on expatriate families. The remainder of this chapter is structured as follows. We introduce the searching methodology underlying this review, then we outline and organize the findings of our literature review across seven themes. Based on our findings, we develop implications for future research and present ‘hot topics’ that could significantly advance extant knowledge about expatriate families.

Expatriate families  31

REVIEW METHODOLOGY Our literature review of essential studies about expatriate families focuses on articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The total number of unique journal articles identified during the period of review is 203. The time-span for the literature search ranges from 1970 to 2019. All publications were retrieved through Google Scholar. All searches applied a combination of two sets of search terms, where the first set was combined with all variations of the second set. The first set included the term Expatriate and the second set contained seven (fourteen) terms potentially associated with expatriate families: (1) Children Kids, (2) Couples, (3) Dual-Career Couples, (4) Family/Families, (5) Spouses/Wives/Partners, (6) Teenagers/Adolescents/ Pubescents, and (7) Third Culture Kids/TCKs.1 Overall, we conducted 14 separate searches and subsequent findings were organized into the seven themes. The titles and abstracts of the suggested articles were examined for the respective search term in question. This step was conducted to ensure that exclusively relevant articles, where the search term was a genuine part of the featured topic and had not just appeared in an occasional reference, made it into our literature database. Next, selected articles were imported into EndNote X9 where they were organized in accordance with the applied search terms and corresponding themes. Once imported to EndNote X9, articles allocated to themes were further cross-checked for their suitability to other themes and, if appropriate, were assigned to those theme(s) as well. Hence, if one article touched upon more than one theme, it was included in all relevant themes. In this respect, it is worth noting that theme (4) Family/Families contains articles that feature various elements of families in general, without much specific focus on any particular family element.

LOOKING BACK Essential Early Academic Research Articles Table 2.1 displays themes and numbers of academic research articles on expatriate families during the studied period 1970–2019 and identifies notable early scholarly contributions. The largest theme, Spouses/Partners/Wives (n=57), is crucial since the importance of these family members has been repeatedly emphasized. An early contribution to this theme is the article by Baker (1976). Surveying US multinational companies on how they treat the wives of executives selected for overseas assignments, he found that none of them had focused on the executive’s wife and her situation abroad. This early contribution was followed-up in the late 1980s and early 1990s with several associated articles by Black and colleagues. Perhaps one of the most influential papers, not only for contributions to the current theme, but also for featuring a scale measuring the three dimensions of expatriate adjustment, is the article by Black and Stephens (1989). For the first time, the authors show empirically that spouses’ favorable stance

32  Research handbook of global families

Table 2.1

Themes in academic research articles on expatriate families 1970–2019

Themes in academic research articles on

Number of articlesa Early contributions

expatriate families 1970–2019 1.

Spouses/Partners/Wives

57

Baker, 1976; Black & Gregersen, 1991a, 1991b;

2.

Third Culture Kids/TCKs

48

3.

Family/Families

44

Harvey, 1985; Howard, 1974; Tung, 1986

4.

Dual-Career Couples

30

Handler, Lane, & Maher, 1997; Harvey, 1995; Smith,

5.

Children/Kids

19

6.

Teenagers/Adolescents/Pubescents 17

7.

Couples

Black & Stephens, 1989; Stephens & Black, 1991 Haour-Knipe, 1989; Gillies, 1998; Useem & Downie, 1976

1997; Swaak, 1995 Öry, Simons, Verhulst, Leenders & Wolters, 1991; Craig, Vale, Robertson, Rawlinson & Gould, 1999 Gerner, Perry, Moselle & Archbold, 1992; Gerner & Perry, 2000 6

Brown, 2008

Note: a Some articles contribute to more than one theme.

towards the overseas assignment relates positively to their adjustment, which, in turn, is highly positively correlated to the adjustment of the lead expatriate (their husband). While similar findings were obtained in subsequent studies (e.g. Shaffer, Harrison, Gilley, and Luk, 2001), the authors found that both spouse and expatriate adjustment were positively associated with expatriates’ intention to complete the assignment. In another seminal study, Black and Gregersen (1991a) set out to further probe into the drivers of spouse cross-cultural adjustment, finding that interactions with host country nationals (HCN), social support provided by locals and family, and proactively sought cross-cultural training were all important factors. Concerning general (cultural) adjustment, similar living conditions between the home and host country exerted a conducive influence, while perceived cultural differences proved to be a barrier to adjustment. Taking the field a significant step forward, Shaffer and Harrison (2001) developed and tested a conceptual model of spouse adjustment, differentiating between individual influences (e.g. language fluency, self-efficacy), interpersonal relationships (e.g. expatriate adjustment, HCN support, network size), and environmental factors (e.g. favorable living conditions). Analyses based on multisource data corroborated several of the proposed relationships. Further studies centered on the repatriation process (Black and Gregersen, 1991b; Gregersen and Stroh, 1997), with the latter showing that time spent in the host country and cultural novelty related negatively to spouse re-adjustment. A similar relationship was found for a perceived demotion in social status and living conditions. Third Culture Kids/TCKs (n=48) is the second largest theme. Although the notion of TCKs was proposed in the 1960s–70s (Useem and Downie, 1976; Useem and Useem, 1967; Useem, Useem, and Donoghue, 1963), the seminal text today is by Van Reken, Pollock, and Pollock (2017; see Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume). Gillies (1998) outlines the advantages of being a TCK (being open to

Expatriate families  33

diversity and bilingualism) and disadvantages (loneliness and bonding problems). Cockburn (2002) also touches upon on the difficulties of being a TCK related to identity formation, establishing a concept of home, and loss of relationships upon moving. Haour-Knipe (1989) discussed the mental health of children of expatriates, highlighting that developmental crises and conflict with parents can be exacerbated by culture change, and that TCKs often lack the social skills needed to build and maintain intimate long-term relationships. Lam and Selmer (2004) reasoned that the distinctive personal characteristics of TCKs (enjoying traveling to foreign places, acceptance of foreign languages, and openness towards cultural differences) results in a personal profile that is highly sought after by internationally operating firms. Similarly, Bonebright (2010) attests that adult TCKs represent a viable recruitment opportunity for multinational enterprises due to their cross-cultural skills and cosmopolitan views (see also Tarique and Weisbord, 2013). Family/Families (n=44) makes up the third largest theme. Since this is a less distinctive theme than the others, it consists of articles that feature various elements of families in general with little focus on any specific member or phenomenon. Thus, these articles frequently touch upon many issues covered in other more specific themes. Although various problems experienced by the family of repatriating international executives had been mentioned in the early study by Howard (1974), it was not until Harvey’s (1985) contribution that expatriate family concerns received considerable attention when it became clear that family circumstances was an important contributing factor in failed assignments. Other notable early contributions include Tung (1986) describing the influence of the family situation as a major factor responsible for expatriate failure in China; she stressed that several characteristics of Chinese society posed vital challenges – language, lifestyle, facilities, Chinese attitude toward life/foreigners, and food. Similarly, Fukuda and Chu (1994) single out family-related problems, such as children’s education and spouses’ social isolation, as contributing factors in the failure of Japanese expatriates in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Bird and Dunbar (1991) proposed three stages for families during expatriation. First, the decision to accept the assignment; second, logistical questions about the move; and, lastly, once in the host country, adjustment problems in the new culture. The authors suggested that awareness and self-reflection are critical to overcome feelings of anger, irritation, and fear. In a significant step forward, both theoretically and empirically, Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi, and Bross (1998) developed an integrated model of family and expatriate work adjustment. Building on the theoretical tenets of family systems theory and spillover theory, their findings from 110 expatriate families suggested that family adjustment mediates the effects of family characteristics on expatriates’ work adjustment. This effect was further moderated by family perceptions of the move, underlining the relevance of a positive view towards living abroad. The fourth theme, Dual-Career Couples (n=30), is dominated by a single scholar, Michael Harvey. Although an early study by Stephens and Black (1991) had found that career-oriented spouses were almost seven times as likely to find employment after an international transfer as non-career-oriented spouses, it was Harvey who

34  Research handbook of global families

pointed out that dual-career couples also engender more potential problems in the context of expatriation. In an early study in which he asked personnel administrators to complete a survey, Harvey (1995) found that the lowest perceived impact on international assignment success was with spouses not intending to pursue a job/ career. In contrast, a very strong influence on the decision to (not) relocate internationally was expected among dual-career couples. Harvey anticipated that as the prevalence of dual-career couples increased, spouse career concerns would become a critical factor deserving special attention, which has proven to be true (see Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume; Mutter, Chapter 11, this volume). In subsequent studies (e.g. Harvey 1996a, 1996b, 1997, 1998), the author compared experiences between male- and female-led expatriate dual-career couples, finding in one such study that husbands tended to be dissatisfied with the placement of their wives, while female expatriates felt that both partners received similar levels of support from the organization (Harvey, 1997). Harvey also examined new issues (at the time), such as mentoring for dual-career couples (Harvey, Buckley, Novicevic, and Wiese, 1999). Smith (1997) investigated dual-career couples’ career stage/aspirations related to gender, age, and various family obligations regarding parenting and domestic responsibilities, arguing that career transitions are impacted by differences between partners and that females are more likely to encounter role conflict when aligning family duties and career aspirations. Children/Kids (n=18) is an under-researched theme and academic research articles are very few. Early articles tended to focus on health-related concerns (e.g. Craig, Vale, Robertson, Rawlinson, and Gould 1999), which investigated virus infections of expatriate children in Malaysia. Öry, Simons, Verhulst, Leenders, and Wolters (1991) focus on the consequences of transcultural sojourn and exposition to a foreign culture on the psychosocial development and school performance across a sample of Dutch children who had returned home after having lived abroad with their parents. The authors compared the behaviors and performance of repatriate children with peers who had not lived abroad. Findings indicate a greater prevalence of behavioral disorders with repatriate children (e.g. parents of children with transcultural experience rated them less happy than the parents of control group children, but with no significant differences in school achievement). Expatriate parents also felt guilty for disruptions caused to their children’s lives. In an important recent contribution, de Sivatte, Bullinger, Cañamero, and Martel Gomez (2019) studied the antecedents of the adjustment of expatriate children looking at identity formation. They found that expatriate children adapt quite well, and are mostly interested in fitting in with other children, whether locals or other internationals. Factors relating to adjustment inclued children’s social skills, academic self-efficacy, school in the host country and the support received from their families. Similarly, Tanu (2015, 2018), in an ethnographic exposé of transnational youth in Asia, makes a critical theoretical and practical contribution to our understanding of cultural hybridity for expatriate children attending an international school in Jakarta.

Expatriate families  35

Teenagers/Adolescents/Pubescents (n=17) in expatriate families is similarly a much neglected topic despite that research about TCKs is a thriving theme, albeit in disciplines outside the expatriate management field (see Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume, for an excellent overview in the missions community). One of the first large-scale endeavors was carried out by Gerner, Perry, Moselle, and Archbold (1992) who looked at internationally mobile adolescents. They compared critical variables such as family relationships, peer relationships, and language acceptance across domestic U.S. students, U.S. students enrolled in international schools in Thailand and Egypt, and non-U.S. international students at the same international schools. Intra-U.S. findings indicated that internationally based U.S. students were more accepting of cultural differences, highly interested in travel and learning foreign languages, as well more open to start an international career than their U.S. peers with no international experience. Further, comparisons between the international U.S. and non-U.S. students showed that non-U.S. international students had closer family ties, even more pronounced travel and foreign language learning orientations, and an even stronger intention to work in an international context. In a later study, using the same data, Gerner and Perry (2000) found evidence for gender differences; among females, international experience is particularly vital for spurring an interest in international careers. Other studies include those by Nathanson and Marcenko (1995) and Moore and Barker (2012). A critical advancement to the field was offered by Weeks et al. (2009), which looked at developing a model of expatriate teenagers’ adjustment. Integrating the literatures on expatriate adjustment and interviews with expatriate teenagers attending an international school in China, the authors proposed that three major factors account for teenagers’ adjustment: individual (e.g. open-mindedness), environmental factors (e.g. living conditions), and interpersonal relationships (e.g. good ties with parents and siblings). Interestingly, they argued that detrimental effects on teenagers’ adjustment were found to be freedom from parents and more latitude in parenting style resulting in teenagers use of alcohol and drugs to cope with disruptions in their identity formation. The smallest theme, Couples (n=6), deals with issues that generally revolve around the relationship between expatriates and their partners. Brown (2008), in a quantitative study, explored sources of stress among couples, finding that both partners experience similar feelings of not spending enough time together once abroad and a blurry future outlook after the assignment is over. Stressors among couples as a result of relocating abroad differed; whereas trailing spouses were found to have reduced self-esteem, felt more isolated, did not have close friends, and endured daily living demands such as driving and household shopping, their lead expatriate partners felt especially stressed by relationship strains associated with expatriation, for instance, having to deal with their partners’ disappointment about relocating abroad. In a ground-breaking study, McNulty (2015a) looked at expatriate divorce among couples mainly in Singapore and found that there are two main explanations for relationship breakdown. First, that expatriation exacerbates existing issues in a marriage that were present before going abroad, which subsequently becomes unbearable

36  Research handbook of global families

Table 2.2

Most frequent authors of academic research articles on expatriate families 1970–2019

Name of author

Number of unique articles

Theme contributionsb (number of articles as first

as first authora

author) Dual-Career Couples (12), Family/Families (1),

1.

Harvey, Michael G.

13

2.

Selmer, Jan

4

3.

Shaffer, Margaret A.

4

Family/Families (3), Spouses/Partners/Wives (1)

4.

Black, J. Stewart

3

Spouses/Partners/Wives (3)

5.

Cole, Nina D.

3

Family/Families (1), Spouses/Partners/Wives (2)

6.

Lijadi, Anastasia A.

3

Third Culture Kids/TCKs (3)

Spouses/Partners/Wives (2) Spouses/Partners/Wives (2), Third Culture Kids/ TCKs (2)

Notes: a Number of unique articles as first author ≥ 3; b Some unique articles contribute to more than one theme.

once the couple is living abroad and which can no longer be ignored (e.g. domestic violence). Or, second, that during expatriation one or both partners succumb to the lifestyle of ‘expatriation,’ resulting in destructive relationship behaviours that would never be tolerated or embarked upon back home (e.g. excessive drinking/partying and extra-marital affairs). She found among her sample that behaviours eschewed before expatriation have a tendency to become socially acceptable once abroad because other expatriate couples are engaging in, or tolerating, similar behaviours for the sake of the lifestyle, and that expatriates (in her sample at least) had a tendency to think that the ‘rules do not apply to them’ (p. 161). The most striking findings were that: (1) the absence of strong, male family role models in the host location for expatriate husbands was suggested by their (ex‑)wives to be a contributing factor in the divorce; and, (2) nearly an equal number of respondents blamed ‘going abroad’ for their marital breakup (48 percent) versus the marriage ‘always being doomed’ regardless of going abroad (52 percent), indicating that the eventual divorce could not be entirely blamed upon expatriation per se. Expatriate Families: The ‘Go-to’ Authors Table 2.2 identifies and displays the most frequent first authors of academic research articles on expatriate families within the 1970–2019 time period and their respective theme contributions. Please note that the sum of theme contributions in the third column could be larger than the unique number of articles of first author in the second column if an article contributes to more than one theme. It is notable that the most frequent authors of contributions to the literature have contributed to all the themes in this literature, except Children/Kids. The six identified authors have made 32 theme contributions. Besides Michael Harvey’s 12 contributions to the Dual-Career Couples theme, it is not obvious that anybody else has succeeded in establishing his or her own theme and continuously contributed to that

Expatriate families  37

Table 2.3

Annual average number of research articles on expatriate families per decade 1970s–2010s

Themes in academic research articles on expatriate families

Annual average

1970–2019a 1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

1.

Spouses/Partners/Wives

0.1

0.1

1.4

2.1

2.625

2.

Third Culture Kids/TCKs

0.1

0.1

0.1

1.5

3.75

3.

Family/Families

0.1

0.2

0.7

1.9

1.625

4.

Dual-Career Couples

–

–

1.3

0.9

1.0

5.

Children/Kids

–

0.1

0.3

0.7

0.875

6.

Teenagers/Adolescents/Pubescents

–

–

0.2

0.5

1.25

7.

Couples

–

–

0.1

0.2

0.375

Note: a Some articles contribute to more than one theme.

theme over the years. Hence, the research literature based on articles of expatriate families over the years must be characterized as relatively author-fragmented. It is also worth noting that a majority of the most frequent authors have a personal expatriate experience. The late U.S. scholar, Michael Harvey, was an expatriate academic for a decade when he was appointed Professor of International Business at Bond University in Australia. The Swedish academic, Jan Selmer, lived abroad with his spouse and worked as an expatriate academic for more than two decades, most of the time in Hong Kong. Margaret Shaffer and her husband also resided in Hong Kong for a long time where she worked as an expatriate academic before returning to the U.S. The American, J. Stewart Black, spent time in Japan as a Mormon missionary.

LOOKING FORWARD Future Research on Expatriate Families In this section, we provide an overview of promising future research avenues. However, let us first summarize how the field developed in terms of quantifiable means (i.e. number of publications in each respected theme). From a modestly increasing number of publications published before the 1990s, from there onwards there was a significant increase in research output of academic research articles on expatriate families, about doubling the number of articles every decade (see Figure 2.1). Not only is the long-term trend of the annual average per decade of published academic research articles on expatriate families over five decades increasing, but a similar trend is noted for the annual average of research articles on expatriates per decade of the themes (Table 2.3). Since the 1990s, with a couple of exceptions, the major themes have increased their annual averages, decade by decade. Of particular interest are themes that in the future could become even more important. Table 2.4 displays the share of late contributions during the four

38  Research handbook of global families

Table 2.4

Shares of late contributions to the themes in academic research articles on expatriate families

Themes in academic research articles on expatriate families 1970–2019a

Number of

Number of late

Share of late

contributionsa

contributionsb

contributions (percent)

1.

Spouses/Partners/Wives

57

4

7.01

2.

Third Culture Kids/TCKs

48

16

32.65

3.

Family/Families

44

6

13.64

4.

Dual-Career Couples

30

6

20.0

5.

Children/Kids

18

3

11.11

6.

Teenagers/Adolescents/Pubescents

17

5

29.41

7.

Couples

6

1

16.67

Notes: a Some articles contribute to more than one theme; b 2015–19.

years 2015–19, with outstanding themes including Third Culture Kids/TCKs and Teenagers/Adolescents/Pubescents. While the numbers signify the direction that researchers’ interest has taken, they do not say much about the models, concepts, and variables/factors that could inform current and future thinking. Hence, we will next outline implications for future research based on the latest trends in studies of expatriate families. In the research on Spouses/Partners/Wives, we think it is important to expand our understanding of the means expatriates and their partners can use to overcome the challenges of international relocations. In this context, the study by Chen and Shaffer (2018) offers some direction and showed that problem-focused coping methods are much more effective than emotion-focused approaches. Further, the aspect of time needs to be addressed – for instance, does the effectiveness of coping methods vary depending on the phase of the expatriation cycle? Additionally, what are the consequences of expatriation for spouses’ disrupted emotional and identity construction? Collins and Bertone (2017) identified that the types of identity threats encountered by trailing spouses differed between men and women: male identity concerns mainly revolved around threats to their careers, while females perceived numerous threats related to family roles. In-depth longitudinal qualitative research could be helpful here to better understand these differences and their impact (e.g. Cole, 2012). In addition, while the relationship between expatriates and trailing partners can be a source of stress with disruptive consequences (McNulty, 2015a), partners can also be a crucial support resource (Davies, Kraeh, and Froese, 2015). Future research on spouse demographics and traits and abilities, e.g. cultural intelligence, could significantly move the field forward and elucidate when spouses are more likely to be a burden or a support. One field that has garnered major attention recently is research on Third Culture Kids/TCKs. Here, current streams continue to pursue the identity formation process of TCKs, pedagogical questions regarding their education, mental health challenges, and career orientations and well-being of adult TCKs (Abe, 2018; Cranston, 2017; Lijadi and van Schalkwyk, 2018; Munn and Ryan, 2016; Tannenbaum and Tseng,

Expatriate families  39

2015). In this regard, the study by Westropp, Cathro, and Everett (2016) provided some evidence that while adult TCKs are highly suited to expatriate careers, they are also less committed to their employing organization. To move research in this area forward, we need more longitudinal research designs. Central questions that deserve attention revolve around the retention of adult TCKs in organizations, and their propensity (and success) as expatriates (cf. McNulty, De Cieri, and Hutchings, 2013; Selmer, McNulty, and Lauring, 2022; Westropp et al., 2016). Further, teaching interventions in international schools that foster integration of TCKs identity development could benefit from children-led samples that go beyond evidence only from teachers (cf. McNulty and Carter, 2018). In the theme of Expatriate Family/Families, we propose that more, especially empirical, research is warranted to get a better grasp of the drivers and outcomes of family adjustment and interrelatedness between family members’ adjustment. The study by Shaffer and colleagues (2016) introduced a much needed measure to capture expatriates’ adjustment to work and family roles and focused on the consequences for expatriates’ family, task and relationship performance. However, as most studies about expatriate families are limited only to adult respondents, we second the call by Sterle, Fontaine, de Mol, and Verhofstadt (2018) to apply multi-informant approaches including variables that capture the adjustment of expatriate children and adolescents and, thus, further trace crossover effects between all family members (for an excellent empirical case example, see Trembath, Chapter 10, this volume). That said, it remains questionable if existing theories of expatriate family adjustment, such as those reviewed by Haslberger and Hippler (Chapter 3, this volume), can be used to explicate the adjustment of expatriate children and teenagers (e.g. as employed in the study by de Sivatte et al., 2019). Undoubtedly, this provides a promising area for future theoretical development. In addition, future research must also incorporate non-traditional family designs (e.g. single-parent and LGBT expatriates) (McNulty, 2015b; McNulty and Hutchings, 2016), and use qualitative measures to explore if and how their adjustment differs from traditional expatriate families. As shown in Table 2.4, research on Dual-Career Couples has gained some momentum in the last few years. Significant contributions have centered on critical elements of the expatriation cycle, such as the willingness to undertake an international assignment (van der Velde, Jansen, Bal, and van Erp, 2016), career coordination strategies during assignments (Känsäla, Mäkelä, and Suutari, 2015), trailing spouse agency (McNulty and Moeller, 2018), and the repatriation experience of dual-career couples (Kierner and Suutari, 2017). For instance, the study by Känsälä et al. (2015) showed that males in dual-career couples tended to resort to traditional hierarchical career coordination strategies in which female partners were expected to subordinate their career ambitions, while females were more open to negotiate their own and the career of their male partner in an egalitarian way. The authors further found that directions of agency and relative importance of career ambitions of partners in dual-career couples can shift. To expand these findings, we urge future research to move beyond the dynamics taking place within dual-career couples to instead contextualize important external stakeholders and situational forces. Similarly, longitudinal designs are

40  Research handbook of global families

warranted to overcome the limitations of retrospective recall after an assignment has ended (e.g. Kierner, 2018). Future research is needed to address questions about the influence of the host country context for the successful realization of dual-careers for males and females (e.g. looking at gender norms in the host country or work permit restrictions for spousal employment) (Permits Foundation, 2022). By nature, the research on Expatriate Children/Kids as well as Teenagers/ Adolescents/Pubescents is closely related to the theme on TCKs. Thus, some of the recommendations provided there also apply here. Relevant contemporary studies are the works of Sander (2016), Saquib et al. (2017), and Asfour, Stanley, Weitzman, and Sherman (2015), which provide a good understanding of expatriate teenagers’ living conditions in gated communities and their challenges of video game use, drugs (such as tobacco), and under-age participation in night clubs and drinking. The study by Asfour et al. (2015) is particularly important, uncovering the rise in eating disorders among expatriate teenagers in the United Arab Emirates. Against this background, we firstly encourage future research to provide more opportunities for expatriate kids and teenagers to voice their views (e.g. see Mutter, 2018, for an excellent recent example) to overcome accounts provided solely by parents and teachers. Secondly, we deem that it is reasonable to consider problematic behaviors of expatriate teenagers within the family system. Accordingly, we call for more integrated research, for instance, based on focus groups with children and parents to disentangle drivers and inhibitors of behaviors (for empirical findings related to inhibitors, see Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume). Similarly, aligning research on expatriate kids and teenagers with knowledge from clinical child psychology is a promising avenue. The theme on expatriate couples primarily focuses on the factors that strengthen or breakdown intimate partner relationships between expatriate husbands and wives. As seen in Table 2.4, this sensitive, yet, important area of inquiry remains under-investigated. Probably, the most seminal recent contribution has been provided by McNulty (2015a) who extracted several factors that severely strain expatriate couples, as discussed earlier, and who found that expatriate divorce resulted in some devastating family outcomes including homicide of children, attempted suicide by trailing spouses, lengthy Hague/criminal abduction court proceedings, and homelessness in the host-country. This was followed with a later study by McNulty, Lauring, Jonasson, and Selmer (2019) looking at crises in expatriate families in which the authors found that avoidable crises arising from, (as an example) a drunken assault by an expatriate husband in Singapore, resulted in more than half of their sample facing severe consequences such as arrest and detention; in more than 90 percent of these cases, the outcomes were deemed life-changing for accompanying family members due to cancellations of employment and residency visas, immediate forced repatriation for themselves and their children, and criminal conviction, imprisonment, caning, and eventual deportation for their spouse. We concur with McNulty that future research on expatriate couples should ideally be based on longitudinal designs. We believe that multi time-point qualitative research designs are particularly advantageous. Future studies could focus on marital satisfaction, the influence of the expatriate ‘bubble’ for enhancing/inhibiting rela-

Expatriate families  41

tionship quality, and the long-term consequences of divorce/relationship breakdown on couples’ careers and private lives.

NOTE 1.

The term third culture kid (TCK) refers to children who live(d) together with their parents in a culture that differs from their home culture (Useem and Cottrell, 1996).

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42  Research handbook of global families

Chen, Y.-P. and M. Shaffer (2018), ‘The influence of expatriate spouses’ coping strategies on expatriate and spouse adjustment’, Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, 6(1), 20–39. Cockburn, L. (2002), ‘Children and young people living in changing worlds: the process of assessing and understanding the “third culture kid”’, School Psychology International, 23(4), 475–85. Cole, N.D. (2012), ‘Expatriate accompanying partners: the males speak’, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 50(3), 308–26. Cole, N.D. and K. Nesbeth (2014), ‘Why do international assignments fail? Expatriate families speak’, International Studies of Management & Organization, 44(3), 66–79. Collins, H.E. and S. Bertone (2017), ‘Threatened identities: adjustment narratives of expatriate spouses’, Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, 5(1), 78–92. Craig, M.E., T. Vale, P. Robertson, W.D. Rawlinson and B.Gould (1999), ‘Enterovirus 71 infection in Australian expatriate children following an outbreak in Malaysia’, Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 35(1), 107–8. Cranston, S. (2017), ‘Self-help and the surfacing of identity: producing the Third Culture Kid’, Emotion, Space and Society, 24, 27–33. Davies, S.E., A. Kraeh and F.J. Froese (2015), ‘Burden or support? The influence of partner nationality on expatriate cross-cultural adjustment’, Journal of Global Mobility, 3(2), 169–82. de Sivatte, I., B. Bullinger, M. Cañamero and M.d.P. Martel Gomez (2019), ‘Children of expatriates: key factors affecting their adjustment’, Journal of Global Mobility, 7(2), 213–36. Dimitrova, R., A. Chasiotis and F. van de Vijver (2016), ‘Adjustment outcomes of immigrant children and youth in Europe’, European Psychologist, 21, 150–62. Eng, L.A., F.L. Collins and B.S.A. Yeoh (2013), ‘Introduction: approaching migration and diversity in Asian contexts’, in L.A. Eng, F. Collins and B.S.A. Yeoh (eds), Migration and Diversity in Asian Contexts, Pasir Panjang, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pp. 1–30. Fukuda, K.J. and P. Chu (1994), ‘Wrestling with expatriate family problems: Japanese experience in East Asia’, International Studies of Management & Organization, 24(3), 36–47. Gerner, M.E. and F. Perry (2000), ‘Gender differences in cultural acceptance and career orientation among internationally mobile and non-internationally mobile adolescents’, School Psychology Review, 29(2), 267–83. Gerner, M.E., F. Perry, M.A. Moselle and M. Archbold (1992), ‘Characteristics of internationally mobile adolescents’, Journal of School Psychology, 30(2), 197–214. Gillies, W.D. (1998), ‘Children on the move: third culture kids’, Childhood Education, 75(1), 36–8. Gregersen, H.B. and L.K. Stroh (1997), ‘Coming home to the arctic cold: antecedents to Finnish expatriate and spouse repatriation adjustment’, Personnel Psychology, 50(3), 635–54. Handler, C.A., I.M. Lane and M. Maher (1997), ‘Career planning and expatriate couples’, Human Resource Management Journal, 7(3), 67–79. Haour-Knipe, M. (1989), ‘International employment and children: geographical mobility and mental health among children of professionals’, Social Science & Medicine, 28(3), 197–205. Harvey, M. (1985), ‘The executive family: an overlooked variable in international assignments’, Columbia Journal of World Business, 20(1), 84–92. Harvey, M. (1995), ‘The impact of dual-career families on international relocations’, Human Resource Management Review, 5(3), 223–44. Harvey, M. (1996a), ‘Addressing the dual-career expatriation dilemma’, Human Resource Planning, 19(4), 18–39.

Expatriate families  43

Harvey, M. (1996b), ‘Dual-career couples: the selection dilemma in international relocation’, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 4(4), 215–27. Harvey, M. (1997), ‘Dual-career expatriates: expectations, adjustment and satisfaction with international relocation’, Journal of International Business Studies, 28(3), 627–58. Harvey, M. (1998), ‘Dual-career couples during international relocation: the trailing spouse’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 9(2), 309–31. Harvey, M., M.R. Buckley, M.M. Novicevic and D. Wiese (1999), ‘Mentoring dual-career expatriates: a sense-making and sense-giving social support process’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 10(5), 808–27. Haslberger, A. and C. Brewster (2008), ‘The expatriate family: an international perspective’, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(3), 324–46. Howard, C.G. (1974), ‘The returning overseas executive: cultural shock in reverse’, Human Resource Management (pre-1986), 13(2), 22–6. Internations (2018), ‘Expat insider survey 2018’, available at https://​www​.internations​.org/​ expat​-insider/​(accessed 10 May 2019). Känsälä, M., L. Mäkelä and V. Suutari (2015), ‘Career coordination strategies among dual career expatriate couples’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(17), 2187–210. Kierner, A. (2018), ‘Expatriated dual-career partners: hope and disillusionment’, Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, 6(3/4), 244–57. Kierner, A. and V. Suutari (2017), ‘Repatriation of international dual-career couples’, Thunderbird International Business Review, 60(6), 885–95. Kilkey, M. and E. Palenga-Möllenbeck (2016), ‘Introduction: family life in an age of migration and mobility: introducing a global and family life-course perspective’, in M. Killey and E. Palenga-Möllenbeck (eds), Family Life in an Age of Migration and Mobility, London: Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 1–18. Lam, H. and J. Selmer (2004), ‘Are former “third-culture kids” the ideal business expatriates?’, Career Development International, 9(2), 109–22. Lazarova, M., M. Westman and M.A. Shaffer (2010), ‘Elucidating the positive side of the work-family interface on international assignments: a model of expatriate work and family performance’, Academy of Management Review, 35(1), 93–117. Lijadi, A.A. and G.J. van Schalkwyk (2018), ‘“The international schools are not so international after all”: the educational experiences of Third Culture Kids’, International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 6(1), 50–61. Manning, P. (2012), Migration in World History, New York, Routledge. McKeown, A. (2004), ‘Global migration, 1846–1940’, Journal of World History, 15(2), 155–89. McNulty, Y. (2015a), ‘Till stress do us part: the causes and consequences of expatriate divorce’, Journal of Global Mobility, 3(2), 106–36. McNulty, Y. (2015b), ‘Acculturating non-traditional expatriates: a case study of single parent, overseas adoption, split family, and lesbian assignees’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 49, 278–93. McNulty, Y. and C. Brewster (2017). ‘Theorizing the meaning(s) of “expatriate”: establishing boundary conditions for business expatriates’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(1), 27–61. McNulty, Y. and M. Carter (2018), ‘Do international school staff receive professional development training about third culture kids (TCKs)? Perspectives from faculty and parents’, in K.J. Kennedy and J.C.-K. Lee (eds), Routledge International Handbook of Schools and Schooling in Asia, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 280–92. McNulty, Y., H. De Cieri and K. Hutchings (2013), ‘Expatriate return on investment in the Asia Pacific: an empirical study of individual ROI versus corporate ROI’, Journal of World Business, 48(2), 209–21.

44  Research handbook of global families

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Expatriate families  45

Tannenbaum, M. and J. Tseng (2015), ‘Which one is Ithaca? Multilingualism and sense of identity among Third Culture Kids’, International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(3), 276–97. Tanu, D. (2015), ‘Toward an interdisciplinary analysis of the diversity of “third culture kids”, in S. Benjamin and F. Dervin (eds), Migration, Diversity, and Education: Beyond Third Culture Kids, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 13–35. Tanu, D. (2018), Growing up in Transit: The Politics of Belonging at an International School, Kindle Ebo, New York: Berghahn Books. Tarique, I. and E. Weisbord (2013), ‘Antecedents of dynamic cross-cultural competence in adult third culture kids (ATCKs)’, Journal of Global Mobility, 1(2), 139–60. Tung, R.L. (1986), ‘Corporate executives and their families in China: the need for cross-cultural understanding in business’, Columbia Journal of World Business, 21(1), 21–5. Useem, R.H. and A.B. Cottrell (1996), ‘Adult Third Culture Kids’, in C.D. Smith (ed.), Strangers at Home: Essays on the Effects of Living Overseas and Coming “Home” to a Strange Land, Bayside, NY: Aletheia Publications, pp. 22–35. Useem, R.H and R.D. Downie (1976), ‘Third-culture kids’, Today’s Education, 65(3), 103–5. Useem, R. and J. Useem (1967), ‘The interfaces of a binational third culture: a study of the American community in India’, Journal of Social Issues, 22(1), 130–43. Useem, J., R. Useem and J. Donoghue (1963), ‘Men in the middle of the third culture: the roles of American and non-Western people in cross-cultural administration’, Human Organization, 22(3), 169–79. van der Velde, M.E.G., P.G.W. Jansen, P.M. Bal and K.J.P.M van Erp (2016), ‘Dual-earner couples’ willingness to relocate abroad: the reciprocal influence of both partners’ career role salience and partner role salience’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26(2), 195–207. Van Reken, R.E., D.C. Pollock and M.V. Pollock (2017), Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, Yarmouth, ME: Nicholas Brealey. Weeks, K.P., M. Weeks and K. Willis-Muller (2009), ‘The adjustment of expatriate teenagers’, Personnel Review, 39(1), 24–43. Westropp, S., V. Cathro and A.M. Everett (2016), ‘Adult third culture kids’ suitability as expatriates’, Review of International Business and Strategy, 26(3), 334–48.

3. Adjustment of expatriate families: a holistic approach Arno Haslberger and Thomas Hippler

In this chapter, we consider the adjustment of the expatriate family to life in a new country. Traditional families play an important role in long-term expatriation. A large majority of expatriates are accompanied by a partner, while about half are accompanied by at least one child (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021). These numbers are similar to those typically cited in academic publications (cf. Dickmann, Doherty, Mills, & Brewster, 2008). However, there is comparatively little research on expatriate families. The bulk of what there is focuses narrowly on how the partner and family influence, usually negatively, the expatriate’s adjustment and work performance, treating family members as another simple antecedent that is no different in character than other variables like language or cultural distance (cf. Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shaffer, & Luk, 2005; Black & Gregersen, 1991a, 1991b; Black & Stephens, 1989; Cole, 2011; Kupka & Cathro, 2007; McNulty, 2012; Shaffer & Harrison, 2001; Takeuchi, Yun, & Tesluk, 2002). Much of the research on expatriate families has been constrained in three ways: first, it has had a negative bias, treating families as a problem and not as a resource; second, it has focused on the expatriate employee, for the most part considering other family members as means and not as ends in themselves; and finally, it has concentrated on individual members, investigating how one member influences another and not how the family as a unit reacts to an international move. Here we look at the adjustment of the expatriate family as a unit with positive potential, not just as an add-on to expatriate employee issues. We examine the information about families and their adjustment available in the literature and draw on the Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response (FAAR) framework (Patterson, 1988) and the Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984), both of which have been discussed in conjunction with expatriate adjustment before (Ady, 1995; Black, Mendenhall, & Oddou, 1991; Caligiuri, Hyland, & Bross, 1998; Newman, Bhatt, & Gutteridge, 1978). We draw on the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems (Olson, 2000), which has been used on occasion in the analysis of cross-cultural adjustment of partners (Ali, Van der Zee, & Sanders, 2003) and children (Van der Zee, Ali, & Haaksma, 2007). We use the three frameworks in combination with the 3D model of expatriate adjustment (Haslberger, Brewster, & Hippler, 2014) to capture the complexity of the process and to develop an understanding of the process of adjustment of the family unit. We also suggest future research directions. Our focus is on business expatriates (McNulty & Brewster, 2017). Our discussion applies equally to assigned expatriates and self-initiated expatriates. 46

Adjustment of expatriate families  47

The chapter has the following structure: first, we lay the groundwork by defining terms and briefly introducing different aspects of expatriate adjustment in general: dimensions, domains and dynamics over time. Second, we discuss characteristics of adjustment that are specific to families. After reviewing some of the early studies on family adjustment, we then look at the different roles of expatriate family members. We weave into this the dynamics of interactions between family members and their respective adjustment processes. We conclude the second section with newer developments about the positive contribution of families to expatriate adjustment and ‘non-traditional’ families. The third section focuses on families as a unit of analysis. After the discussion of the three underlying frameworks mentioned above, we integrate them into a comprehensive model of family adjustment. The final section provides direction for researchers and practitioners on how the proposed model may support their work.

BUILDING BLOCKS OF ADJUSTMENT There are many terms that are used, often interchangeably, to define the adjustment processes of individuals: thus adjustment, adaptation, and acculturation have all been employed to refer to the processes and the change individuals go through when they move to a different cultural environment (Black et al., 1991; Church, 1982; Gudykunst, 2005; Haslberger et al., 2014; Kim, 2001; Schütz, 1944; Taft, 1977; Torbiörn, 1982; Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001). Some of the family systems literature distinguishes between adjustment, meaning that families cope with new situations making minor changes to existing routines and structures, and adaptation that results in major re-alignments as the outcomes of a serious crisis (Patterson, 1988, 2002a, 2002b). Patterson (1988) considers relocation as a stressful event that could lead to crisis. In this chapter, we use the term adjustment to examine all the processes involved in families coping with (temporary) expatriation: adjustment, adaptation, and acculturation. The 3D model of adjustment (Haslberger et al., 2014) argues that expatriates, and expatriate families, adjust in different dimensions, in different domains, and dynamically, over time. In terms of dimensions, adjustment occurs in cognitions, emotions, and behaviors (Kim, 1988, 1991; Ward et al., 2001). The process of adjustment is one of moving towards a better fit between the newcomer and the environment in which they find themselves. In practice, each dimension will be assessed both internally and externally – that is, how the individual assesses his or her own competence with respect to knowledge, emotions and behaviors, which may or may not match the assessment made by others, including locals, other expatriates and even members of his or her own family. People operate in different domains. For example, a business expatriate working as an IT expert to upgrade the systems and skills of the local subsidiary may at the same time be a father and husband, an infrequently used substitute for the local football team, and an important member of a local church choir. Adjustment to the

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various domains is not entirely independent. Each domain will impact the others. In practice, adjustment will develop differently in each domain. So, for example, better knowledge and understanding of local ways of operating that comes from membership in the football team may impact behavior and have an effect on emotions at work. Most literature on business expatriation has used the three-way split based on Black and colleagues (Black, 1988; Black & Stephens, 1989), which has met with criticism (cf. Hippler, Caligiuri, & Johnson, 2014; Lazarova & Thomas, 2012). A more comprehensive list comes from immigrant studies distinguishing six domains: politics and government (i.e. systems of public order such as driving regulations or rules about quiet times during the day); work; economic, including consumption of goods and services; family relations; social relations; and ideology, which includes two sub-divisions: ways of thinking, principles and values on the one side, and religious beliefs and customs on the other (Navas et al., 2005; Navas, Rojas, García, & Pumares, 2007). The domains will have different salience for each member of the family. Analogous to the example of the IT professional above, expatriates and expatriates’ families will adjust to each domain in different ways and at varying speeds. Since the domains are not isolated or entirely independent from each other, ‘spillover’ takes place from one domain into another not just intra-individually but also inter-individually via added crossover. Work–family conflict is perhaps one of the most intensively studied areas in organizational behavior (Jaskiewicz, Combs, Shanine, & Kacmar, 2017) and has been shown to exist for expatriates as well (cf. Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005; Gripenberg, Niemistö, & Alapeteri, 2013; Lazarova, Westman, & Shaffer, 2010).1 The dynamics of time are crucial in the adjustment process: the longer an assignment, the greater the adjustment (in all but a few cases) and the deeper will be the changes in the individuals concerned (Hippler, Brewster, & Haslberger, 2015). Arguably, most adjustment studies to date have been time-blind to the extent that they have collected cross-sectional data and therefore lacked solid data to study the effect of time. This gap is understandable – sample mortality and the limited number of responses available for analysis after a couple of waves – but given the centrality of time to adjustment, this remains a serious weakness in most studies.

ADJUSTMENT AND THE FAMILY How does this thinking apply to families? What are the characteristics of adjustment that are specific to families? We consider in this section topics that revolve around the themes of roles in the expatriate family and their dynamic interactions that have made up the bulk of research on expatriate families to date. The concluding parts expand the picture by emphasizing the oft-neglected positive contributions families make to expatriate adjustment and the as yet largely overlooked rise of non-traditional families in business mobility.

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Early Studies Some of the earliest studies were by Cleveland, Mangone, and Adams (1960), and Nash (1967, 1969), who studied American expatriate families in Spain in the early 1960s. In the 1970s, Cohen wrote about expatriate communities (Cohen, 1977). He noted that they are male-centered and that it is the expatriate’s partner (usually female, then as well as now) that typically bears the burden of ensuring that the family unit continues to operate successfully. The early literature (Hays, 1971, 1974; Tung, 1982, 1987) noted the importance of the family’s adaptability and supportiveness. None of the contributions did much more than point out that including the partner or family with children in the international relocation increases the expense of the foreign assignment, that they find themselves in a different position than the expatriate, and that the success or failure of a partner or family to adjust had a significant impact on the expatriate’s own adjustment and the assignment overall. Family Roles: Expatriate Partners Subsequent research has continued to explore the problems of what is commonly termed the trailing spouse (see Kallane and Punnett, Chapter 4, this volume). The expatriation literature has studied issues related to gender for a long time. Yet, research in this area remains comparatively limited. Discussion has centered on trailing spouses (Adler, 2002; Harvey, 1985; Haslberger, 2010; Selmer & Leung, 2003; Tung, 1982), or, more generally speaking, partners. This literature notes the unique stressors that partners, and children, when applicable, face compared to the working expatriate (Kupka & Cathro, 2007). Partners may have considerably more interaction with the local context, where they have to operate with much less structure and support and are often thrown in to ‘sink or swim’ (McNulty, 2012). As a result, their adjustment might also be more stressful than that of the working expatriate (Albright, Chu, & Austin, 1993). The literature on trailing partners has developed together with the literature on female expatriates and their specific problems and advantages (Adler, 1987; Coles & Fechter, 2008). Dual-career issues, which are discussed below, are one concern that predominantly affects women. Family Roles: Expatriate Children While the literature on trailing partners is expanding, albeit much more slowly than the expatriate literature as a whole, researchers have paid only scant attention to the children of expatriates (see, as an example, Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume). Children, like their home-making parent, live in the local environment more than the expatriate does (see Van Reken, Pollock, and Pollock, 2017), and often with less support, although international schools, where available and selected, will reduce the contact with local children during school hours. After school, the location of the family’s home residence will determine the extent of local contact: families living in expatriate compounds in cities such as Jakarta and Shanghai will have much

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less, if any, contact with the local population (Tanu, 2018). A few examples are De Leon and McPartlin’s (1995) study of expatriate teenagers’ adjustment in Hong Kong, two studies of Japanese school-aged children in Canada and the U.S. (Kanno, 2000; Miyamoto & Kuhlman, 2001), a study of mainly Dutch children and teenagers in several countries (Van der Zee et al., 2007), and a study of mainly U.S. children in Shanghai (Weeks, Weeks, & Willis-Muller, 2009). Family Dynamics: Work-life and Work-family Balance Throughout the history of research on expatriate families there was little recognition that the family as a unit was worth studying. Rather, much of the research has focused directly on the problems that families create for the working expatriate whose job has taken them abroad, or has done so implicitly by examining problems of expatriate work-life or sometimes even work–family balance (cf. Schütter & Boerner, 2013; Shaffer, Harrison, Gilley, & Luk, 2001; Shih, Chiang, & Hsu, 2010; Westman, Etzion, & Gattenio, 2008). The argument that the situation of partners (and less often children) should be studied was made on the grounds that it affects the working expatriate’s adjustment and performance. For example, Tung published some influential articles in the early 1980s (Tung, 1981, 1982, 1984) specifically looking at partners and children – as a factor that is critical for the success of international assignments. One of the articles argued that “the inability of the manager’s spouse to adjust” was a leading, and perhaps even the most important, issue that American and European multi-national corporations had to deal with (Tung, 1982: 67). This has become an influential statement which continues to be reiterated regularly in academic and professional publications. Fukuda and Chu (1994) studied the problems of Japanese families on expatriate assignments in East Asia. Partner and family variables continued to be researched along these lines (Kraimer, Wayne, & Jaworski, 2001; Shaffer, Harrison, & Gilley, 1999; Shaffer, Harrison, Luk, & Gilley, 2000). Whether Tung’s claim is actually true has not been rigorously tested: observers should consider whether working expatriates wanting to return home early are adopting a less career-limiting rationale by blaming their partner: “they just can’t cope; we need to go home early for their sake” rather than assuming the blame themselves: “I’m struggling to cope; please let me go home”. In the sub-section on crossover and spillover we will look at how family members’ adjustment is interrelated and in the subsequent sub-section we will draw a more positive picture of the family’s role in the adjustment of its members. But first we will attend to the topic of dual careers. Family Dynamics: Dual-career Issues Another area of difficulties identified in the research on international assignments is the possibility that the trailing partner has a career of his or her own. The literature has noted that the issue of dual-career families, where both partners are psychologically committed to a career, constitutes a problem during international relocation

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(Brown, 2008; Collings, Scullion, & Morley, 2007). This line of research examines the problems dual-career expatriate couples give employers, who may find it difficult to persuade their chosen candidate to move abroad (see Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume). In many instances, the accompanying partners may have to give up their work. Work permit restrictions make it difficult or impossible for them to find career-related work during the period of expatriation. Of course, this varies with the environment: there are no such restrictions between European Union member countries, for example, and it is easier for experts in some disciplines such as health or IT to either get permits or to find ways to work without them (cf. Permits Foundation, 2022). Work permits are not the only concerns for dual-career families. One of the authors knows from personal experience of the challenges a dual-career family with children faces when both are employed full-time: the common support system of family and long-term friends often present in the home country does not exist abroad. This network has to be rebuilt or, if possible, family has to be brought in for emergencies. Family Dynamics: Crossover and Spillover Unlike the earlier expatriate-centric approaches, Black and colleagues (cf. Black & Gregersen, 1991a, 1991b; Black & Stephens, 1989; Stephens & Black, 1991) considered partner adjustment as worthy of research in its own right. They investigated, for example, the crossover of adjustment between the partner and the expatriate. Forster (1992) was one of the earliest researchers to give the spouse and family more prominence in his systemic model of international job mobility. The cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates takes place in several different domains. Adjustment in those domains may proceed at different speeds (Haslberger et al., 2014). At the most basic distinction, the expatriate may adjust quickly to working in the new environment, for example, but may take longer to get adjusted in private life. Spillover is an intra-individual process (Demerouti, 2012) that connects domain-specific adjustment processes and levels of an individual and allows variables in one domain to impact adjustment in another. It can also be part of an inter-individual process when combined with crossover. For the moment we will stay with our intra-individual example: the quick adjustment to work may speed up adjustment in the private sphere, or vice versa, perhaps because the cross-cultural coaching received from a work colleague also makes adjustment to life outside of work easier. Some experts point out that mood may be a mediator explaining spillover. Heller and Watson (2005) found that satisfaction in one domain showed a time-delayed association with satisfaction in another hours later. The analysis of family adjustment involves two or more individuals. Therefore, inter-individual processes come into play. Crossover, then, is an inter-individual process (Demerouti, 2012) where the adjustment of one family member is related to the adjustment of another family member. This process may take place in the same domain or across domains. Westman (2001) observed in a meta-analysis that the

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bulk of studies had focused on work-to-home spill- and crossover. Home-to-work, home-to-home, and work-to-work had rarely been studied at the time. Crossover occurs in three ways (Demerouti, 2012; Westman, 2001; Zhaoli, Maw-Der, Uy, & Shuhua, 2011): ● It may be a direct bi-directional process of emotional contagion. This may involve stress that spills across the work-home border and crosses over among partners (Bolger, DeLongis, Kessler, & Wethington, 1989). Or on the positive side, it may result from favorable feedback a family member received in an important setting. ● It may occur because of a common factor that all family members experience that leads to synchronized reactions (Zhaoli et al., 2011). An example may be a pleasant weekend trip with the whole family in the host location or, on the negative side, an unpleasant day at the immigration service to get residence permits extended. Strictly speaking, this is not necessarily crossover but rather a spurious correlation. ● It may be an indirect process mediated by communication, coping mechanisms, and mutual support or undermining among family members. Indirect crossover is the most complicated and a multifaceted process that will be addressed again below in the sub-section on the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. It would occur, for example, if the experience at the immigration office were also to reinforce negative feelings via emotional contagion. Family makeup such as whether the female or the male partner in a heterosexual relationship is the breadwinner and gender aspects come into play here (Hostetler, Desrochers, Kopko, & Moen, 2012). Zhaoli et al. (2011) point out that in general men are more withdrawn and women are more confrontational in partnerships. For example, men satisfied in their partnership were reported to reduce angry behavioral tendencies stemming from work stress, while women satisfied in their partnerships showed the opposite tendency and more often expressed angry behaviors related to work stimuli. Zhaoli et al. (2011: 163) summarize: “In families with employed wives, the crossover of distress from wives to husbands was stronger in more satisfied marriages than in less satisfied ones. In families with employed husbands, the crossover of distress from husbands to wives was weaker in more satisfied marriages than in less satisfied ones.” Hostetler et al. (2012) report that informal resources such as friendship ties and neighborhood support work differently for women and men. They have a more direct positive effect on fathers’ family satisfaction, while their effects are indirect for mothers. In a study of 131 Dutch couples with dual incomes Demerouti (2012) found a complex crossover mechanism that was different for positive and negative experiences. Positive crossover was direct so that the positive energy of one partner had an unmediated positive effect on the other partner. Negative crossover, on the other hand, was indirect. It worked “through some kind of behavioral transmitter such as increased social undermining … and diminished social support” (Demerouti, 2012: 191).

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Most research on crossover has studied monocultural partnerships in a home-country setting. A study by Takeuchi, Yun, and Tesluk (2002) was among the first to consider simultaneous crossover effects among expatriate couples. The range of related topics and publications has since increased (cf. Davies, Kraeh, & Froese, 2015; Lauring & Selmer, 2010; Van der Zee, Ali, & Salomé, 2005; van Erp, Giebels, Van der Zee, & van Duijn, 2011). Figure 3.1 includes a simple list of domains and shows different types of crossover and spillover within a family. Number 1 shows intra-personal spillover across domains. Number 2 combines crossover and spillover; in this case the crossover is from the expatriate to the partner. The spillover is from the expatriate’s work domain to the partner’s social relations domain. Number 3 shows mutual crossover between partner and child in the shopping and entertainment domain.

Source: Adapted from Haslberger and Brewster (2008).

Figure 3.1

Crossover and spillover

Research on international assignments, expatriate adjustment and cultural differences in general has traditionally focused on problems rather than on positive aspects (Stahl & Tung, 2015). But there is another side to the coin. Expanded Picture: Not All Doom and Gloom? We now understand that the family is an important support system for the working expatriate. The family serves as a constant reminder that there is a life to be lived outside of work and it assists with non-work adjustment (Cole, 2011; Kraimer & Wayne, 2004; Kraimer et al., 2001; Lauring & Selmer, 2010; Toh & DeNisi, 2005). The personal resources that the family contributes are highly relevant for the working expatriate’s success (cf. Davies et al., 2015; Glanz, Williams, & Hoeksema, 2001; Lauring & Selmer, 2010; Lavee, McCubbin, & Patterson, 1985; Shaffer et al., 1999; Van Vianen, De Pater, Kristof-Brown, & Johnson, 2004; Waxin, 2004). Researchers have found a “resource compensation effect” (van Erp, Van der Zee, Giebels, & van Duijn, 2014: 709) where “a lack of a resource in oneself (in terms of intercultural

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personality traits) could be compensated by the availability of this intercultural personality trait in the partner” (van Erp et al., 2014: 721). This effect cuts both ways, from partner to working expatriate and vice versa. The personal characteristics and resources of the working expatriate are important selection criteria and some companies use psychological instruments (Anderson, 2005; Caligiuri, 2000; Scullion & Collings, 2006; Sparrow, 1999), a number of which are commercially developed for that purpose (cf. Edwards, Dodd, Rosenbusch, & Cerny, 2016). We have noted that families may also integrate better into the local environment because of their life circumstances, which in turn enables them to help the expatriate settle into the neighborhood and the wider expatriate community. For example, in the age-old diplomatic model of life abroad that served as a blueprint for business expatriation (Hickman, 2000), the partners of higher ranking expatriates were (and continue to be) expected to do much assignment-related entertaining and to take a leadership role in expatriate communities (Coles, 2011; Hickman, 2000; Hughes, 1999). Expanded Picture: Non-traditional Families Most of the research in the field focuses on partners and children (i.e. it has a nuclear family bias). Expatriation of individuals or heterosexual nuclear families is still the predominant mode, at least in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) countries. Employers based in those countries will very rarely pay for members of the extended family to go on the assignment with them. Hence, the focus of Western research on nuclear families is explainable. However, even in the West this may change soon (Baruch, Altman, & Tung, 2016; McNulty, 2015; McNulty & Hutchings, 2016). Therefore, this focus will have to change if academics want to be aligned with global trends. McNulty and Hutchings (2016) classify families according to composition, challenges faced, core or extended membership, sexual orientation, gender of the lead member. A narrow reading would categorize as non-traditional every family that is not male-led and heterosexual with or without the presence of the parents’ natural children. Researchers are called upon to go beyond nuclear families from WEIRD places and include non-traditional families as well as mobile families from all parts of the globe.

THEORIES OF EXPATRIATE FAMILY ADJUSTMENT: THE FAMILY AS A UNIT OF ANALYSIS Most of the literature to date has studied the family, or perhaps more accurately in many cases, the trailing partner as an antecedent to explain expatriate adjustment and performance. The family is treated a problem or a resource in individual expatriate adjustment (Takeuchi, 2010), but not as a unit of analysis. Some authors have looked at individual adjustment in the reverse, where the expatriate is a factor related to partner adjustment as the outcome variable (Ali et al., 2003; Black & Gregersen,

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1991a; Cole, 2011; Hughes, 1999; Takeuchi et al., 2002; van Erp et al., 2014); however, research on adjustment of the family as a unit is still in its early days consisting mostly of integrating theoretical knowledge from family studies into the theory of expatriate adjustment (Haslberger & Brewster, 2008; Haslberger, Hippler, & Brewster, 2015; Lazarova et al., 2010). Building on these developments and to provide a basis for our expansion of the theoretical discussion of expatriate family adjustment, we next summarize three theories that are relevant for a model of family adjustment.2 First, we introduce each briefly, pointing out how each informs our understanding of family adjustment abroad. In a second step, we will combine them for a fuller view of the adjustment of the expatriate family as a unit. The concluding section on implications will show how the combined model can guide research by providing a tool for zooming into elements of family adjustment while at the same time keeping a holistic picture of the entire adjustment process in mind. The TWA Model Over the years, the expatriation literature has occasionally drawn on the person-environment (P-E) fit-based TWA (Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1964; Dawis & Lofquist, 1984) to get an enriched picture of the dynamics of cross-cultural adjustment (cf. Ady, 1995; Black et al., 1991; Haslberger et al., 2014; Haslberger & Dickmann, 2016; Newman et al., 1978). Dawis and Lofquist regard – and through their publications establish – TWA as a “general theory of behavior” (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984: 145) and of adjustment (Lofquist & Dawis, 1991) that can be extended into other spheres of life. At the center of TWA lies the assumption that people try to achieve a balanced relationship with their environment by drawing on their resources to meet the challenges they face and having their needs met. For expatriates this includes adjustment to the host country. They desire to achieve correspondence with their surroundings, meaning “a relationship in which the individual and the environment are […] mutually responsive” (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984: 54). Since correspondence has to be re-established and maintained constantly, adjustment is a “continuous and dynamic process” (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984: 55 emphasis in the original). If the individual is perceived by the actors in the relevant domain to be satisfactory and to meet their requirements, and the environment is seen by the individual as supplying their needs, so that the individual in turn is satisfied, then the interaction is successful and continues. This implies that the expatriate wants to stay in the assignment and the host environment does not reject him or her. The extent of satisfaction with and satisfactoriness to the environment varies over time. Every expatriate assignment has its ups and downs. As long as there is some sort of balance the individual will continue to interact with that environment and the international assignment will go on. TWA applied to the individual can help explain the dynamics of expatriate adjustment. To develop a better understanding of expatriate family adjustment, we will look at two models that use P-E fit in the field of family studies and apply them

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to international assignments. First, we turn to the FAAR model, followed by the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems. The FAAR Model In an innovative contribution, Caligiuri, Hyland, and Bross (1998), applied the Double ABCX model (McCubbin & Patterson, 1982, 1983), a precursor to the model discussed here, to analyze adjustment of the family unit and its influence on employment adjustment of the international assignee. The authors found that family characteristics related to family adjustment, and that both are associated with expatriate work adjustment. Patterson’s FAAR model (1988, 2002b) is based on an environmental-fit approach. It focuses on how a family copes with the demands placed on it by applying its capabilities. Three factors underlie family demands: incidents of change and related stress, ongoing strains associated with unresolved tensions, and minor hassles in daily life (Patterson, 2002b). The FAAR model focuses on change events such as a family member falling ill. In the analysis of expatriate family adjustment, the main stressor will be the move abroad and everything it triggers. Twelve of the most stressful events from the Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale are directly related to an international relocation, while others are indirectly related (Wilkinson & Singh, 2010). Possible strains are many in international assignments and the literature contains plenty of illustrations, for example, work–family conflict (Schütter & Boerner, 2013; Shih et al., 2010), which, of course, is an issue for all families (Odle-Dusseau et al., 2013). Anecdotal evidence indicates that travel requirements in international assignments increase (on average) compared to domestic jobs. Life away from one’s accustomed support system and from one’s familiar cultural environment may also cause strains to pile up. Although in some instances, the falling away of home culture-related social controls may more than compensate for this, by liberating one from known constraints. The effect of daily hassles in international moves may also be equivocal. For some families, they may increase, for others they may just be replaced, and for some, they may decrease, for example, if in a move to a country where domestic help is common place, some of the daily chores are outsourced. In terms of capabilities, families have various resources and behaviors that they can deploy to cope with the demands they face (Patterson, 2002b). Tangible resources of expatriate families increase for most assigned expatriates. Expatriate compensation packages generally include financial incentives that make a family at least as well off as back home. For self-initiated expatriates, this is more uncertain. The family’s psychosocial resources include their personal characteristics, which will not change much as a result of a move, and their social networks, which will. This is where well-crafted organizational support programs may compensate, at least in the beginning, for potential losses. An intact family’s coping behaviors presumably are sufficient to keep it in equilibrium.3 An international move will be within the current reach of a family’s coping behaviors in many instances. Some families

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may have to adjust by learning new coping behaviors. And some will be challenged enough to slide into a crisis requiring, in Patterson’s terms (1988, 2002b) adaptation.4 Not all families react the same to equivalent demands. Some expatriate families thrive in the host environment, while for others it is all strife. How they react depends on their capabilities, and on the meanings they attribute to the situation as well as their view of themselves as a family and as an entity in the larger environment (Patterson, 1988). Capabilities include, for example, the language skills of family members; positive meanings may include the family’s belief that the stay abroad will be beneficial for the children’s development and future opportunities. Those with – subjectively in terms of meanings and objectively – sufficient capabilities are able to deal with demands in a generally healthy way; those without may be able to change enough to master the resulting crisis or the family may return early or even dissolve. Patterson calls the ability to do “well in the face of adversity … resilience” (Patterson, 2002b: 350; emphasis in the original). The Circumplex Model discussed below will shed additional light on the characteristics of families that influence their reactions to demands and hence their resilience. Demands on the family and its capabilities may have their origin in individual family members, in the family as a unit, or they may come from the environment (Patterson, 2002b). An international move will provide challenges for individual family members that will impact the family. Work interference with family is one example. Similarly, there may be school interference with family for accompanying children. An example of a challenge at the unit level may be the change related to a dual-career couple dealing with the change in family roles as one partner takes a career break. One nexus of environmental challenges relates to the different cultural context and possibly a different language that require the family’s attention. The FAAR is useful for understanding the dynamics of how families react to stressful events such as an international move. The Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems (CM) adds further detail to this understanding and also opens a window to expatriate family selection. The Circumplex Model The CM (Olson, 1986, 1991, 2000) stems from clinical family studies and family therapy. It has been used in research on the adjustment of partners and children (Ali et al., 2003; Van der Zee et al., 2007). The model classifies families along the lines of vulnerability to change and it explains the adjustment trajectory of family units. It opens up the black box of a family coping with the environmental demands it faces. It comes with a set of instruments that can assess the overall adaptive capacity of a family and provide guidance for targeted interventions should adjustment problems emerge (Olson, 1986, 1991, 2000). As such, it can lend management a hand in the selection phase to rule out families likely to lack the resilience to do well abroad. Further, it can help with identifying specific support needed to make the family’s stay a success.

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The CM includes three central variables: cohesion, flexibility, and communication. Cohesion and flexibility allow a classification of families into balanced, mid-range, and unbalanced. Communication has an influence on how the family reacts in times of increased stress. An important caveat to the dynamics of family functioning is the fact that “the family serves as its own norm base” (Olson, 1986: 343). This means that unbalanced families are not always dysfunctional. A family may belong to a group “that has normative expectations which support extreme behaviours” (Olson, 2000: 153); therefore, all family members may be satisfied with the setup. According to Olson (2000) some religious or cultural groups may fall into this category. The particular situations faced by expatriate families may also contribute to the functionality of unbalanced families, hence giving some of them more resilience abroad than might be expected, as we will point out below. Cohesion or togetherness is the first of the three core variables. It “is defined as the emotional bonding that family members have towards one another” (Olson, 2000: 145, emphasis in the original). Variables related to family cohesion include “emotional bonding, boundaries, coalitions, time, space, friends, decision-making, interests and recreation” (Olson, 2000: 145). The model distinguishes four levels of expression of cohesion from very low to very high as: disengaged, separated, connected, and enmeshed. The middle two expressions define a balanced to mid-range family system. In the separated family, there is some time spent together and some joint decision-making and support, but the emphasis is on separate interests and activities. In the connected family, the emphasis is reversed and time together and mutual support are more important than individual pursuits. The two extremes identify a mid-range to unbalanced family that is either a collection of individuals with few connecting points or a smothering vessel. When applied to the situation of expatriate families, the two extremes may actually add functionality to the family in the ‘right’ situation. An international assignment often comes with added travel requirements for the expatriate employee. In such a situation it may actually be beneficial if the expatriate and accompanying partner bring a pattern of low engagement or even disengagement. If they lived rather independent lives before, the expatriate’s travel schedule is less likely to result in feelings of isolation by the partner left behind. This would also apply to families that decide to stay home rather than go abroad with the expatriate. An enmeshed family, on the other hand, may also have functionality benefits. For example, if cultural or security concerns force the family members to stay in an expatriate compound, the extreme closeness of an enmeshed family may make tight living arrangements less burdensome. The point is that a careful matching of assignment requirements with family types can increase the pool of suitable families for international assignments. Olson defines flexibility as “the amount of change in its leadership, role relationships and relationship rules” (2000: 147, emphasis in the original). It also includes control, discipline, and styles of negotiation. The four levels of flexibility are: rigid, structured, flexible, and chaotic. Flexibility defines the stability of the family’s current setup. Again, the middle two expressions can lead to a balanced system.

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That is, too little or too much change on a daily basis is generally counterproductive. A structured family is “somewhat democratic” (2000: 149) with clear rules and roles, where some issues are negotiated. These negotiations may include the children. A flexible family is more egalitarian, where negotiations are common and generally include the children. Roles and rules are changeable depending on necessity and take children’s ages into consideration. As with cohesion, there may be expatriate situations where rigid or chaotic family types are not at a disadvantage. A rigid family may do better than other types in a rigid cultural environment. And the extreme flexibility of the chaotic type may be helpful in a number of situations international sojourners encounter. In combination, the two dimensions of cohesion and flexibility identify 16 types as represented in Figure 3.2. The model distinguishes first-order and second-order changes, where a first-order change would take place within each of the 16 types but would not cause a switch to a different type. Overall cohesion and flexibility do not change. “Second-order change is the ability of a system type to change to another type” (Olson, 1991: 76, emphasis in the original). This type of change may occur or even become necessary if the family faces stresses such as the birth of a child or a serious illness. “Second-order change is linear with higher change in the balanced systems and the lowest level of change in unbalanced systems. In times of stress, balanced systems will tend to change to another system type to adapt, while unbalanced systems tend to stay stuck in their extreme pattern, which can often create more stress” (Olson, 2000: 152). Expatriate families that belong to one of the unbalanced types may unravel quickly, if in an unfavorable situation: if, for example, a chaotically disengaged family finds itself in a tightly controlled expatriate compound. Yet, a rigidly enmeshed family might not find that its common interaction patterns as a family are affected much or at all. Communication, the third of the central variables, defines the family’s ability to engage in second-order change. It is an essential facilitator for this type of change. Communication includes “listening skills, speaking skills, self-disclosure, clarity, continuity tracking, and respect and regard” (Olson, 2000: 149). The better the family’s communication skills, the greater its ability to change, if necessary, and hence to deal with stressful events. The communication capabilities of expatriate families will probably play an even bigger role than those of families at home. The international move constitutes a major change that will be more manageable with better communication skills. The three models outlined contribute independently to the understanding of expatriate family behavior. In the following, we will combine them for a fuller view. In combination, the models give a comprehensive picture of expatriate family adjustment rooted in P-E fit theory. Subsequently, the final section on implications will show how the combined model can guide research and management practice.

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Source: Adapted from Olson (1986, 2000).

Figure 3.2

Family types

AN OUTLINE OF A HOLISTIC MODEL OF FAMILY ADJUSTMENT The balancing of demands and capabilities in FAAR is expressed as correspondence in TWA. The FAAR focuses on the viewpoint of the family (i.e. on satisfaction), while the TWA also includes the outside view (i.e. satisfactoriness). The CM adds structural components of the internal workings of the family and a view as to how it may change its structure in response to demands. The CM’s variables of cohesion and flexibility are structural in nature. They define the type of family system the family members live in. Communication as the third central variable in the CM is a capability in that it represents what the family does (i.e. is a coping behavior in Patterson’s (2002b) FAAR terms). Both FAAR and CM help explain the (indirect) crossover in the adjustment of family members discussed earlier. Figure 3.3 puts the elements of the models together for a comprehensive view of family adjustment. At the center of attention is the expatriate family. Most expatriate families will be one of the four ‘balanced’ types (i.e. in the large white region of the family circle in the drawing). The family as a unit has certain needs and places certain requirements on itself. If its capabilities, which include communication, are commensurate with its needs and demands, there will be a level of correspondence (1) and the family will be generally satisfied with itself as a unit (i.e. it proves satisfactory to itself). Under (1) satisfaction equals satisfactoriness. The family unit

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also has certain needs and demands for its individual members and for the various communities it is part of (e.g. the neighborhood, the expatriate circle, and the like). If family members and communities have adequate capabilities or supplies for correspondence (2), the family will be satisfied with its various individual members and community contexts. The individual family members and communities in turn have needs or requirements to be met by the family unit. If its capabilities are sufficient, there will be a third type of correspondence (3) resulting in the family being satisfactory to its individual members and community contexts. Communication capabilities are an important enabler for change in the CM. Olson (2000) gives the examples of a partner requiring more autonomy or more power in a relationship, or an adolescent wanting more independence. All of these require an adjustment by the family, either within its type or by changing to another type. Another example given by Olson (2000) is that of a serious health issue of a family member leading to a succession of changes in family type from flexibly separated via chaotically and rigidly enmeshed to finally structurally connected over a period of several months. This succession of second-order changes in the family depends on adequate communication abilities. An international move, especially one involving a dual-career couple where one partner is taking a career break, will challenge the family to engage in similarly far-reaching second-order changes.

Source: Adapted from Haslberger et al. (2015).

Figure 3.3

Family adjustment

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To summarize, expatriate family adjustment requires a unit-level analysis that considers the family type, the various demands/requirements/needs it has to meet and the various capabilities/supplies it can draw on. The model of family adjustment presented here supports such analysis. To supplement unit-level analysis, it is sometimes necessary to look into the internal dynamics of family functioning. With the help of the model of family adjustment presented here it is possible to home in on the minutiae of the process while keeping the overall picture in mind. An example is crossover and spillover in the adjustment of individual family members: Positive experiences of individual family members represent resources that individuals supply to the family and thus help it fulfil its needs, represented by Correspondence 2 in Figure 3.3. The recalling of a friendly talk with a helpful neighbor may lift the mood at the dinner table at a time when the family needs a boost. Negative experiences of a family member such as a serious cultural misunderstanding at work, in turn, create a need in the affected individual drawing on the family’s capabilities to lend such support as represented by Correspondence 3.

IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE The investigation of expatriate family adjustment has largely been stuck in an individualistic and negative vein, regarding the family as a potential problem for the adjustment and work performance of the expatriate employee. Research cited above has mostly focused on the impact of partner adjustment on that of the expatriate and, to a lesser extent, the reverse impact. There have been studies of partner adjustment and, occasionally, child adjustment (De Leon & McPartlin, 1995; Van der Zee et al., 2007). But there has been hardly anything on the family unit (for an exception, see Caligiuri et al., 1998). Our model and the discussion of the budding positive and unit-level aspects of family adjustment suggest various ways in which the field may develop. The most important avenue for developing our understanding of family adjustment is the changing of attention from individuals to the family as a unit. The theories described earlier individually or in combination as outlined in Figure 3.3 provide useful guidance for analysis at the unit level. Analysis at the unit level is complex because of the dual dynamics of interpersonal interaction and of time. Therefore, the models must be tested in smaller segments first and, if they hold up, in a combination of segments. Each of the three correspondences and the inner workings of different family types constitute testable segments. CM-based analysis of family types under change conditions provides the possibility to open the black box and dig deeper into the detailed dynamics of the family adjustment process. Olson’s (2000) example, cited earlier, analyzed how a family went through a succession of types in response to a serious health issue affecting a family member. This approach could serve as a blueprint for an in-depth analysis of how a family may adjust to a move abroad. Research questions related to CM-type analysis include: what family types are most resilient in international moves? Under what conditions, if any, are unbalanced family types suitable or even at an advantage?

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What are the most likely adjustment trajectories in terms of a succession of family types in international adjustment? What are the most vulnerable stages for families to become unbalanced and what can then be done to support families? How do different factors such as culture, living conditions and so on influence the succession of family types? This type of analysis is probably most suited to qualitative research to capture the rich detail necessary for answering these questions. A second avenue for research is related to Correspondence 1 in Figure 3.3. This will include some of the variables from CM such as communication. The family needs to have the capabilities to meet its needs and demands in the new environment. Some of the questions that are worth pursuing are: how do the family’s needs/ demands change abroad? What are typical stressors, what ongoing strains develop, what daily hassles result from an international relocation? How is this change in needs/demands related to host location specifics such as culture, climate, and so on? What additional capabilities or added tangible and psychosocial resources does a family need abroad? How does this depend on its demographic details such as number and age of children or dual-career status? How do families go about replacing some of the social resources lost because of an international move? What general or specific impact does an international relocation have on family capabilities; does the answer to this vary with family type as defined by the CM? A third line of research could tackle Correspondences 2 and 3 related to individual family members and to the community. One way forward would be to focus either on members or on the community; another might look just at satisfaction or at satisfactoriness. Even narrower would be to look at just one of the four such as satisfaction of the family with the community (an ‘inside’ view), or satisfactoriness of the family to the community (an ‘outside’ view). This is a broad area that provides many questions for investigation. Here are some high-level examples that could be refined further to guide concrete research projects: How do the demands families have of their members change as the result of an international move? What demands do families have of their new communities, and how does this depend on host environment influence? These questions can also link to the family types in the CM. How do the demands of individual family members change due to an international move; are any of these generic changes that occur independent of the specific characteristics of the move; how do the characteristics of the move such as cultural differences, career aspirations of the partner or age of the children influence family member needs? Are there any commonalities in community demands in general or for specific classes of communities defined by, for example, culture or rural/urban setting? The model also supports more focused investigations of further questions that are not specific to it such as: What can organizations do, and what should they do, to support families in dealing with the issues raised by the questions above? Do non-traditional families face different requirements; if so, in what way? And do they have different needs? The questions related to family-type analysis and the different types of satisfaction and satisfactoriness are worthy and relevant research topics in and of themselves. In order to satisfy the needs of international organizations they can all be linked to expa-

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triate work adjustment and performance. This brings us back to the starting point of family adjustment studies, albeit in dialectical fashion at a higher level of refinement, which will hopefully lead to a better understanding. Since adjustment is a process that unfolds over time, there is a need for longitudinal data. The vast majority of adjustment studies have been cross-sectional and almost all state the need for longitudinal research in their research outlook. Hence, we recognize that we are beating an old drum; until that beat finds more followers, the drumming needs to continue. The practice of expatriate assignment management will benefit from a better understanding of family adjustment. If it there is any truth in the long-standing common wisdom that family issues play an important role in international assignments and the challenges related to them, then academia is called upon to provide practitioners with more insights into the how and why as well as with suggestions for viable solutions. The model discussed here points to tools that can be used in expatriate family selection and support (Olson, 1986, 1991, 2000). The model fosters a detailed understanding of how various family types react differently to an international move, how the demands and needs of the involved parties play out in correspondences that result in satisfaction and satisfactoriness. With this detailed knowledge, the management of families’ international relocation can improve and benefit the affected individuals and organizations.

CONCLUSION The field of expatriate studies has, for the most part, treated families as add-ons to international employee adjustment and performance. When the perspective of family members featured on researchers’ agendas it was mostly on an individual basis such as how partner adjustment related to employee outcomes. The model discussed here provides researchers with means to study the expatriate family as a unit and, at the same time, focus on specifics as desired. It draws on important theories and frameworks for understanding families in their environments and integrates them with an emphasis on international relocations. We provide researchers with ideas for research questions to investigate family adjustment in its various aspects. As such, it is the most comprehensive and targeted model of expatriate family adjustment to date. It meets the requirement of parsimony by focusing on the essentials of a complex process. And it meets Popper’s (2002) call for an ever more fine-grained understanding of the world around us. The model is not without limitations. In the introduction we imposed the boundary condition of a concentration on business expatriates as defined by McNulty and Brewster (2017). This focus guided our discussion of examples. The model should be able, though, to support research into other classes of the internationally mobile as listed by McNulty and Brewster. We have not specifically addressed non-Western and non-traditional expatriate families in our model. This could be seen as another boundary condition. But as with other classes of mobile people, the model should be

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able to accommodate research into them as well. Finally, there is the possible limitation of inconsistencies across the frameworks underlying our model. As alluded to in the discussion of the integrated model, some of the constructs in TWA, FAAR and CM are comparable but not necessarily identical. While we have attempted to rule out issues related to this, there remains the possibility that we have overlooked something. Only in the development of detailed hypotheses guiding a specific research project will any residual inconsistencies surface. It is therefore advisable that researchers working with our model also consult the frameworks we used when they specify their constructs and hypotheses.5

NOTES 1. Family dynamics including crossover and work–family conflict will be discussed in the next section. 2. Some of the following models have been described more extensively in our prior publications on the topic. 3. More on this below in the discussion of the circumplex model of marital and family systems. 4. As stated earlier, we will not make a distinction between adjustment and adaptation. 5. The authors acknowledge Chris Brewster’s contribution to an early version of this chapter.

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McNulty, Y. and K. Hutchings (2016), ‘Looking for global talent in all the right places: a critical literature review of non-traditional expatriates’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(7), 699–728. Miyamoto, Y. and N. Kuhlman (2001), ‘Ameliorating culture shock in Japanese expatriate children in the US’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 25(1), 21–40. Nash, D. (1967), ‘The fate of Americans in a Spanish setting: a study in adaptation’, Human Organization, 26(3), 157–63. Nash, D. (1969), ‘The domestic side of a foreign existence’, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 31(3), 574–83. Navas, M., M. C. Garcia, J. Sánchez, A. J. Rojas, P. Pumares and J. S. Fernández (2005), ‘Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM): new contributions with regard to the study of acculturation’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29, 21–37. Navas, M., A. J. Rojas, M. García and P. Pumares (2007), ‘Acculturation strategies and attitudes according to the Relative Acculturation Extended Model (RAEM): the perspectives of natives versus immigrants’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31, 67–86. Newman, J., B. Bhatt and T. Gutteridge (1978), ‘Determinants of expatriate effectiveness: a theoretical and empirical vacuum’, Academy of Management Review, 3(3), 655–61. Odle-Dusseau, H. N., H. A. Herleman, T. W. Britt, D. D. Moore, C. A. Castro and D. McGurk (2013), ‘Family-supportive work environments and psychological strain: a longitudinal test of two theories’, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 18(1), 27–36. Olson, D. H. (1986), ‘Circumplex Model VII: validation studies and FACES III’, Family Process, 25, 337–51. Olson, D. H. (1991), ‘Commentary: three-dimensional (3-D) Circumplex Model and revised scoring of FACES III’, Family Process, 30, 74–9. Olson, D. H. (2000), ‘Circumplex Model of marital and family systems’, Journal of Family Therapy, 22, 144–67. Patterson, J. M. (1988), ‘Families experiencing stress’, Family Systems Medicine, 6(2), 202–37. Patterson, J. M. (2002a), ‘Understanding family resilience’, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58(3), 233–46. Patterson, J. M. (2002b), ‘Integrating family resilience and family stress theory’, Journal of Marriage and the Family, 64, 349–60. Permits Foundation (2022), International Dual Careers Survey Report – Part 2: Feedback from Partners of Highly-Skilled International Employees, The Hague: Permits Foundation. Popper, K. (2002), The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London: Routledge. Schütter, H. and S. Boerner (2013), ‘Illuminating the work-family interface on international assignments: an exploratory approach’, Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, 1(1), 46–71. Schütz, A. (1944), ‘The stranger: an essay in social psychology’, American Journal of Sociology, 49(6), 499–507. Scullion, H. and D. G. Collings (2006), ‘International recruitment and selection’, in H. Scullion and D. G. Collings (eds), Global Staffing, London: Routledge, pp. 59–86. Selmer, J. and A. S. M. Leung (2003), ‘Provision and adequacy of corporate support to male expatriate spouses: an exploratory study’, Personnel Review, 32(1), 9–21. Shaffer, M. A. and D. A. Harrison (2001), ‘Forgotten partners of international assignments: developments and test of a model of spouse adjustment’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(2), 238–54. Shaffer, M. A., D. A. Harrison and K. M. Gilley (1999), ‘Dimensions, determinants, and differences in the expatriate adjustment process’, Journal of International Business Studies, 30(3), 557–81.

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Shaffer, M. A., D. A. Harrison, K. M. Gilley and D. Luk (2001), ‘Struggling for balance amid turbulence on international assignments: work-family conflict, support and commitment’, Journal of Management, 27, 99–121. Shaffer, M. A., D. A. Harrison, D. M. Luk and M. Gilley (2000), ‘Spouse adjustment to international assignments: direct determinants and the moderating effects of coping strategies’, Management Research News, 23(2–4), 29–31. Shih, H.-A., Y.-H. Chiang and C.-C. Hsu (2010), ‘High involvement work system, work– family conflict, and expatriate performance – examining Taiwanese expatriates in China’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(11), 2013–30. Sparrow, P. R. (1999), ‘International recruitment, selection and assessment: whose route map will you follow?’, in P. Joynt and B. Morton (eds), The Global HR Manager: Creating the Seamless Organisation, London: IPD, pp. 87–114. Stahl, G. and R. L. Tung (2015), ‘Towards a more balanced treatment of culture in international business studies: the need for positive cross-cultural scholarship’, Journal of International Business Studies, 49(4), 391–414. Stephens, G. K. and S. Black (1991), ‘The impact of spouse’s career-orientation on managers during international transfers’, Journal of Management, 28(4), 417–28. Taft, R. (1977), Coping with unfamiliar cultures’, in N. E. Warren (ed.), Studies in Cross-Cultural Psychology, London/New York: Academic Press, pp. 121–53. Takeuchi, R. (2010), ‘A critical review of expatriate adjustment research through a multiple stakeholder view: progress, emerging trends and prospects’, Journal of Management, 36, 1–25. Takeuchi, R., S. Yun and P. E. Tesluk (2002), ‘An examination of crossover and spillover effects of spousal and expatriate cross-cultural adjustment on expatriate outcomes’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 655–66. Tanu, D. (2018), Growing up in Transit: The Politics of Belonging at an International School, Kindle Ebo, New York: Berghahn Books. Toh, S. M. and A. S. DeNisi (2005), ‘A local perspective to expatriate success’, The Academy of Management Executive, 19(1), 132–46. Torbiörn, I. (1982), Living Abroad, Chichester: Wiley & Sons. Tung, R. L. (1981), ‘Selection and training of personnel for overseas assignments’, Columbia Journal of World Business, 16(1), 68–78. Tung, R. L. (1982), ‘Selection and training procedures of U.S., European, and Japanese multinationals’, California Management Review, 25(1), 57–71. Tung, R. L. (1984), ‘Strategic management of human resources in the multinational enterprise’, Human Resource Management, 23(2), 129–43. Tung, R. L. (1987), ‘Expatriate assignments: enhancing success and minimizing failure’, Academy of Management Executive, 1(2), 117–26. Van der Zee, K. I., A. J. Ali and I. Haaksma (2007), ‘Determinants of effective coping with cultural transition among expatriate children and adolescents’, Anxiety, Stress, & Coping – An International Journal, 20(1), 25–45. Van der Zee, K. I., A. J. Ali and E. Salomé (2005), ‘Role interference and subjective well-being among expatriate families’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 14(3), 239–62. van Erp, K. J. P. M., E. Giebels, K. I. Van der Zee and M. A. J. van Duijn (2011), ‘Let it be: expatriate couples’ adjustment and the upside of avoiding conflicts’, Anxiety, Stress, & Coping – An International Journal, 24(5), 539–60. van Erp, K. J. P. M., K. I. Van der Zee, E. Giebels and M. A. J. van Duijn (2014), ‘Lean on me: the importance of one’s own and partner’s intercultural personality for expatriate’s and expatriate spouse’s successful adjustment abroad’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 23(5), 706–28.

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4. The trailing spouse: an evolving global phenomenon Yvonne Kallane and Betty Jane Punnett

INTRODUCTION Relocation is a difficult business at best – full of heartbreak and laced with human problems that go to the very nature of urban life. Millspaugh (1961), p. 6 It is a lonely way to live as we are left to reinvent ourselves and our children after every relocation. It’s exhausting and unrewarding. I regret my life. McNulty (2012), p. 428

Whenever people move for their work, whether for business, for government, for the military, for the church, for sport, and so on, or for other reasons, there is a question of the impact of the move on their families. This chapter focuses on a particular aspect of the family – the so-called ‘trailing spouse’; that is, the spouse that is following, or ‘trailing’, their partner but whose own job or career is not the reason for relocating. The trailing spouse phenomenon has existed from the time when married people have been in employment. Most married couples have always needed at least one spouse to earn an income outside the home in order for the couple to live, have children and (hopefully) prosper (Blood and Wolfe, 1960; Blumstein and Schwartz, 1983). In the earliest days, history is full of stories of couples who often spent months, years or decades apart while he earned a living for the family as (for example) a soldier while she remained in their hometown to raise children and to earn an income inside the home producing goods and services for the family and townsfolk (Morton, 2004; Oeffinger, 2002). Diplomats and statesmen endured a similar fate; John Adams, the second president of the United States, spent a decade abroad from 1778 to 1788 as a European ambassador, while his wife, Abigail, remained in Massachusetts to raise their six children (Ferling, 1992). History illustrates the subservient role that wives assumed for the sake of their husband’s absences for work (which many still do today; Morrice, Taylor, Clark and McCann, 1985; Riggs and Cosgrove, 1994; Ulven, Omdal, Herlov-Nielsen, Irgens and Dahl, 2007). Some privileged colonialists overcame the woes of family separation through long-term sojourns abroad with their non-working wives, being sent overseas as powerful emissaries and missionaries by their governments and churches of origin (Chaudhuri, 1988; Chaudhuri and Strobel, 1992; Fechter, 2010) and their wives adopting dedicated and unpaid compliance to the ‘cause’ (Callan and Ardener, 1984). The central point here is that for as long as couples have been partnered and married, decisions as to whose career or job will ‘take priority’ has always been on the table. 72

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While the idea of the trailing spouse has been around for centuries, the concept only came into focus in academic research with the post-World War II increase in married women’s involvement in paid employment and the emergence of careers of their own (Hood, 1983; Huber and Spitze, 1981; Oppenheimer, 1994; Reynolds and Bennett, 1991; Silberstein, 1992; Wilkie, 1991). Of particular concern at this time was that wives’ employment disrupted the entrenched gender boundary of husbands as breadwinners, thus contributing to an increase in divorce (Cherlin, 1992; Heckert, Nowak and Snyder, 1998; Ruggles, 1997). Greenstein (1990) did not find this to be the case, noting in his longitudinal study of data from a large sample of American married women that it was not income, but the number of hours women worked per week, that contributed to marital stress. Potucheck (1992) similarly found in her study of 153 women in dual-earner couples that wives’ breadwinner orientation resulted less from husbands’ being forced to relinquish it due to their wives’ higher income than it did from a pervasive weakening of societal norms to maintain separate gender-roles within marriage (see Rogers, 1999; Sayer and Bianchi, 2000; Thornton, 1989). With women’s increased participation in the labour force came an increased need for people to relocate domestically for their work; that is, to move within their country of origin/residence (Eby, 2001; Polegato and Barras, 1984). Studies of corporate, manufacturing and industrial employment in the UK, Europe and the United States show that relocation drivers at the time included the desire for employment security arising from increasing rates of local unemployment, better graduate recruitment opportunities, the wholesale relocation of entire workforces by companies to more favourable (profitable) economic jurisdictions, and initiatives by governments to stimulate rural and regional industrial development (Clout, 1970; Gordon and McCorry, 1957; Mann, 1973; Meyerhoff, 1967; Schnitzer, 1971). This trend opened up new areas of research that looked at the impact of relocating on workers and their families including the impact of social uprootedness (Brett, 1982; Lawson, 1994; Munton, 1990; Myers, 1977; Olive, Kelsey, Visser and Daly, 1976) and employment concerns (Spitze, 1986; Stringer-Moore, 1981), particularly for those who had little choice about the move for reasons such as family (marriage) commitment, gender-role norms, occupational advancement, and economic concerns (Abrams, 1968; Bielby and Bielby, 1992; Frame and Shehan, 1994; Gaylord, 1979; Gaylord and Symons, 1986; Makowsky, Cook, Berger and Powell, 1988; McKain, 1973; Rothstein, 1953). Scholarly work about the impact of domestic relocation on the job transferee’s wife thus became the impetus for what would eventually evolve into a new academic focus on ‘the trailing spouse’. Studies at this time (i.e. Gullotta and Donohue 1983; Imundo, 1974; Munton and Forster, 1990) found that after relocation, wives experienced more than just the expected stresses of setting up a new home, finding good schools for their children, making new friends, and finding something meaningful to fill their day. Rather, relocating had a much more profound effect on (trailing) wives emotional and psychological health (compared to ‘working’ husbands) in terms of loneliness and depression (Frame, 1998; Martin, 1996; McEnery and Kulick, 1991; Viney and

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Brazeley 1977; Weissman and Pavkel, 1972). Three new research themes emerged: (i) the central role of wives in the ‘success’ of job transfers (Fisher and Shaw, 1994; Jones, 1973; Pinder, 1977; Seidenberg, 1973); (ii) the need for company support to address wives’ ‘life crisis’ emerging from unacknowledged relocation grief, loss and separation in response to complex change (Ammons, Nelson and Wodarski, 1982; Brett and Reilly, 1988; Fields and Shaw, 1985; Hausman and Reed, 1991; Puskar, 1990; Shepard, 1997); and (iii) understanding the reasons for willingness/refusal to relocate, including ties to extended family, concerns for children’s well-being, and dual-career issues (Haight, 1983; Magnus and Dodd, 1981; Markham and Pleck, 1986; Stroh and Brett, 1990; Tallon, 1979). Generally, few of these early studies attempted to define what was meant by the term ‘trailing spouse,’ other than an implicit understanding that job relocations were undertaken by married heterosexual couples, often with children; most wives did not work before relocating and those that did gave up employment in order to relocate for their husbands, thus wives’ satisfaction with the relocation appeared to have some impact on the success of the move. Decades of research since these early studies shows that the trailing spouse concept is not only complex but continually evolving, not just within geographical borders but outside them. While domestic relocations will always outnumber other types of moves, international relocations for work are increasing, which brings us to the focus of this Handbook (global families), and this chapter in particular. Today more than ever, people are on the move around the globe, crossing international borders for work. While there have been anti-globalization events in recent years, such as Britain’s vote to exit the European Union in 2016 (Brexit) and the USA’s election of Donald Trump as a ‘protectionist’ president in the same year, the world is such today that it is difficult, if not impossible, to stop the global movement of people for work (Castles and Miller, 2009). Around 3.3 per cent of the world’s total population (about 244 million people) live and work abroad according to estimates (OECD, 2017; IOM, 2017), more than at any time in history. Approximately 70 per cent of all internationally mobile people are of working age (20–59 years) and every second person is a woman (UNPD, 2018). These estimates include people at all levels, from manual labourers and household helpers in the low-status category, to top managers and chief executive officers (CEOs) at the other extreme (McNulty and Brewster, 2019, 2020). There are people moving for work, for charitable and volunteer purposes, for religious reasons, for sport, for adventure, and so on; movements may be on behalf of private and public organizations, non-governmental and non-profit organizations, religious and charitable ones, among others, as well as for purely personal reasons (McNulty and Selmer, 2017). Clearly, just as for the worker, the trailing spouse covers a wide range of people, from those choosing to go abroad (Vance and McNulty, 2014) to those whose moves are non-negotiable, for example, with the military (e.g. Bellou and Gkousgkounis, 2015), to those left behind who do not go at all (see Cho and Allen, 2019; Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume). For the purposes of this chapter, we will focus only on relocation situations where a couple moves internationally, as that is where the majority of the literature on the

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trailing spouse (to date) has its focus (e.g. Lazarova, McNulty and Semeniuk, 2015; Lazarova, Westman and Shaffer, 2010; McNulty, 2012; Takeuchi, Yun and Tesluk, 2002; Wan, Singh and Shaffer, 2017), meaning that couples in which one spouse does not relocate with their partner will not be specifically included in our discussion (for a detailed discussion of these family arrangements, see Hutchings and Kallane, Chapter 13, this volume). Our reason for excluding them is that stay-behind spouses are often not ‘trailing spouses’ in the truest sense of the term because their decision not to relocate is precisely to avoid becoming the trailing partner. The chapter will consider predominantly ‘traditional’ spouses, that is, women whose husbands are offered an international job relocation by a company or who self-initiate an international work arrangement on behalf of the couple and/or family. While we examine other types of gendered trailing spouse arrangements (men, and for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people), for ease of discussion the lens through which we discuss the trailing spouse is the traditional paradigm as that is where the numbers are. The latest estimates show that of the more than 8.5 million corporate international relocations worldwide (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021), 68 per cent involve people that are married, and the majority are accompanied abroad by their spouse.1 As the vast majority of people sent abroad for their work are still men,2 the traditional trailing spouse is thus a woman accompanying her husband. This is in contrast, however, to Betty Jane’s international relocation story two decades ago (recounted below). I took a position at the University of the West Indies in the late 1990s. When my husband and I arrived in Jamaica, ‘Professor Punnett’ received a letter welcoming him and suggesting that his wife would like to join the ‘Faculty Wives Club’. No one had even considered that ‘Professor Punnett’ might actually be female and that there could be an accompanying husband. (Betty Jane Punnett)

This chapter reviews the literature about the trailing spouse in the context of international relocations for work from the perspective of expatriation, and to a lesser extent migration. The focus on expatriation (rather than migration) is deliberate, given it is where the majority of the literature has been positioned and published (see Shaffer and Westman, 2015; Wan, Singh and Shaffer, 2017), with some notable exceptions (see, as an example, Ramboarison-Lalao, Madanamoothoo, Cerdin and Brewster, Chapter 6, this volume). The chapter begins by defining key terms, and goes on to consider the evolving research about the trailing spouse phenomenon in international relocations over 50 years. We then extensively review key themes in trailing spouse scholarship related to trailing spouse adjustment and support, LGBT and male trailing spouses, dual-career contexts, trailing spouses in missions/clergy and military contexts, and the diversity of trailing spouses across race, ethnicity and religion. We conclude with a comprehensive future research agenda to take the research about this topic into the next decade.

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DEFINING KEY TERMS For the purposes of this chapter, an international relocation for work is one in which the people going abroad do so by crossing a sovereign border that requires, amongst other things, applying for a work visa for themselves (and if applicable, their spouse) as well as a residency permit for all accompanying family members, in order for them to temporarily (and legally) enter, live and work in a new country (McNulty and Brewster, 2019). By the nature of their move, these people are expatriates. Expatriates are defined as ‘legally working individuals who reside temporarily in a country of which they are not a citizen’ (McNulty and Brewster, 2017a, p. 46). Migrants, on the other hand, are people who leave their home country on a longer-term to permanent basis in order to live and work abroad, most with the specific intent of attaining citizenship of, and settling in, a new country (Al Ariss and Crowley-Henry, 2013; Iredale, 2001). While in principle the distinction between expatriates and migrants is clear (i.e. temporariness versus relative permanency of their stay), there is some fungibility in practice, meaning that some expatriates might become citizens and some migrants could return to their home country (McNulty and Brewster, 2017b, 2020). Spouses are partner(s) of the expatriate, which includes married, de-facto, live-in, and long-term partners of the opposite or same-sex (McNulty and Hutchings, 2016; see also Titshaw, 2016). Definitions of ‘spouse’ in prior studies have tended to assume the relationship is heterosexual, although rarely stated. The definition used here implies an adult relationship that is more encompassing than the restricted definition of a legally married breadwinner husband and non-employed supporting wife of a different gender (Harvey, 1998; Rothausen, 1999), to instead include female breadwinners, unmarried couples, and lesbian and gay partnerships, amongst other variations (McNulty, 2014, 2015a). Couples thus constitute a range of different forms built from strong relationships (see Franklin, 1990). The definition we use has been supported by the relocation literature for over a decade; ORC Worldwide (2008) reported that the most prevalent definition of ‘spouse’ used by many companies (38 per cent) included a married, long-term or live-in partner of the opposite or same sex (see also Lingard and Francis, 2005). KPMG (2017) similarly found that over half of the participants in their bi-annual survey of companies include opposite-gender unmarried partners and nearly half include same-gender unmarried partners for the purposes of determining relocation-related benefits (see Mercer 2017 for similar findings). It must be noted, however, that, in most cases, the literature simply refers to ‘spouse’ generically and does not specify the gender or other characteristics of the spouse. On this basis, a trailing spouse is defined as, the partner for whom an international assignment or work experience is not offered given that one spouse’s job typically provides the opportunity to relocate internationally whereas the other’s does not. (McNulty and Moeller, 2018, p. 259)

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The term ‘trailing spouse’ is often eschewed as derogatory and insulting, and as implying a lack of agency in the decision to relocate abroad (see Bruegel, 1996; Gripenburg, Niemisto and Alapeteri, 2013; McNulty, 2012), with a subsequent submissive and passive role in one’s family life and decisions while there (Fechter, 2010; Tremayne, 1984; Walsh, 2007). As we will show, this is sometimes the case but not always, with important differences emerging across cultures and communities (e.g. Mutter, 2017; Van Bochove and Engbersen, 2015; Van der Klis and Mulder, 2008; see also Brook and Ditchburn, Chapter 14, this volume). For this reason, alternative terms such as ‘trailing partner’ and ‘accompanying spouse/partner’ have been adopted in some of the literature (Shaffer and Harrison, 2001; Lauring and Selmer, 2010; Cole, 2012). Just as for expatriates, the issues, challenges and opportunities for trailing spouses can be equally applied to migrant spouses with only subtle differences (e.g. DeLaet, 1999; Geist and McManus, 2012), which are noted as we go along (see Ramboarison-Lalao et al., Chapter 6, this volume; Uebel, Chapter 7, this volume). It is also noteworthy that some of the challenges that are experienced by internationally-relocating spouses have, as shown above, also been experienced by those relocating domestically; however, it is expected that for international moves the challenges of the trailing spouse are likely to be greater than for domestic moves, particularly where there are cultural, social or legal constraints in some foreign locations (Hutchings and Michailova, 2017; McNulty, 2012; McPhail and McNulty, 2015).

AN EVOLVING HISTORY OF THE TRAILING SPOUSE PHENOMENON The early literature on international relocations since the 1950s concentrated on non-corporate job transferees (without much focus on their families; McNulty and Selmer, 2017) and included missionaries, international aid workers, government officials, and military personnel (Campbell, 1969; Gordon, 1967; Lanier, 1979; Taylor, 1968; Thompson, 1959). The research eventually shifted to business and corporate transferees (Gonazales and Negandhi, 1967; Hays, 1974; Hodgson, 1963; Illman, 1980; Miller, 1972; Rehfuss, 1982; Sieveking, Ancho and Marston, 1981; Stone, 1986; Torbiorn, 1982; Trimmer, 1980; Zeira and Harari, 1979), and from there it gradually moved from focusing only on the ‘primary’ partner (the working/ employed spouse) to include the trailing spouse and other family members (Black and Stephens, 1989; Harvey, 1985; Howard, 1980; Thompson, 1986; Tung, 1986). The underlying assumption in much of this early literature was that the spouse was a wife who would not work outside the home and who would take on the main domestic responsibility abroad for looking after the family, acting as a hostess for her husband’s clients, and raising children (Howard, 1980; Fowlkes, 1987). This view stemmed from the gendered legacy norms of colonialism a century earlier (see Fechter, 2010), describing the ‘traditional’ family as one in which the husband was the primary breadwinner for whom a career was deemed essential, and the wife was

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the homemaker and caregiver, for whom a career was seen as optional. It meant that wives were deliberately excluded (and often still are today) from the local, typically poorer communities in which they lived (van Leeuwen, 1997), and thus perceived by the locals as racist, snobby and having ‘a pervading aura of superiority’ because they did not (have to) work and did not connect meaningfully with local life (Callaway, 1987; Gartrell, 1984; Knight, 2001). Much of the past literature has focused on women/wives as trailing spouses, particularly in high-status expatriation, because reports (still) show that men dominate the internationally relocating talent pool (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021). Similar to the findings of studies about domestic relocation, several early themes quickly emerged in the expatriate literature to highlight the central role of the trailing spouse in the success of international relocations. The most striking was the implication that because the costs of international relocation far exceeded those that were domestic in nature, they were more important to ‘get right’ (Harvey, 1985; Howard, 1980; Steinmetz, 1965). It means that failed international relocations, especially those due to wives’ lack of adjustment to the new location which then impacted on the working spouse’s job performance (see Black, Mendenhall and Oddou, 1991; Shaffer, Harrison and Gilley, 1999), were to be avoided (e.g. Arthur and Bennett, 1995; Sullivan and Tu, 1993; Thompson, 1986; Volard, Francis and Wagner, 1988). These rates of failure were considered, at the time, to be relatively high.3 From this perspective, the earliest studies about the trailing spouse’s role in international relocations (e.g. Noer, 1975; Mendenhall, Dunbar and Oddou, 1987; Steinmetz, 1965; Tung, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987) focused on minimizing failed relocations through better selection and training processes that included the spouse (also see Harrison, 1994; Porter and Tansky, 1999; Simeon and Fujiu, 2000; Thornton and Thornton, 1995). In the earliest theorizing about spousal impact, Nasif, Mobley and Reynolds (1983) interviewed 28 expatriates in Turkey to develop a definition and model of expatriate success, finding that realistic predeparture expectations and personal characteristics of the expatriate that includes family considerations (stability, adaptability, etc.) were among the best predictors of satisfactory expatriate job performance. In a precursor to what was to come over the next several decades, when expatriates were asked about the major problems they had in Turkey and what was keeping them from being more successful, they stated in rank order of frequency and importance that family related problems topped the list. It included major problems with children’s schooling and family adjustment to local conditions. In similar work, Black and Stephens (1989), looking at American expatriates in the Pacific Rim, found a significant correlation between the adjustment of the spouse and that of the expatriate, and spouse and expatriate adjustment were positively related to intentions to stay. This then avoided ‘premature return’ which, at the time, was classified as a failed relocation (Baker and Ivancevich, 1971; Black, 1988; Fukuda and Chu, 1994; Punnett, 1997). Premature return was found to be directly influenced by the psychological impact of the relocation on partner and family cohesiveness and adaptability (Black and Gregersen, 1991; Briody and Chrisman, 1991; De Cieri, Dowling and Taylor, 1991).

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Theoretical work emerged with a strong focus on understanding the relationship between family adjustment and the leading spouse’s adjustment (e.g. Aryee and Stone, 1996; Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998; Nicholson and Imaizumi, 1993; Stroh, Dennis and Cramer, 1994), which led to a new stream of research grounded in theories of family to work spillover (Bedeian, Burke and Moffett, 1988; Crouter, 1984), family systems theory (Caliguiri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998; Voydanoff 1980), identity theory (Shaffer and Harrison, 2001), and psychological and sociocultural adjustment (Searle and Ward, 1990; Ward and Kennedy, 1999; see also Haslberger and Hippler, Chapter 3, this volume). Central to this work was the integration of the expatriate adjustment and employee turnover literatures to identify antecedents of expatriates’ intentions to quit (e.g. Birdseye and Hill, 1995; Gregersen and Black, 1990; Naumann, 1992, 1993). Shaffer and Harrison (1998), in a matched sample study of 452 expatriates and 224 spouses, developed a model that found support for the influence of non-work satisfaction and several family context variables (i.e. family responsibility, spouse adjustment, spouse overall satisfaction, and living conditions) on decisions of expatriates to quit their assignments. Subsequent studies found that spillover and crossover impacts between expatriate employees and trailing spouses can be a significant source of either support or stress for expatriate employees during international relocations (Ali, Van der Zee and Saunders, 2003; Hechanova, Beehr and Christiansen, 2003; Konopaske, Robie and Ivancevich, 2005, 2009; Kraimer, Wayne and Jaworski, 2001; Lazarova, Westman and Shaffer, 2010; Takeuchi, Yun and Tesluk, 2002). This resulted in a considerable body of literature examining spousal willingness to go as a major barrier to companies’ internationalization and global staffing efforts (Aryee, Chay and Chew, 1996; Black, Gregersen, Mendenhall and Stroh, 1999; Borstorff, Harris, Field and Giles, 1997; Brett and Stroh, 1995; Brett, Stroh and Reilly, 1993; Frye, 1991; Larson, 2006; Lê, Tissington and Budhwar, 2010; Noe, Steffy and Barber, 1988; Stroh, 1999; Tharenou, 2008), and whether and how family flexibility is correlated with cross-cultural adjustment dimensions (cultural, psychological, organizational, personal and relational) for all family members including the working expatriate (Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012). Two studies utilizing the family systems approach (Caliguiri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998; Creed, 2006) provided strong evidence that family characteristics can mediate the expatriate family’s adjustment process. The success and failure role of the trailing spouse in the expatriate literature has been a focus in the intervening years (e.g. Gupta, Banerjee and Gaur, 2012; van der Velde, Bossink and Jansen, 2005), with some attention also being paid to the family more generally (Andreason, 2003; Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shaffer and Luk, 2005; Takeuchi, 2010; van Erp, Giebels, van der Zee and van Duijin, 2011b). This focus continues today (Chen and Shaffer, 2018; Erogul and Rahman, 2017; Lämsä, Heikkinen, Smith and Tornikoski, 2016; Haslberger and Brewster, 2008; Schütter and Boerner, 2013); however, it has broadened to include other spousal/family factors such as prior international experience, the nature (positive or negative) of these experiences, cultural values and distance, personal characteristics, and skills (for example, introversion, extroversion, adaptability, stress tolerance, relational

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abilities), age of the spouse, marital stress, and family support (Brown, 2008; Erogul and Rahman, 2017; Lin, Lu and Lin, 2012; McNulty, 2015b; Mohr and Klein, 2004; Slobodin, 2019).

RESEARCH THEMES IN TRAILING SPOUSE SCHOLARSHIP In the sections that follow, we expand on the above to illustrate major themes in trailing spouse scholarship to date, including directions for future research. Trailing Spouse Adjustment As discussed earlier, the international relocation literature has been consistent in establishing a relationship between the trailing spouse’s ability to adjust and adapt to the foreign location and the ‘failure’ of the assignment or work arrangement. Selmer (2017) found that ‘adjustment’ was by far the major theme in the early literature on expatriates, which includes studies of trailing spouses. While an estimation of the costs of failed relocations remains vague (see, as an example, Kraimer, Shaffer and Bolino, 2009 cited in Lin, Lu and Lin, 2012), McNulty, De Cieri and Hutchings (2013) nonetheless make the important point that any financial and/or non-financial loss to a company resulting from a failed relocation is to be avoided. Trailing spouse adjustment has been used interchangeably with the terms ‘adaptation’ and ‘acculturation’ to mean the same thing and in general refers to the degree of a spouse’s psychological comfort with an international relocation including various elements of the host-country; successful spouse adjustment implies that comparatively better adjusted spouses feel psychologically more comfortable than less adjusted spouses with correspondingly positive impacts on family-work crossover and spillover with working expatriates. The problem of trailing spouse adjustment is linked to the undeniable fact that international relocations are harder on the spouse than the working expatriate, resulting in outcomes that include boredom, loneliness, frustration, anxiety, and depression (Adler, 1991; Bikos et al., 2007). Reasons for this are varied but essentially come down to the spouse needing to deal with significant issues such as a stifled career, family life disruptions, and often a lack of adequate preparation for the move. Surviving the experience means having to cope with long-term separation from other family members, while trying to establish ‘a meaningful portable life’ (p. 272) in an environment where they have lost the structure, familiarity and continuity of their prior existence (see also Fish and Wood, 1997). Researchers and practitioners have continued to consider selection and training for international relocations as key aspects contributing to the spouse’s ability to adjust once in the new location (Davies, Kraeh and Froese, 2015; Punnett, 2013; Webber and Vögel, 2019). Studies have examined the selection process not just of the expatriate, but for the spouse and family, and generally concluded that they should

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be included, essentially finding that the family needs to be fully embedded in the decision to relocate (Cho, Hutchings and Marchant, 2013). (Un)willingness to relocate remains a key barrier to mobility for most companies (Baldridge, Eddleston and Veiga, 2006; Kim and Froese, 2012; Van der Velde, Jansen, Bal and van Erp, 2017), with acceptance rates declining mostly for family reasons (Mol, Born, Willemsen, van der Molen and Derous, 2009; Wan, Hui and Tiang, 2003). The link between adjustment and willingness to go is obvious: the more positive a (potential) trailing spouse’s attitude towards an international relocation, the more willing the employee is to accept it on the basis that spouses can mutually influence each other’s willingness (Eby and Russell, 2000; Tharenou, 2008.) Training is just as important; Bauer and Taylor (2001) and Hill (2015) consider cultural, language, and practical training to be essential for the trailing spouse’s successful adjustment abroad. Yet, the incidence of training for expatriates remains low (30 per cent) and lower still for spouses (Erogul and Rahman, 2017). One reason given is the increased use of software and online cross-cultural training (Mendenhall and Stahl, 2000); Cho et al. (2013) reported that Korean firms believe that traditional expatriate training and mentoring are no longer necessary because of advances in technology that allows prospective job-transferees to access online training in their own time. Beyond the practicalities associated with international relocations (e.g. Wagner and Westaby, 2009), there is a strong argument to be made about the link between the trailing spouse’s overall well-being and their ability to successfully adjust in the new location. Scholars have looked at this issue seriously and considered it from several angles. Adler (1991) asserts that re-establishing a new identity in the host location is critical; doing so requires a considerable amount of personal initiative related to knowing oneself, knowing what one wants from life, taking responsibility for creating something for themselves, and perseverance and patience (see McNulty and Moeller, 2018 for similar ideas in the dual-career context). The research by Shaffer and colleagues has been pivotal in expanding theoretical understanding of trailing spouse identity and its central role in spouse and expatriate adjustment. In a study of 221 international assignee couples working in 37 countries, Shaffer and Harrison (2001) found that identity disruption theory explained problems with trailing spouse adjustment; disruptions in spouse’s perceived meanings of their new role and environment interrupted their identity process in terms of the meaning of roles that had previously defined who they are. Some disruptions can be more extreme than others, ranging from less clarity about family roles and functions, to a sudden loss of essential social functions that help to maintain a stable identity (belonging, professional achievements), to needing to form a completely reimagined identity as a result of a significant change in status (e.g. from paid employee to unpaid housewife). Social identification (being part of a larger collective) and situational identification (with other expatriate spouses) were both found to be helpful in identity reconstruction and to explain identity-based antecedents of spouse adjustment, such as confidence and self-efficacy. The importance of Shaffer’s research cannot be overstated; the inductive development of a model of spouse adjustment and an empirical examination of

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important identity-based relationships laid the groundwork for years to come for an evolving picture about the process of spouse adjustment (e.g. Lazarova et al., 2010; Takeuchi et al., 2002; Takeuchi, Lepak, Marinova and Yun, 2007). Van Erp, Giebels, van der Zee and van Duijn (2011a) examined the influence of perceived justice and conflict in relation to the decision to relocate on the adjustment of 103 expatriate couples, finding that personal conflict negatively affected both partners’ psychological adjustment in the new location. Van der Velde et al. (2017), in a matched sample study of 226 professional employees and their spouses in a multinational Anglo-Dutch company, showed that the strongest predictors of employee willingness to go resides with spouses and the relevance of their careers and partner roles within the relationship (‘being a careerist’ vs ‘being a partner’). In a related study, Herleman, Britt and Hashima (2008) examined how to increase trailing spouses’ adjustment from an occupational health perspective by looking at the link between stress and various success outcomes (satisfaction, adjustment, and well-being). They found that stress was not only highly related to all success outcomes but that a new stressor-outcome relationship was found in the construct of Ibasho, an important concept in the Japanese culture, which is defined as a sense of comfort and psychological security that a person feels in specific locations they regularly visit. Their analysis suggests that higher levels of Ibasho can predict lower levels of depression among spouses as well as lower levels of feeling overwhelmed with stress. Studies across other communities have similarly looked at trailing spouses’ depression and anxiety as antecedents of spouse adjustment abroad (e.g. Puskar, 1990). Trailing Spouse Support The role of on-going support during an international relocation has emerged over time as a critical factor in trailing spouse adjustment. Early research showed that spouses received little support before going abroad nor once they arrived in the new location (e.g. Black et al., 1999; Fontaine, 1996; Pellico and Stroh, 1997), being left to their own devices to ‘sink or swim’ and which continues to be a problem that exists today (Erogul and Rahman, 2017; Wilkinson and Singh, 2010). Copeland and Norell (2002) in their study of 194 trailing spouses found that women with higher adjustment compared with those with lower adjustment were in more cohesive families, felt fewer losses in friendship networks, had their social support needs adequately met, and received more of their social support from local rather than long-distance sources. McNulty (2012) found in her study of 264 trailing spouses that professional and social support were highly valued by trailing spouses as assisting with their identity re-construction and, in turn, their adjustment. However, both types of support were lacking. Although practical support was offered almost without exception, it was also frequently criticized as irrelevant or outdated. Kupka and colleagues report similar findings in their study of German trailing spouses, noting a severe lack of support on the part of German companies to help them find employment either during or after the relocation and with little effort to facilitate the

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re-creation of social support networks in the host location (Kupka and Phillips, 2007; Kupka, Everett and Cathro, 2008). Tellingly, Ramos, Mustafa and Haddad (2017) found that spouses rely mainly on family, friends, and significant others for social support. While support mechanisms such as ‘wives clubs’ (like the faculty wives club at the University of the West Indies) can be effective, these are only helpful to traditional spouses, being less relevant to, for example, male or gay spouses (Cole, 2012; McPhail et al., 2016). Companies have extensive networks themselves, in terms of suppliers, markets, banks, lawyers, and so on; this network can be useful to trailing spouses, particularly if they are seeking paid work or volunteer opportunities (Albright, Chu and Austin, 1993; Känsälä, Mäkelä and Suutari, 2015; Punnett, 1997). Formal support systems also come into play when it is time for the family to return home or repatriate (see Howe-Walsh and Torka, 2017; Maybarduk, 2008). Repatriation has been described as similar to expatriation in terms of culture shock and adjustment (Lazarova and Cerdin, 2007), but is an area that is largely ignored by companies, particularly with the rapid increase in self-initiated expatriation (see McNulty and Brewster, 2019; Selmer, Andresen and Cerdin, 2017). There is some literature on the repatriation process for the employee and knowledge transfer when they return home (Burmeister and Deller, 2016; Chiang, van Esch, Birtch and Shaffer, 2018; Lazarova and Cerdin, 2007; Lazarova and Tarique, 2005; Reiche, 2012); however, little attention has focused on the trailing spouse and their needs after return (particularly employment; Hammer, Hart and Rogan, 1998; Kierner and Suutari, 2017). Male Trailing Spouses In the 1980s, as the literature about trailing spouses gained momentum, Adler (1979, 1984a, 1984b, 1987) raised issues regarding women as expatriates and husbands as male trailing spouses (see also Izraeli, Banai and Zeira, 1980). At that time, women accounted for only about 3 per cent of expatriates who relocated abroad for their job (GMAC, NTFC and SHRM Global, 2004), a not surprising statistic given that women are (still) a relatively small percentage of management globally (Bullough, Moore and Kalafatoglu, 2017), meaning that the male trailing spouse population was, at that time, equally small. Over time, however, this number has grown as companies found it crucial to enlarge the expatriate candidate pool. Tungli and Peiperi (2009) reported that approximately 7 per cent of expatriates were women in their sample of four countries (Germany, Japan, the US and the UK) with the US having the highest (at 11 per cent) and Japan the lowest (at 0.4 per cent). More recently, it has been reported that women account for around one fifth (20 per cent) of the expatriate population (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021), and this has changed very little over the past decade, suggesting that while women’s participation is increasing (Janssens, Cappellen and Zanoni, 2006; Linehan, 2002; Punnett, 2016), it will likely remain at this level indefinitely (Shortland, 2014). Notably, although approximately 20 per cent of expatriate employees globally are now women, only one third have

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a male accompanying spouse (the rest are single or in same-sex relationships; Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2014; Cartus, 2014). While women are still a relatively small percentage of leading spouses overall, the cohort of male trailing spouses accompanying them constitutes a large enough population today to warrant attention and for all the same reasons as for female trailing spouses: to improve work–family adjustment for the lead expatriate and to reduce the barriers to mobility.4 For men, however, there are additional challenges associated with gender stigmatization and social isolation as husbands (Anderson, 2001; Harris, 2004; Westwood and Leung, 1994). Social role theory helps to explain that men are likely to have more problems in adapting to the interruption in their professional careers compared to women because, even with a loss of breadwinner status or income, females with children still retain their gendered mother identity (see Eagly and Wood, 2012). Drawing on social role theory, Cole (2012) found that the interactional and cultural adaptation of career-oriented male trailing spouses who encountered interruptions to their work identity was significantly lower than that for female trailing spouses who were also career-orientated. Cole (2012) also found that male spouses were particularly interested in social support; they wanted more active networking activities and felt that employment assistance was more valuable to them than their female counterparts (see also Selmer and Leung, 2003; Shortland, 2020). Many also emphasize the important back-up support role they play in their wives’ careers, demonstrating that they can be comfortable as part of a female-breadwinner family (e.g. Davoine, Ravasi, Salamin and Cudré-Mauroux, 2013; Haslberger, 2010). Adler’s research on women expatriates made people aware that women could function as effective executives in foreign locations, and that American women were interested in such postings; however, the focus at that time was on the women themselves and not their trailing spouse husbands (Caligiuri, Joshi and Lazarova, 1999). Selmer and Leung (2003) noted that there had been surprisingly little research about this group of spouses and that companies generally do not provide adequate support for them. In the early 1990s, Punnett, Crocker and Stevens (1992) addressed this shortcoming by studying a group of Canadian foreign service women with male trailing spouses. They found that male trailing spouses required more support, particularly in helping them to identify productive activities. Interestingly, these male spouses also said that the activities that they undertook on behalf of their wives’ employer were not adequately appreciated. In another study, Punnett (1997) identified ‘realistic expectations’ and ‘adequate preparation’ as the most important coping mechanism for male trailing spouses. Male spouses who did not adjust well found that their social isolation was aggravated by the loss of status related to a breadwinner role, sometimes being associated with lower self-esteem and confidence. Those that adjusted well were adequately informed beforehand of the reality of the situation they would encounter, and they had made clear plans for dealing with it. Preparation usually included making contacts in the international location and identifying productive activities for themselves. Companies assisted with these contacts through their networks. Even those male trailing spouses who had a successful and productive relocation often talked of the

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stresses associated with being the male trailing partner. One interviewee who spent a lot of time with the other spouses (all women), because they all had children, found that the working expatriate husbands of those women became suspicious as to why he was socializing with their wives. One interview with a woman, then divorced, has always stayed with me. Her husband was a well-established surgeon who chose to accompany her on her foreign assignment. Due to work permit restrictions, he could only work at the Embassy as a chauffeur, and this was extremely demoralizing for him. She said, essentially, that to make up for his sense of emasculation, he slept with all the wives he could find. It led, not surprisingly, to their divorce and provided a concrete and disturbing example of the challenges for male trailing spouses, and the potential consequences for families. (Betty Jane Punnett)

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Trailing Spouses More recently, attention has turned to LGBT relocating couples (Collins, 2009; Gedro, 2010; McDevitt-Pugh, 2011; McNulty, 2014, 2015a; McPhail, 2017; Paisley and Tayar, 2016).5 More countries and locations have accepted lesbians and gays as part of society and have legalized same-sex marriage (Egan, 2014; Gao and Zhang, 2016; The New York Times, 2014). In the USA, along with other countries such as New Zealand, Argentina, The Netherlands and Uruguay, the State Department now gives equal treatment to the applications of LGBT married couples who wish to travel with their partner in much the same way that it does for heterosexual couples (Bohlen, 2012; Wroughton and Heavey, 2013). While these intimate partnerships are now recognized in a fairly wide array of countries in Europe, Latin America, and North America, including several states in the USA, and polls in Europe and North America generally show support (see Bohlen, 2012; Weiss, 2007), the acceptance of different sexual orientations is not shared equally (Jolly, 2011; Kim and Von Glinow, 2017; Ungar, 2000). Still, as acceptance grows, more of these couples are likely to want to relocate internationally for work (Colgan and McKearney, 2012; McPhail, McNulty and Hutchings, 2016), but with an understanding that relocation decisions may be more challenging for these groups generally, and especially for trailing spouses. While teaching in Jamaica, I used a case involving an African-American expatriate candidate who might face discrimination in the United Kingdom. The Jamaican students agreed that one should not discriminate on the basis of race in any decision. I then asked that if a gay man from the USA, with a male partner, was considering a position in Jamaica, “should the same non-discrimination rules apply?” The answer was clear – essentially, the students said ‘he better not come here because we would kill them’. They were serious. Homophobia is obvious in Jamaica, and a gay couple would face not just challenges, but actual danger. (Betty Jane Punnett)

The example above, of a gay man wishing to expatriate with his husband, is becoming more common today. More broadly, however, while the LGBT community is positively impacted by changing attitudes, the challenge for these couples is that

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attitudes abroad often do not keep pace with those ‘at home’ meaning that acceptance in some countries may still be low; strict laws against sexual activity among LGBT people still remain (e.g. in Cameroon, Uganda and Malawi; Bellis, 2016; Silver, 2014) and punishments can be harsh (Expat Gay, 2013). In countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, for example, the death sentence is given to those convicted of homosexual acts, despite that none of them is technically considered a ‘dangerous location’ for heterosexual employees; homosexuality is punishable by death in seven countries and still illegal in a further 85, resulting in some countries being a ‘no go’ for LGBT employees and their families (Silver, 2014). Even where there are no criminal laws against homosexuality, many other countries’ cultural values continue to encourage discrimination (Priola, Lasio, De Simone and Serri, 2014; Noknoi and Wutthirong, 2007; Tamagawa, 2020). This is especially the case in India where same-sex relationships between consenting adults was decriminalized in 2009 (Joshi, 2013) but where Christian, Sikh, Hindu and Muslim communities continue to denounce homosexuality. It means that India and other countries like it may still be an unwelcoming host country for LGBT employees and their families, where a seemingly ‘safe’ location in all other respects can become a threatening location for them compared to their heterosexual counterparts (Boden-Stuart, McGlynn, Smith, Jones and Hirani, 2021; Waddell, 2014). This is clearly worrying, if not understandably frightening, to members of the LGBT community (see Gedro, Mizzi, Rocco and Loo, 2013). For this reason, Gedro (2010) notes that because many LGBT workers still suffer from being marginalized and stigmatized (see e.g. Kutateladze, 2022), despite that international relocations are increasingly important for career progression,6 many choose ‘safer’ career paths, essentially self-discriminating themselves out of international work opportunities. One common reason is that some are required to be ‘out’ to their employer as a precursor to undertaking a relocation (Collins and Callahan, 2012; Hill, 2009; Ruggs et al., 2013), which they are unwilling to do. McPhail and McNulty (2015) found that the ‘comfort factor’ is more important than the legal status of LGBT people in a particular host country when assessing the risk to them in dangerous locations. While LGBT people may be legally accepted, the social norms of the local culture are perceived as a more legitimate assessment of the threat to be expected in terms of discrimination and negative homophobic attention. LGBT expatriation is a relatively new area of research in the trailing spouse literature. There is not a lot of evidence of the experience of these couples, the reality for the trailing spouse and family, or the selection process, training, support and outcomes in terms of success/failure, satisfaction, and repatriation (see Mizzi, 2014). McPhail (2017) notes an increased interest and growing body of consulting and other literature in the past five years (Cartus, 2017, 2018; Nicoll Curtin, 2015; HRCF, 2009; Mercer, 2011, 2014; Malecki, Day, Franklin and D’Argenio, 2013; Nunan and Vittorio, 2009; Wroughton and Heavey, 2013); nevertheless, the focus of these reports is largely on the employee, rather than on the trailing spouse, with much more attention needed on the latter, including accompanying children (see Michaels and Tamm, Chapter 12, this volume).

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The dilemma faced by companies and potential expatriates in the LGBT context is that there are substantial positives to international relocation that must be balanced against the potential negatives of doing so to a particular location (Paisley and Tayar, 2016). From the company’s perspective, it is seeking the best possible talent to send and, by law, in many countries/states is prohibited from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. From the leading spouse’s perspective, these work arrangements are valuable because they provide an opportunity to gain international experience which contributes to advancing their career prospects (Kaplan, 2014). However, even if the leading spouse can be protected, the trailing spouse may remain vulnerable, as s/he does not have the protection of the workplace and will interact with locals regularly, in what may be a hostile foreign environment. Nonetheless, legal and financial independence within lesbian and gay partnerships tends to provide these couples with more mobility opportunities than their heterosexual counterparts owing to the ability for the trailing spouse to relocate independently but together with the leading spouse, thereby accessing work visas and increasing employment flexibility (McPhail et al., 2016). Banham (2015), discussing these issues, concludes that companies must be transparent and that the employer remains responsible for maintaining the employee’s on-going safety and security. Once again, support for the trailing spouse in such a situation seems to be especially needed given their non-employee role throughout the relocation, their need to constantly scan for signs of acceptance, and the often cost-prohibitive nature of attaining adequate protections for themselves. Still, as noted by McPhail and McNulty (2015), little is known about the challenges companies face in compensating and supporting LGBT employees from a policy perspective, particularly when benefits assigned to them and their spouse in the home country such as health care and pensions are not as readily transferable once sent abroad (see Malecki et al., 2013). It is undoubtedly complicated by these employees’ hyper-diversity, where an international relocation adds another layer of complexity to their already different status (Doucerain, Dere and Ryder, 2013; Woody, 2007). McPhail and Fisher (2015) identify online sources that can be helpful to these couples in understanding the risks. Where the employee declines a particular job transfer because the risks are seen as too high, or where a country denies the trailing partner a visa or residency permit, the company (and the couple) has other options to consider; for example, alternative foreign posts can be considered in the first case, and extra leave for family visits in the second if the couple decides to engage in a stay-behind arrangement. In an important piece of work, McPhail et al. (2016) used empirical findings from 20 lesbian and gay expatriates to develop an employer/employee rubric that provides a framework for LGBT international relocation selection. It includes important issues such as legal status in the selected destination, social climate, organizational climate, individuals’ status of disclosure (i.e. in/out) and partner/children considerations. Suggestions for both employer and employee actions in terms of what information should be gathered at the point of selection is provided including forward planning for financial matters such as the legality of obtaining family bank accounts, insurance

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policies and joint rental agreements. When children are involved, there may be issues regarding parentage where either partner may not be considered the legal parent of the child (Boggis, 2012). In an excerpt from McPhail and McNulty (2015, pp. 753-55) about expatriates in dangerous locations, the authors discussed a 46-year-old American lady, Yvette, a married mother of a 12-year-old girl and an environmental specialist who works for a large international financial and development institution. Currently posted in Jakarta, she already had an extensive international career including posts in Brazil, Cameroon, Malawi and Washington, DC. Yvette’s wife lives in the USA tending to an elderly dog and visits the family often, with the intention of eventually joining them in Jakarta. Yvette knew she had to be realistic about what is possible for her trailing spouse partner: I knew my wife would never get a spousal visa in Indonesia; my experience had prepared me for that. So instead I wanted to be guaranteed two things: firstly that my wife could come and stay at least 90 days at a time with multiple entries and second that if there was a medical evacuation or civil strife situation that we would be evacuated as a family. These two matters were more important to me than what type of visa we were allocated. Yvette speaks highly of how HR worked together to get her wife a visa, and she was pleased when, prior to her last post, HR recognized them as a family unit in all preparations and documentation. HR also discussed being LGBT in pre-departure training over 15 days of briefings and were “very normal about it”. But once in the location, other issues arose such as domestic staff living in the house and guards that were armed. She was handing over her child to a driver and a nanny who pretty much hated her, meaning she had to be fairly closeted in those countries simply to survive on a day-to-day basis. The family currently lives in a serviced apartment so that Yvette does not have to employ any domestic staff or endure the pressure and stress of having “a fake second bedroom” when her wife eventually joins them. Yvette’s story, while uncommon from a family perspective, is striking because it illustrates the ability to cope with the small details of LGBT life that can escalate into bigger challenges and life-threatening situations quickly and without warning.

McPhail and McNulty (2015) used data from 13 LGBT expatriates in dangerous locations to consider duty of care considerations in an integrated risk management strategy; they extended McPhail et al.’s (2016) rubric to include how LGBT employees and their families might overcome and deal with potentially life-threatening situations such as imprisonment and kidnapping. McNulty, McPhail, Inversi, Dundon and Nechanska (2018) similarly explore the role of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and ally networks as a form of voice for LGBT employees and their international relocation decision-making (see also Brooks and Edwards, 2009; McFadden, 2015). The above notwithstanding, Shortland and Perkins (2022) note that while companies have a proliferation of policies and interventions to support inclusiveness and diversity within their organizations, including LGBT relocations, there is still very little detail about their outcomes. While conducting interviews for the LGBT expatriate study, I spoke to a gay man based in Hong Kong whose husband was living in Shanghai. The couple had originally relocated,

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together, to Hong Kong many years earlier and lived there successfully as a gay couple with few problems. However, when one partner was offered a relocation to Shanghai, the Chinese government were not willing to issue a spouse visa for the other partner, as their marriage in Canada was not legally recognized by the immigration authorities in PR China. As both partners had well-paying jobs that neither wanted to give up, they entered into an international commuting arrangement, flying every two weeks to see each other. (Yvonne Kallane)

Dual-career Trailing Spouses Psychological commitment to a career by both spouses in the relationship is a defining criterion of dual-career relocation (McNulty and Moeller, 2018; see Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume). Dual-career couples have increased in their number in recent decades more broadly (Higgins, Duxbury and Irving, 1992; Masterson and Hoobler, 2015; Rapoport and Rapoport, 1990; Smith, 1992; Välimäki, Lämsä and Hiillos, 2009; Van Gus and Kraaykamp, 2008; Wallston, Foster and Berger, 1978), particularly in developed countries due to women’s increased participation in the labour market (Fernández, 2013). Not surprisingly, they have become more common in expatriation and migration contexts, too (Känsälä et al., 2015; McNulty and Moeller, 2018; Moore, 2002). As dual-career couples increasingly become the norm, there is a much greater likelihood that one spouse will face a disruption to, or cessation of, their career if the couple relocates abroad, particularly to countries where finding employment is difficult or subject to legal restrictions. Dual-career couples engaging in international relocations have been studied over many years and the substantial research that exists shows consistent findings (Harvey, 1995, 1996; Kierner, 2015, 2018; Stephens and Black, 1991; Van der Velde, Jansen, Bal and Van Erp, 2017). In the context of migration, a common finding in decades of studies in family migration is that migrating primarily benefits the careers of husbands but generally damages wives’ careers (Boyd, 1989; Glick, 2010). In an important study, Venugopal and Huq (2022) examined the lived experiences of 12 migrant trailing spouses in Australia and found that the decision by women to move for the family created for them a devastating situation of ‘occupational downshifting’ that they were unable to overcome. Not only did their career agency erode over time, it also prevented them from socially integrating. In studies of expatriation, similar findings emerge, which has proven why trailing spouses are an important part of the decision to accept an international relocation, and why refusal rates because of the dual-career issue remains a persistent challenge (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2014, 2021; Cartus, 2018). In its latest survey of international dual-career couples, the Permits Foundation (2022) finds that partner’s access to employment has a direct impact on talent attraction, retention and the experience of the mobile family while in the host country. Harvey (1995) found that the immediate loss of the trailing spouse’s income and additional stress for the family while she (or he) attempts to find employment abroad is a burden many couples are unwillingly to take on. Other studies (e.g. Amble, 2006; Handler,

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Lane and Maher, 1997; Harvey 1996; Harvey, Buckley, Novicevic and Wiese, 1999) illustrate how the career ‘life-cycle’ of the trailing spouse impacts on willingness to relocate and shows differences in adjustment for spouses that had opted out of the workforce prior to a move and for whom a career was no longer a priority. As noted earlier, the decision to give up a career to become a trailing spouse can have psychological and emotional, as well as financial, consequences (McNulty, 2012; Cole, 2012; De Cieri, Dowling and Taylor, 1991). Harvey and Wiese note that, in many respects, the issues faced by the male and female trailing spouses in dual career couples are similar: both may develop feelings of frustration and a loss of self-worth and identity if they are unable to work overseas, or can only find employment at a lower level than back at home. They may experience anxiety over their future career prospects and fear that their time overseas will cause them to lag behind their peers at home. Both male and female spouses may struggle to come to terms with their altered role within the family and their inability to contribute to the family income, and they may, in time, come to resent their partner’s success and the subjugation of their career to that of their spouse. (1998, p. 380)

In an updated study, McNulty (2012) found that while 84 per cent of trailing spouses had a tertiary qualification or college education and 79 per cent had a career prior to relocating, only 36 per cent were able to continue their career once relocated due mainly to visa and work permit restrictions. At the heart of the dual-career issue appeared to be a loss of identity stemming from an inability to obtain paid work. As one spouse said in the study, ‘I do not live for my husband, nor do I live for his work and the company just couldn’t understand that. He did not marry a housewife and I will never be one’ (p. 428). Other spouses compared their identity crisis to ‘being a woman in a third world country; I’m not permitted to work and everything is at the discretion of my husband’ (p. 429). Another said, ‘I’m not living my life, I’m living his’ (p. 429). The Permits Foundation (2022) reports similar findings today: 90 per cent of the 730 spouses and partners of highly skilled international employees surveyed were working pre-move but less than half are in employment post-move; tellingly, over one quarter are considering leaving the host country because of restrictions on their work access. Trailing spouses that are not working are more likely to report a negative impact on their adjustment to the host country (44 per cent), family relationships (36 per cent), and general health and well-being (47 per cent). Significantly, 56 per cent said that not working had negatively impacted their mental health, while 40 per cent said that it had negatively impacted their willingness to stay in the current assignment, and a further 42 per cent said it had negatively impacted their willingness to extend the current relocation if offered the opportunity. Some dual-career couples have made the situation work to their advantage by ‘taking turns’ and alternating career advancement. This seems to work best when the trailing spouse finds activities in the foreign location that can benefit their career once back home. One male spouse I interviewed had developed a program for the disabled in the foreign country. One female spouse had worked for the museum and helped put on shows. For both, these were

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their career fields. In my own case, my spouse, a management consultant, wrote and published a book on the practice of management consulting. (Betty Jane Punnett)

As the above shows, spousal support is important in all forms of global work arrangements (see Shaffer, Kraimer, Chen and Bolino, 2012 for a review) and particularly for internationally relocating dual-career couples. The partners have to empathize with each other to make the arrangement work, and interestingly, Mäkelä et al. (2011) reported that spousal support from within the family unit increases during their time abroad. At the same time, organizational support is particularly critical; the spouse will want to find paid activities, if this is possible. If not, they will want to identify productive activities related to their usual career. Riusala and Suutari (2000) in their study of 300 Finnish expatriates found that while dual-career support from their company was wanted by internationally relocating employees, it was severely lacking during and after the relocation. For my honours degree research, in the early 2000s, I did a large study about the trailing spouse. I was at the time a newly-minted dual-career trailing spouse myself, living in Chicago, having given up a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney a year earlier to relocate to the US with my husband, for his job with an American IT company. What I found in the study disappointed me but was not a surprise as I was experiencing first-hand nearly everything the trailing spouses were saying in the research. Specifically, that professional support for the career-oriented trailing spouse was a poorly met need (‘a major failing’ as one spouse described it), in areas such as providing outplacement services, a career coach, career guidance and counselling, education reimbursement, assistance to obtain a work permit, professional contacts and fair opportunities. Cash allowances were not perceived to be of much benefit; that usually got spent on a new fridge or a holiday that both spouses could enjoy. Some serious outcomes relating to this issue were reported – one brave spouse wrote this on the research questionnaire: A number of female partners of my husband’s colleagues have had serious problems adjusting due to their inability to work and make friends. Many wish to return home, others are really stressed, and two are potential suicide cases … should I not be able to obtain work I will seriously consider breaking the contract because there are half a dozen expat wives on anti-depressants because of it and I won’t be joining them. The lack of dual-career support led to deep resentment among spouses in the study for having sacrificed a job and proximity to their family to support someone else’s career. I will admit I struggled with these same feelings myself. (Yvonne Kallane)

In an early article, Gibb-Clarke (1991) reported that a Canadian company reached an agreement with Immigration Canada to waive the requirement that employers would first try to find a Canadian to fill a job that a non-citizen spouse could fill – on condition that the country from which the manager and spouse came agreed to a reciprocal arrangement. The Permits Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit organization, campaigns globally to improve work permit regulations so that partners of international employees can directly access employment while in the host country. Since 2001, it has been successful in influencing change throughout the European Union, as well as in the USA, Asia (India, Japan, Hong Kong) and Latin America (Brazil

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and Peru). Over 30 countries now allow accompanying spouses or partners to work, illustrating that arrangements are possible that provide real help. The above notwithstanding, relatively little is known about dual-career issues for trailing spouses beyond the seminal studies of 30-years ago (Harvey, 1995, 1997, 1998), with the exception of some recently updated theories and ideas (e.g. McNulty, 2012; McNulty and Moeller, 2018). In terms of repatriation, there has been literature that points to its importance and some discussion on the overall impact of the assignment on the expatriate’s longer-term career (Suutari et al., 2018), but it remains an under-researched area for the trailing spouse. We know even less about the short and long-term impact of international relocations on the career of the trailing spouse, while they are abroad, when they return home, and if they never decide to return home. We refer the reader to the chapter by Mutter and Kallane (Chapter 5, this volume) for a detailed future research agenda about dual-careers for the trailing spouse. The Trailing Spouse in Missions/Clergy and Military Contexts Although a substantial amount of the literature about trailing spouses has focused on those in corporate settings, international relocations occur across nearly every community and industry. Trailing spouses have existed for many more decades in the military and missionary/clergy fields than before ‘corporate’ companies ever considered sending employees (and their families) abroad for business reasons. While the body of literature in these fields is smaller, the issues and challenges of being a trailing spouse are familiar regardless of the context, but they are also unique and much can be learned from it, which is worthy of review. In the military, trailing spouses are recognized for their enduring ability to cope with long periods of separation from their own extended families due to repeated and non-negotiable domestic relocations, which is exacerbated when their serving spouses are deployed abroad (Darcy, 2000; Sheppard, Malatras and Israel, 2010). Not only do they endure physical separation from their spouse in a situation commonly referred to as ‘intermittent husband syndrome’ (see Isay, 1968; Morrice and Taylor, 1978), which leaves them disproportionately accountable for all family obligations during the partner’s absence (Ott, Kelley and Akroyd, 2018), but they must also contend with possible post-deployment challenges if the serving spouse returns from a conflict zone with symptoms of depression, anxiety, and, most significantly, post-traumatic stress (Hoge, Auchterlonie and Milliken, 2006), which can have secondary traumatic impacts on partners (Dirkzwager, Bramsen, Adèr and van der Ploeg, 2005; Galovski and Lyons, 2004). As the nature of military life requires frequent relocations, it is common that newly formed friendships and newly acquired jobs will also be lost as a result of moving. The cumulative nature of repeated psychological and emotional losses across family, friendship and employment networks is noted by Makowsky, Cook, Berger and Powell (1988) to intensify the stresses of domestic relocation, specifically through the loss of important relationships and autonomy, and identity disorientation, which can cause significant stress to the mili-

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tary spouse’s health and overall well-being. Coping with the three uniquely stressful experiences of military family life – relocation, separation, and reunion – is no small undertaking for any trailing spouse (Drummet, Coleman and Cable, 2003; also see Patterson, 1988). Prior research has found that one of the most helpful adjustment mechanisms is for the military spouse to quickly establish familiar networks of support that can provide appropriate resources (Sluzki, 1992), some of which is often facilitated by the military institution; military spouses are therefore somewhat adept at actively maintaining social networks in their endeavours to maintain family stability, family resiliency and career portability (Palmer, 2008; Wiens and Boss, 2006). Also important is how trailing spouses negotiate employment during and between military relocations, which can influence not only their well-being in terms of self-esteem and physical and mental health, but the financial health of families (Burke and Miller, 2018; Godier-McBard, Caddick and Fossey, 2020; Trewick and Muller, 2014). What, then, is the impact on the military trailing spouse when undertaking an international relocation? Blakely et al. (2014), in a study of 34 British military spouses stationed abroad, surprisingly found that for most spouses the experience was positive due to the increased opportunity for family time with their spouses who were seldom deployed during the time abroad. Enhanced family unity, travel and new cultural experiences thus helped to compensate for any difficulties that were experienced as a result of relocating, such as disruption to familiar networks of support, additional financial strains, limited spousal employment opportunities, extreme climate, and communication difficulties. This ties into the often-heard phrase that military spouses live a life that is both uncertain and exciting. In a related study, Biedermann (2017) in her study of 23 Australian Defence Force trailing spouses found that two important aspects of military life helped them to cope with the stresses of international relocation. The first was acceptance of the sacrifice that comes with life as a military wife, especially during an overseas posting (see also Jervis, 2019). The second is a sense of duty to the serving spouse in such a way that it mirrors the sacrifice the service member makes in his or her service to the country. This requires being a ‘good military wife’ to genuinely support their partner’s career as an extension of their own identity and that of their family. Not surprisingly, the study found that nearly all trailing spouses reported the overseas posting as a highlight of their married lives. Seeking support, along with personality and resilience were key elements of trailing spouse success. This mirrors findings by Crouch et al. (2017) in their exploration of military spouses stationed overseas, who found that greater social connectedness was associated with higher rates of marital satisfaction, lower psychological distress, and fewer physical health issues. Throughout the history of the church, missionaries and clergy have been sent abroad to conduct overseas evangelistic activities by offering acts of humanitarianism, planting new churches, or leading others in their own particular religious beliefs (Piggin, 1984; Walls, 1996). Until only recently, most clergy sent abroad have been married men, with some accompanied by their children (Sweatman, 1999). Theological as well as cultural traditions assumed that the wife (even today) would

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simply follow the husband’s lead and adapt to the new environment in a supportive ‘assistant’ role (Denton, 1961; Douglas, 1965); however, it has not always proven to be successful either for the ministry or for the marriage for many of the same reasons already discussed in this chapter, including the forced nature of the relocation, reluctance to move, feelings of powerlessness and loneliness, and cumulative loss and grief (Frame, 1998; Frame and Shehan, 1994; Hartley, 1978). Research in this field has recently turned towards a better understanding of how to build a great marriage while maximizing the potential of each spouse’s contribution to the mission (Hileman, 2008; Roberts, Getz and Skaggs, 2007). Nurturing a ‘team ministry’ mindset among married missionary/clergy couples has been a recent key focus to overcome reluctance to ‘relocate for the gospel’ (Brown and McVay, 2018; McMinn, Kerrick, Duma, Campbell and Jung, 2008; also see Vance, Mendenhall and Woods, Chapter 8, this volume). In a departure from much of the literature reviewed in this chapter thus far, missionaries (and to some extent, clergy) are not sent by churches but rely instead on the call of God (‘God’s will’) to draw them into relocating abroad (Oberholster, Clarke, Bendixen and Dastoor, 2013). The emphasis on discipleship and obedience to God’s call are central themes in the decision to enter missions work for both leading and trailing spouses, with a strong focus on faith to get through the challenges it frequently presents (Oberholster and Doss, 2017). Understandably, missions and clergy work is not easy. Just as for other internationally relocating communities (e.g. Mutter, Chapter 11, this volume; Trembath, Chapter 10, this volume), studies show that missions and clergy spouses have their own set of unique challenges, many of which are more keenly felt by the trailing spouse and children than the lead partner (Lee, 2007; Vance et al., Chapter 8, this volume; Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume). In an important study, Brown and McVay (2018) found that having to raise their own financial support to undertake missions work abroad was the top-rated concern of missionaries, followed by learning a new language and objections from their spouse/future spouse about the relocation. Zoba (1997) found that trailing spouses often felt ashamed to reveal that their greatest desire is to not do ministry. Hill, Darling and Raimondi (2003) found that ‘boundary intrusions’ on family life by missions and church communities increased stressors affecting the quality of life for clergy and their families but that they felt helpless to improve their situation, instead suffering from burnout and psychological distress. In a groundbreaking study, Luedtke and Sneed (2018) shed light on the unheard and silenced voices of Clergy wives whose stressors included unrealistic performance expectations, loss of identity, loneliness, low income, and the constant sacrifice of time. Common to these studies over several decades is the stress felt by the trailing spouse related to the occupation of one family member that affects the entire family system; and yet, as study after study reveals, there is a steadfast willingness to continue in a supportive spouse role regardless of the hardships (McMinn et al. 2008; Murphy-Geiss, 2011). Beyond seeking prayer and spiritual guidance and holding onto faith as expected coping mechanisms for clergy and mission spouses, studies show that there is strong evidence for the positive impact of seeking interpersonal relationships amongst other

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clergy and mission wives, particularly those in which long-term mentoring or coaching relationships can be established over the life-course (Matenga and Gold, 2016). Support from within is an important component of religious life, given that clergy and missions people are often reluctant to share their concerns within the wider communities they serve. McMinn et al. (2008) found that spouses with better mental and physical health attributed their well-being to strong and healthy relationships with their husbands, friends, family or spiritual relationship with God. Despite differences across these communities, several common themes emerge that shed an important and somewhat unique light on the nature of international relocation for trailing spouses in the missions/clergy and military fields that other fields can learn from. First, there is an element in both communities of the non-negotiable nature of relocations and the sense of powerlessness over the decision to move – one in service to country, the other in service to God. This has implications for trailing spouses’ ability to cope when relocation (or even life) stressors occur, as well as impacting on the quality of their personal relationships (e.g. Patterson, 1988, 2002). Makowsky et al. (1988) found that involuntary movers have lower levels of satisfaction with the relationship with their spouses than voluntary movers, while spouses with lower levels of education had significantly higher levels of perceived stress, feelings of less control, and lower levels of satisfaction with family life than women with more education. In an early study, Butler, McAllister and Kaiser (1973) found that involuntary residential mobility had a negative effect on the mental health of female spouses. These studies suggest that forced relocation is significantly more challenging than voluntary moves, however, both military and missions/clergy scholarship report mixed findings in this regard. It can perhaps be best explained by the second theme, which is the notion of spouses’ sacrifice for the ‘greater good’ (husband, country, God, etc.), which appears to positively impact the trailing experience (eventually) by instilling a higher purpose or calling to the demands of the role. Third, by relinquishing the need for control (whether early or late in their relocation journey), trailing spouses display a level of genuine acceptance of their role (for country, for God) that elevates their relocation experience as one of privilege, excitement and purpose (Harrison and Laliberte, 1994). Notably, despite an extensive review as illustrated above, these traits are rarely seen in studies of corporate (expatriate) trailing spouses. An important take away from the study of military and missions/clergy trailing spouses is the undeniable fact that the organizations these spouses serve are ‘greedy institutions’ (Segal, 1986), just as their own family is also a greedy institution: each places extraordinary demands on the trailing spouse, whether for country or for God or for husband, that requires of them enormous dedication, commitment, time and energy, much of which can lead to conflicts between work and family life. The disruptions of relocation, and the cycles of separations/reunions/deployment in the military context, are common experiences that increase stress. These disruptions encroach into daily family life, which has been associated with poorer mental health and well-being among these populations (Harrison and Laliberte, 1997). Social pressure from within these communities for trailing spouses to provide a range of

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unpaid support activities, such as organizing community events and supporting other spouses, adds to their stress and sense of sacrifice (Horn, 2010). Those not conforming to these roles and the idealized identity of a ‘good wife’ can face social admonishment, exclusion and debilitating loneliness (Enloe, 2000; Zoba, 1997). While social pressure to perform these roles is determined in part by cultural norms from within each community (McCarthy, 2014), it is also underpinned by ambiguous and unhealthy expectations that rely on spouses to build cohesive communities (Horn, 2010; Hyde, 2016). The notion of Papanek’s ‘two-person single career’ emerges strongly for military and missions/clergy trailing spouses, which postulates that female spouses of men in certain occupations assume a role within their husband’s career due to the demands that that career requires (Papanek, 1973). By incorporating wives into their husbands’ career via these roles, spouses are not only bonded to their husbands but also to the institutions their husbands (and by default, they) serve, albeit peripherally and without the entitlements and benefits their husbands acquire (Finch, 1983). Notably, the often-fabricated importance these spouses enjoy by virtue of their husbands’ honoured roles also exposes them to the power and control over their lives these institutions exert (Weinstein and Mederer, 1997). Trailing Spouse Diversity: Race, Ethnicity and Religion In today’s world, issues of race/ethnicity and religion are all around us. Whether it is the Rohingya people of Myanmar fleeing from their own government, the ‘black lives matter’ movement in the USA, indigenous people of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere facing discrimination at home, the hatred promulgated by so-called Islamic State … the news reports are everywhere. We cannot ignore these issues in international work arrangements any more than we can in everyday life (Beech et al., 2017). Racial and religious issues, like gender issues, have to be considered because they can affect a job transferee and his or her family’s safety and security, the ability to adjust, success/failure rates, productivity on the job, work satisfaction, and work performance. In spite of this, there is very little research that addresses issues of race and religion in international relocations (Shortland and Perkins, 2022; Tung and Haq, 2012). Much more of the literature focuses on these issues in migration (see Castles, 2000), in particular, the (under)employment of skilled migrants (Al Ariss, Vassilopoulou, Özbilgin and Game, 2014; Dietz, Joshi, Esses, Hamilton and Gabarrot, 2015) and barriers to successful integration for forced migrants (‘refugees’; Gleeson, 2015) and their spouses. One of the very few studies focused on race and gender was conducted by Punnett and Davison (1995) who found that women and African Americans/Canadians felt more positive about sending a woman or an African American/Canadian on an international relocation, compared to their male, Caucasian counterparts. Banham (2015) provides a rather dramatic example of the impact of race for an expatriate couple in Qatar. The expatriate and his wife are Asian-American and their adopted children are African-American. He reports that the Qatari have a negative view of multiracial

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families and associate them with child trafficking. One of the children died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest linked to a known food disorder, and the couple were arrested and charged with starving the child to death. They were also accused of participating in human trafficking and purchasing the children from Africa to harvest their organs, and the two remaining children were put into an orphanage. The couple spent 10 months in detention before being declared innocent. This is, of course, a horror story for the couple and children involved, but the story does not end there. The couple sued the American company for negligence, indemnity and negligent infliction of emotional distress. They argued that the company should have conducted a risk assessment and fully warned them of the dangers before sending them on the assignment.

This story serves to illustrate the need to consider race throughout the international relocation process. The same can be true for religion. The issues to be addressed in these cases are similar to those discussed for LGBT expatriates. While it is illegal in many countries to discriminate on the basis of race or religion, a company faces a dilemma when its best candidate choice, including their family members, may face major challenges in the foreign country because of their race or religion. The ‘best candidate’ may be doomed to failure or, at best, be under substantial stress and may perform poorly. Once again, the trailing spouse may be at a higher risk, given their greater likelihood of interacting with locals in their daily life. The solutions are similar to those discussed previously: thorough risk assessment, openness with the employee and spouse so they can make an informed decision, training with the particular constraints in mind, support if they decide to accept the transfer, and provision of alternatives if they do not. Punnett and Davison (1995) noted 20 years ago that researchers are somewhat reluctant to address issues of race and religion. It may be that they believe drawing attention to such factors is in itself discriminatory. Not dealing with the issue(s) is certainly unfortunate (and potentially life-threatening for the expatriate and trailing spouse), which is why this topic remains a fertile research area deserving of more attention.

WHERE TO NEXT? A FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDA Adjustment has been a focus of a considerable portion of trailing spouse research (see Andreason, 2008 and Takeuchi, 2010 for reviews) and continues to this day (e.g. Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, Waibel, Fliege, Bellinger and Rüger, 2022). A key distinction is nonetheless the difference between simply ‘coping’ compared to actually ‘adjusting’, as adjustment is likely to reap longer term benefits (as well as consequences) compared to just getting by (or ‘doing time’ until the relocation is over). An important aspect of adjustment theorizing is personal agency; while much of the literature discusses the need for organizational support, it does so without taking account of the trailing spouse’s need to be ‘master of their own fate’ (Adler, 1991;

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Slobodin, 2017). We therefore need more research that examines agency as a critical component of the trailing spouse adjustment process: RQ1: What are key differences between trailing spouse (i) coping, and (ii) adjustment? (a) What are the characteristics of coping mechanisms? Do they differ from adjustment mechanisms? (b) What are the drivers for the adoption of coping mechanisms over adjustment mechanisms? (c) What is the role of extrinsic versus intrinsic mechanisms in trailing spouse adjustment? RQ2: When resolving expatriate trailing spouse challenges, to what extent and under what circumstances do trailing spouses seek solutions for (i) themselves versus (ii) looking to the employing organization for help? RQ3: What are the characteristics of successful trailing spouse adjustment from the perspective of (i) the working expatriate, (ii) the trailing spouse, and (iii) the employing organization? The literature stresses the need for spouses to be involved throughout the relocation process, from selection to repatriation. Substantial attention has been paid to the training needs and processes for the spouse but there has been less emphasis on support and repatriation (see Knocke and Schuster, 2017 for a review). We still know relatively little about what support systems, formal and informal, exist in various countries, how effective they are, or what types of support trailing spouses find most helpful (McNulty, 2012; Cole, 2012). An important avenue for further research, mentioned briefly in some recent studies, is the role of technology (McNulty, 2012; McPhail and Fisher, 2015; O’Sullivan, 2013). Technological developments have drastically improved the trailing spouse experience by enabling responsive communication around the world with both ease and speed. We suggest that the following topics would prove useful in expanding our understanding of the process of trailing spouse adjustment, as well as potentially impacting on the decision to relocate: RQ4: What is the role and extent of technology in trailing spouse (i) coping, and (ii) adjustment? RQ5: To what extent is technology a factor in determining willingness to undertake an international relocation? RQ6: What is the role of the local community in supporting trailing spouse (i) coping and (ii) adjustment? (a) To what extent is the local community a positive and negative influence? RQ7: Which organizational support practices best facilitate trailing spouse adjustment? (a) Which personal, network and community support practices (i.e. practices that are not reliant on organizations) best facilitate trailing spouse adjustment? (b) How is the effectiveness of these practices measured and validated? What methods are best suited to testing their efficacy?

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RQ8: Which global work arrangements (Shaffer et al., 2012) result in better trailing spouse adjustment? Why? For good reason, the literature on male trailing spouses has grown from its earliest days (e.g. Harvey and Wiese, 1998; Punnett, 1997) to an emerging body of studies that continues to evolve (e.g. Cole, 2012; Collins and Bertone, 2017; Shortland, 2020; Slobodin, 2019). Notably, many of today’s studies about the trailing spouse are no longer focused only on male or female perspectives but explore both (Davoine et al., 2013) or homogenize them as one and the same (McNulty, 2012), such is the prevalence with which male trailing spouses now constitute a relatively ‘normal’ part of the international relocation experience. Still, compared to the very large number of studies focused on female trailing spouses, we need more research that uncovers important differences across gender. One would have expected with increasing gender equality, inclusiveness, and women’s continuing participation in the workforce that the issue of male trailing spouse stigmatization and dual-career concerns (as examples) would have received more attention. The literature that does exist suggests that the situations and needs of trailing spouses across genders are different and that these differences need to be acknowledged, understood and addressed separately. We recommend more research in these areas: RQ9: To what extent are coping mechanisms for relocating trailing spouses different across genders? RQ10: Do male or female trailing spouses adjust better (Cole and McNulty, 2011)? Why or why not? (a) What can one gender learn from the other about trailing spouse (i) coping and (ii) adjustment? LGBT relocation for the trailing spouse is an evolving and complex new area for research, spurred in part by greater deviation from the traditional household composition of the past. The relatively recent move, particularly in Europe, North America, and some Latin American countries, towards acceptance and legalization of same-sex marriage has resulted in an interest in these couples as expatriates. There is now some research exploring their realities and those of the LGBT community more generally. This research stream is still essentially in its infancy and much needs to be understood, particularly about same-sex trailing spouses: RQ11: How do LGBT families make the decision to go abroad, where one spouse will be the trailing spouse? (a) What are the barriers to mobility for LGBT employees when there will be a trailing spouse? (b) How are these barriers overcome? (c) What is the role of (i) personal agency, and (ii) organizational support in overcoming these barriers? RQ12: What support do trailing spouses in LGBT families need from the employing organization?

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RQ13: How have partners in expatriate LGBT families successfully navigated the career impact of trailing their spouse? While adjustment has been looked at largely from a Western perspective, it is necessary to consider how home cultural values affect trailing spouse adjustment (see Ramboarison-Lalao, et al., Chapter 6, this volume). Confucian values and strong familial ties may relate to the spouse’s decision to accompany the expatriate or stay at home (Kim and Froese, 2012), as well as to how they adjust if they do go abroad (Cho et al., 2013; Fukuda and Chu, 1994). We need more research to examine these under-explored areas: RQ14: What are the characteristics of successful trailing spouse adjustment across cultures? (a) To what extent do various cultures favour some coping mechanisms over others (e.g. social media, unpaid vs paid work)? (b) What are the drivers for the adoption of some coping mechanisms over others? RQ15: What is the role of religion in trailing spouse adjustment? RQ16: What is the role of culture in family decision-making about being/becoming the trailing spouse? This review of the literature on the expatriate trailing spouse shows that there is a well-developed body of literature on the traditional trailing spouse, a wife who does not expect to work outside the home, as well as more generally on trailing spouses, where characteristics such as gender are not the focus. The conclusion from most of this literature is that the spouse and family are extremely important in the relocation process and that family issues tend to be the main (reported) cause of failure/success. A limitation of this review is nonetheless the major focus on corporate trailing spouses. While much of the discussion here will apply to other types of organizations and other community and industry contexts, there are specific trailing spouse realities associated with the sports (Mutter, 2017), military (Blakely, Hennessy, Chung and Skirton, 2014), and aid work (Fee, 2017) communities that differ considerably from the examples shown here and from which much cross-disciplinary learning can emerge (as an example, the stay-behind phenomenon is a promising dual-career ‘solution’ for reluctant trailing spouses in the sports community; see Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume). More research is needed in non-corporate communities, particularly in those with extreme forms of constant mobility (e.g. the military and diplomatic corps). While there is a tendency for each community to establish their own support mechanisms, much can be learned from cross-sharing. We suggest more research in the following areas: RQ17: To what extent are (i) coping and (ii) adjustment mechanisms for expatriate trailing spouses different across communities (corporate, military, missions, etc.)? (a) Is one community better adjusted than another? Why or why not?

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RQ18: What can each community learn from another about trailing spouse adjustment, willingness to go, and family decision-making about relocating? Another area requiring more research is that of the self-initiated expatriate (SIE) trailing spouse, who does not have an organizational support structure on which to rely (Richardson, 2006). This makes their situation abroad more precarious as they need to rely solely on their own resources and the support of their family to deal with their challenges. There is an opportunity for researchers to examine how these trailing spouses successfully navigate their challenges and what contributes to their satisfaction and success. We suggest the following research topics: RQ19: What support mechanisms do SIE trailing spouses rely on to aid in their (i) coping and (ii) adjustment? RQ20: Are SIE trailing spouses more or less adjusted compared to non-SIE trailing spouses? Why or why not? A further area of potential new research is derived from an interesting conclusion, based on the literature reviewed in this chapter, that companies appear to largely ignore the findings of trailing spouse research. How, then, do we achieve organizational buy-in for the solutions our research potentially provides? Consider, for example, a Cartus and Primacy (2010) survey in which 196 organizations in North America, Europe and Asia reported that their interest in improving spouse and family assistance was waning, with only 13 per cent making it a priority for the next three years, down from 19 per cent in 2007. It was also found to be the least important priority overall in a list of seven priorities, and when asked to list the greatest mobility challenges in terms of future impact on their organization, companies listed nine challenges of which spouse and/or family issues did not warrant mention. This is despite consistent research (e.g. McNulty, 2012; Permits Foundation, 2022) that has identified international employee attrition as a major problem, and spousal adjustment as linked to good management of the relocation process. It seems self-evident that companies would therefore pay attention to, and invest in, the spouse in selection, training, support and repatriation. This is not the case, not then and still not now (e.g. Kierner, 2018; Shortland, 2020), which in itself presents an interesting avenue for research. What makes companies reluctant to provide trailing spouse support? What are the cost/benefit trade-offs from the corporate perspective? What would increase their willingness? What is the role of the Human Resource Management department in promoting improved expatriate practices that are helpful to the trailing spouse? These and other questions can help us to better understand why existing research has not been more influential in corporate thinking and decision-making: RQ21: Why do some companies, in particular industries, provide trailing spouse support whereas others do not? (a) What are the barriers that prevent companies from investing in trailing spouse support? (b) What can be done to overcome these barriers?

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The final area of research we recommend is a through re-examination of the decision-making process among couples when considering an international relocation. Typically conceived by companies as a private matter between couples, there is much to be learned and gained by understanding how it is that couples navigate the complex decision as to who’s career will ‘lead’ and who’s life will subsequently ‘trail’. In their studies of the relocation decision-making process of dual-earner couples, Challiol and Mignonac (2005) found that the process is predominantly a search for compromise solutions between occupational and family roles within the couple as well as their expectations of how the relocation will change or assist them to organize their life as a couple. While joint decision making has been proposed in the literature as an ideal (e.g. Black et al. 1991), Mohr and Klein (2004) nonetheless found that involving the spouse in the decision-making process did not directly translate into a higher level of spousal adjustment during the international relocation for American spouses in Germany, suggesting that degree of participation in decision-making has only minor impacts. In perhaps the most extensive study yet undertaken to understand the process of decision making among relocating couples, Van der Velde et al. (2017) argue that the decision to accept an international relocation depends on the extent to which both spouses value two major life roles: the career and the partner role, including the degree of increased interdependency the relocation is likely to incur for one or both spouses. When a couple values the role of the other in the context of the relocation (career role salience vs partner role salience), a more secure and supportive couple attachment emerges, which then increases the couple’s willingness to go (see also Powell and Greenhaus, 2012). Notwithstanding the above, never before in the history of modern mobility has willingness-to-go been as important as it is now, thanks in large part to the impact of the Covid-19 global pandemic and the resulting increase in social and geographical isolation it caused (and continues to cause) to millions of internationally relocated families worldwide (Benton, Batalova, Davidoff-Gore and Schmidt, 2021; Caligiuri, De Cieri, Minbaeva, Verbeke and Zimmermann, 2020; Mello and Tomei, 2021). The Permits Foundation (2022), in a timely and important study, found that attitudes about international relocations have changed for the worse among trailing spouses due to the severe impact of the pandemic on the lives of those living abroad: 17 per cent of respondents were forced to live in a separate country from their partner because of Covid-19 restrictions, while 11 per cent are no longer willing to accompany their spouse on another location while pandemic conditions persist. Reasons given included losing family members at home to Covid-19 and being unable to attend funerals, feeling isolated due to lockdowns with detrimental impacts on mental health and integration into foreign communities, inadequate healthcare systems in host locations to mitigate pandemic illnesses, and financial distress if one or both spouses lost their job/income but the family were unable to relocate (repatriate) home (see also PWC, 2020). Collings and Sheeran (2020) suggest that decision-making criteria for couples when deciding whether or not to relocate will be impacted by differences in national responses to Covid-19 and the resultant impact of the pandemic in relative countries

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on foreigners living there. It may mean that a new hierarchy of nation states emerges where couples rank them in their decision-making according to strength of the healthcare system or by how effectively it has navigated lockdowns. The pandemic crisis is also likely to rebalance the relative status of different types of work and international work arrangements, where shorter relocations may be viewed as more favourable (Kramer and Kramer, 2020). On a final note, we have mentioned the issue of (dis)abilities in this chapter but have not discussed this in our literature review, simply because there is no literature that we identified which looked at this issue, either in terms of expatriates themselves, or in terms of their families. This is, therefore, another potential avenue of investigation. It would be valuable to know how many people who use wheelchairs, who cannot see or hear, and who cope with dyslexia, diagnosed mental health conditions, and other disabilities go on to expatriate or migrate, including the special challenges they face. Interviews with such people and their families would provide a starting point for a new stream of research.

CONCLUSION Trailing spouse scholarship is an exciting research area, and the intent of this chapter has been to provide a road map for those interested in doing more work in this area. Understanding the relationship between leading and trailing spouses and their other family members is an important topic because people continue to move around the world and there are a substantial number of challenges they are confronted with. It is timely to review the literature on trailing spouses to see where we are at, where we have been, and where we need to go with future research. Although research on expatriates and trailing spouses is by no means new, there is enormous scope for further research. This is particularly true because our technology is changing rapidly, and relationships among countries are evolving. These changes affect international relocation as they affect all aspects of life and business. The good news for those interested in trailing spouse research is that there is much more to discover and learn.

NOTES 1.

These figures must be interpreted with caution based on cultural nuance; Lin et al. (2012) reported that among Taiwanese expatriates, only 21 to 44 per cent relocate with their spouse, a figure that is much the same for Chinese, Japanese and South Korean expatriates (Kim and Froese, 2012). 2. See Blackstone (2003) for a critique about gender role and society. 3. The earliest empirically derived statistic about expatriate failure rates originates from Steinmetz’s 1964 study (cited in Steinmetz, 1965, p. 26) of 180 US corporations with foreign offices, branches or subsidiaries abroad, finding that 45 of the companies (32 per cent) indicated they had had US nationals fail as expatriate managers during the previous three years. Reasons for failure given by the companies included inability by the expa-

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triate manager or his family to adjust to the foreign environment. Subsequent research by Harzing (1995) illustrated that failure rates were not actually as high as the research purported. Nonetheless, it is not the rate of failure that has concerned researchers but that any failure (even one!) can be devastatingly costly to an organization (see e.g. Misa and Fabricatore, 1979; McNulty and Tharenou, 2004). 4. This argument holds true even in other contexts such as the military; Blue (2021, citing DOD, 2019) reports that male military trailing spouses constitute 9.1 per cent (54,831) of the overall active-duty military spouse population, while female military trailing spouses represent 90.9 per cent (550,885) (DOD, 2019), but that due to increasing attrition rates, the population is considered critical enough to warrant separate study to address their unique needs in the hope of retaining serving members. 5. It is important to note that the labour mobility field has not specifically and sufficiently explored bisexual or transgender people’s relocation challenges, thus despite using the term ‘LGBT’ as an overarching reference the focus has been primarily on lesbian and gay employees. While it is acknowledged that each of these groups is unique, the duty of care concerns raised in studies to date applies to all LGBT relocating employees. 6. Indeed, Haas et al. (2007) note that LGBT employees are often in higher levels of management than their heterosexual counterparts, thereby increasing the likelihood that they form a substantial percentage of the top 10 per cent of ‘talent’ that is tapped on the shoulder for international work arrangements.

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Van der Klis, M. and C. Mulder (2008), ‘Beyond the trailing spouse: the commuter partnership as an alternative to family migration’, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 23(1), 1–19. Van der Velde, M. E. G., C. J. H. Bossink and P. G. W. Jansen (2005), ‘Gender differences in the determinants of the willingness to accept an international assignment’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66, 81–103. Van der Velde, M. E. G., P. G. Jansen, P. M. Bal and K. J. van Erp (2017), ‘Dual-earner couples’ willingness to relocate abroad: the reciprocal influence of both partners’ career role salience and partner role salience’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26(2), 195–207. van Erp, K. J. P. M., E. Giebels, K. I. van der Zee and M. A. J. van Duijn (2011a), ‘Expatriate adjustment: the role of justice and conflict in intimate relationships’, Personal Relationships, 18, 58–78. van Erp, K. J., E. Giebels, K. I. van der Zee and M. A. van Duijn (2011b), ‘Let it be: expatriate couples’ adjustment and the upside of avoiding conflict’, Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 24(5), 539–60. Van Gus, W. and G. Kraaykamp (2008), ‘The emergence of dual-career couples: a longitudinal study of the Netherlands’, International Sociology, 23(3), 345–66. Van Leeuwen, L. (1997), Airconditioned Lifestyles: De Nieuwe Rijken in Jakarta. Het Spinhuis. Vance, C. and Y. McNulty (2014), ‘Why and how women and men acquire global career experience: a study of American expatriates in Europe’, International Studies of Management and Organization, 44(2), 34–54. Venugopal, V. and A. Huq (2022), ‘Migrant trailing spouses: career adaptability and occupational downshifting’, International Migration, 60(2), 143–59. Viney, L. and P. Brazeley, (1977), ‘The affective reactions of housewives to community relocation’, Journal of Community Psychology, S, 37–45. Volard, S. V., D. M. Francis, and F. W. Wagner III (1988), ‘Underperforming US expatriate managers: a study of problems and solutions’, Practising Manager, 9(1), 37–40. Voydanoff, P. (1980), The Implications of Work-Family Relationships for Productivity, New York: Work in America Institute. Waddell, J. (2014), ‘Same-sex expat experiences’, ExpatBriefing, 9 May. Wagner, M. R. and J. D. Westaby (2009), ‘The willingness to relocate to another country: the impact of cultural similarity, destination safety, and financial incentive’, International Journal of Psychology, 44(4), 257–65. Walls, Andrew (1996), The Missionary Movement in Christian History, Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Wallston, B. S., M. A. Foster and M. Berger (1978), ‘I will follow him: myth, reality or forced choice – job-seeking experiences of dual-career couples’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 3(1), 9–21. Walsh, K. (2007), ‘Travelling together? Work, intimacy, and home amongst British expatriate couples in Dubai’, in A. Colins and A.-M. Fechter (eds), Gender and Family Among Transnational Professionals, New York: Routledge. Wan, D., T. K. Hui and L. Tiang (2003), ‘Factors affecting Singaporeans’ acceptance of international postings’, Personnel Review, 32, 711–32. Wan, M., R. Singh and M. A. Shaffer (2017), ‘Global families’, in Y. McNulty and J. Selmer (eds), Research Handbook of Expatriates, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 468–89. Ward, C. and A. Kennedy (1999), ‘The measurement of sociocultural adaptation’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 23, 659–77.

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5. Dual-career expatriation: definitions and concepts Joanne Mutter and Yvonne Kallane

INTRODUCTION The number of people who identify as being part of a dual-career couple – defined as when both partners in a relationship are each committed to a career (Rapoport and Rapoport, 1969) – has been steadily growing (Cartus, 2018; Van der Velde, Jansen, Bal and Van Erp, 2017). While most dual-career couples do not relocate abroad, their challenges are many: juggling professional demands with home life, including raising children; coping with long hours or shift work; managing business travel and repeated absences from home; investing in career progression; and grappling with ‘career hierarchy’ decisions (Abele and Volmer, 2010; Elloy and Smith, 2003; Hein, 2005; Livingstone, 2014; Unger, Sonnetag, Niessen and Kuonath, 2015; Winkler and Rose, 2000). Career progression often requires working abroad (Glanz, 2003; Hamori and Koyuncu, 2011; Suutari, Brewster, Mäkelä, Dickmann and Tornioski, 2018), either because the labour market in one’s home country is tight and restricts local career opportunities (McNulty and Brewster, 2019), or a partner in the relationship is asked to go abroad by their company thus requiring the prioritisation of one person’s career over the other (Mäkelä, Känsälä and Suutari, 2011; Shortland, 2020). In some cases, the couple simply has a desire for novelty and adventure and to ‘see the world’ (Caligiuri and Bonache, 2016) and leverages their career(s) to do so. Whatever the motivation, global mobility has become integral to the careers of an ever increasing number of people (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021; Collings, Scullion and Dowling, 2009; Inkson and Thorn, 2010; Riusala and Suutari, 2000), and especially for dual-career couples (McNulty and Moeller, 2018; Schütter and Boerner, 2013). This chapter focuses on expatriate dual-career couples where either partner, or both, relocate abroad. The authors of this chapter did not have to look far to find examples of dual-career couples living with global mobility. The first author, after spending many years living abroad as a traditional trailing spouse, now resides in her native New Zealand, working as an academic at a local university, while her partner continues to travel extensively for his career; the second author, an Australian citizen, has for the past 20 years lived in the USA, China and Singapore in a dual-career marriage, successfully juggling the demands of motherhood and a fulltime academic career. We both understand at a personal level the challenges of juggling dual-career expatriation as ‘cultural insiders’ (see Collins and McNulty, 2020; Fayard and Van Maanen, 2015), while at a professional level we recognise that research on dual careers continues to 125

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lag practice (McNulty and Moeller, 2018), despite ongoing calls for more studies (Kraimer, Bolino and Mead, 2016; Shaffer, Kraimer, Chen and Bolino, 2012). In this chapter, we begin by introducing definitions and concepts about dual-career expatriation. We include a brief history of early dual-career expatriation studies and a definition of the trailing spouse. We also discuss issues of construct clarity. We then review the literature to examine two types of dual-career couples: traditional dual-career expatriates in which there is a trailing spouse who has given up a career for their partner, resulting in one career having priority over the other, at least while abroad; and contemporary forms of global mobility that enable two sustainable careers but not necessarily while both partners are living abroad together as expatriates. As far as we are aware, no previous publication has provided a comparative review of these two forms of dual-career expatriation. Next, we give special consideration to the enduring absence of theoretical development as well as methodological challenges of expatriate dual-career research. We conclude with a detailed future research agenda calling for more studies on this important topic.

DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS Defining Dual-career Expatriation The term ‘dual-career’ dates back to the late 1960s when it was used to describe typically non-relocating married partners who both pursued a career (Rapoport and Rapoport, 1969). A career is defined as an “evolving sequence of … work experiences over time” (Arthur, Hall and Lawrence, 1989, p. 8), by people with career responsibilities, aspirations and a psychological commitment to professional growth (Bruce and Reed, 1994; Carson and Bedeian, 1994; Rapoport and Rapoport, 1990). Key to the definition of dual-career couples is that both partners are committed to their career and to the relationship (Hamori and Koyuncu, 2011; Rapoport and Rapoport, 1976; van Gus and Kraaykamp, 2008). We define dual-career expatriates as individuals with an unyielding psychological commitment to their professional careers, which requires relocation abroad, in combination with commitment to a personal relationship that may or may not involve the relocation of their partner abroad; that the commitment to career and personal relationship is extended by both adult partners; and that psychological commitment to a professional career continues even in instances of unemployment or under-employment while abroad.

How dual-career couples pursue their career interests in a home-country context has been of strong interest to social researchers for some time (Fram and Sheehan, 1994; Green, 1997; Lewis, 1991; Parker and Arthur, 2004; Pixley, 2009a; Reynolds and Bennett, 1991; Wallston, Foster and Berger, 1978). While ‘legal marriage’ as a defining criterion for couples has long been superseded (Lingard and Francis, 2005), as has more recently the criterion of heterosexuality in the definition of expa-

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triate partnerships (KPMG, 2017; Mercer, 2017; ORC Worldwide, 2008), normative attitudes about gender roles (Bohmer and Schinnenburg, 2016; Hoffman, 1989; Schoen, Rogers and Amato, 2006) and family in dual-careers remains fundamentally unchanged (e.g. Bielby and Bielby, 1992; Hertz, 1986; Huber and Spitze, 1981), even today (see Fechter and Coles, 2007; Hardill and Watson, 2004; Lindemann, 2019; Mahler and Pessar, 2001; Saxena and Bhatnagar, 2009). Thus, then as now, dual-career couples are still typically conceived as a husband and wife of the opposite sex. Moreover, while some dual-career couples take an egalitarian approach to their respective careers (e.g. each ‘taking turns’; Budworth, Enns and Rowbotham, 2008; Roos, 2013), the majority maintain a traditional approach where a woman gives up her career to take up the primary role of family caregiver as the ‘trailing spouse’ (Higgins and Duxbury, 1992; Lauring and Selmer, 2010; Masterson and Hoobler, 2015; Moore, 2002; Slobodin, 2019; Stringer-Moore, 1981), or a woman with children adopts a ‘flexible’ career with the expectation that she, and not her husband, will scale back her career ambitions and/or work hours to enable her to be responsive to their family’s needs (Radcliffe and Cassell, 2015). Why this (still) occurs remains an ongoing focus of research. Early Dual-career Expatriation Studies The challenge of dual-career expatriation for multinational corporations (MNCs) was first highlighted by Black and Stephens (1989) who showed that lack of adjustment of a trailing spouse could impact on the working expatriate's own adjustment, with related implications for job performance. A key focus of their study, as with others at that time (e.g. Thornton and Thornton, 1995), was that most companies failed to offer the trailing spouse any form of pre-departure training or job seeking assistance before or during a move abroad, with almost all of the pre-departure emphasis being only on the working spouse. Researcher Michael Harvey (see Selmer and Stoermer, Chapter 2, this volume) extended the early research in 1995 to identify employment related issues experienced by both partners in the dual-career couple, finding that one such challenge was the immediate loss of the trailing spouse’s income and additional stress for the family while the trailing spouse attempted to find employment abroad (Harvey 1996; Harvey, Buckley, Novicevic and Wiese, 1999). These studies illustrated how the career ‘life-cycle’ of the trailing spouse impacted on willingness to relocate and showed differences in adjustment for spouses that had opted out of the workforce prior to a move and for whom a career was no longer a priority. Harvey’s subsequent studies focused specifically on dual-career couples, examining their willingness to relocate, their experiences during the assignment, and their expectations upon repatriation (e.g. Harvey, 1997). By surveying both male- and female-led dual-career couples, including their partners, and by examining each stage of the assignment, Harvey provided (up to that time) the most complete picture of the impact of dual-career expatriation, with findings relating specifically to the dual-career impact on both partners as opposed to only on the working expatriate (e.g.

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Harvey and Wiese, 1998). Key concerns for couples included impact on the trailing spouse’s career (both during the assignment and once repatriated), work-family conflict in terms of role strain, and the value of organisational support in facilitating spousal employment (e.g. Harvey, 1998). These concerns, in turn, were found to result in higher refusal rates to relocate abroad (Harvey and Buckley, 1998). Thus, suggestions that a relocation could adversely affect the career of the trailing spouse were confirmed, given the statistical evidence at the time (and even more recently; McNulty, 2012), indicating that spousal employment reduces by about half during expatriation (Yeoh and Khoo, 1998). The strength of these early insights is evidenced by the fact that the same issues continue to be featured in dual-career expatriate research today (Andreason, 2008; Bauer and Taylor, 2001; Bello and Tinder, 2009; Haslberger and Hippler, Chapter 3, this volume; Kanstrén and Suutari, 2021; Lauring and Selmer, 2010; Lazarova, Westman and Shaffer, 2010; Shaffer and Harrison, 2001). Indeed, Cartus (2018) reports that 35 per cent of their client companies struggle to convince key talent to relocate abroad due to the loss of their spouse or partner’s income and career. Concept of the Trailing Spouse A core concept in the definition of dual-career expatriation is the ‘trailing spouse’ (McNulty and Moeller, 2018, p. 259; see also Kallane and Punnett, Chapter 4, this volume): the partner for whom an international assignment or work experience is not offered given that one spouse’s job typically provides the opportunity to relocate internationally whereas the other’s does not.

Early research about the expatriate trailing spouse (e.g. Harvey, 1998) positioned the dual-career couple as being comprised of a married male expatriate with a female trailing spouse who, if she had a career, gave it up in order to relocate for her husband’s career. Harvey defined the trailing spouse as a “partner who was forced to relocate due to their spouse’s transfer” (Harvey, 1995, p. 226). There is some truth to the forced nature of the arrangement: Fechter (2007), in her study of expatriate husbands and female trailing spouses in Indonesia, finds that the Indonesian visa issued to expatriate wives is officially termed ikut swami, meaning ‘following the husband’, which strictly forbids them from accepting paid employment (see also Fechter, 2010). The concept of the ‘trailing spouse’ during expatriation is not new.1 Research about the early twentieth-century lives of diplomats, colonialists and missionaries illustrates the subservient role that wives assumed for the sake of their husband’s overseas sojourn, often for much longer periods of time than they would today. Chaudhuri (1988, p. 517) writes that the British wives of “white male colonials” were considered secondary to their more powerful husbands, having “no legal voice and no particular political or economic power” (see also Brownfoot, 1984). Their role

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abroad expected of them willing dedication and compliance in the pursuit of unpaid ‘kinship labour’ (Callan and Ardener, 1984). In return, they were given an enviable life, prized for its holiday-like existence (di Leonardo, 1987) and deliberate exclusion from the local (usually poorer) community in which they lived (van Leeuwen, 1997). These ‘rewards’ for duty were nonetheless contradictory: in exchange for their sacrifice and ‘living in limbo’ existence (Tremayne, 1984), most trailing spouses were not welcomed by the native population (Chaudhuri and Strobel, 1992). The trailing spouse has traditionally been viewed in less than flattering terms. In the earliest days they were viewed as representative of the worst side of colonialism – racist, snobby and having ‘a pervading aura of superiority’ (Callaway, 1987; Gartrell, 1984; Knapman, 1986; Knight, 2001). Even today, an expatriate trailing spouse is viewed in stereotypically similar ways (Walsh, 2007, p. 63) as “women who do not work and instead spend their days shopping, meeting friends for lunch or coffee, and indulging in beauty treatments”; and even maliciously, for example, by having “a dependence on prescription anti-depressants, plastic surgery, or the sexual and emotional attention of a personal trainer or tennis coach”. As research progressed, the perception of a passive trailing spouse, in (both) homeand host-country contexts, was being questioned (see Bruegel, 1996; Bunker, Zubek, Vanderslice and Rice, 1992; Eby, 2001; Maguire, 2001), a trend that continues today (e.g. McNulty and Moeller, 2018; Mutter and Thorn, 2019; Permits Foundation, 2022) and which is a main focus of the remainder of this chapter. For example, while most relocating families today still do so because of a husband’s career (Kurotani, 2006; McNulty, 2012),2 less are ‘forced’ to go and instead choose to relocate with their partner for economic or personal reasons (Dickmann, Doherty, Mills and Brewster, 2008; Mäkelä, Känsälä and Suutari, 2011). Critically, research has shown that the trailing spouse, when choosing to prioritise their husband’s career, has much greater agency in the choice to relocate or to stay behind; thus, not all dual-career situations require that one spouse is forced to give up their career for the other. In the international context, Mutter (2017), in her study of expatriate sporting families, found that a majority of sailing spouses opted for a split family arrangement in which members of the family stayed behind in the home country while their partners lived abroad to pursue their sailing career (see Mutter, Chapter 11, this volume). Such arrangements, while challenging, suggest that the context of dual-career expatriation, and the profile of an expatriate dual-career couple, is changing: dual-career expatriation may result in relocation abroad together as a couple, or, periods of geographic separation (Hutchings and Kallane, Chapter 13, this volume; van Gus and Kraaykamp, 2008). Issues of Construct Clarity The definition of a dual-career couple continues to be plagued by a number of issues related to construct clarity (Molloy and Ployhart, 2012). First, as shown above, an essential criterion is psychological commitment to a career for which one retains a professional identity (Harvey, 1995; Rapoport and Rapoport, 1969, 1990).

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This negates the inclusion of couples who pursue ‘work’ for mainly economic or social (but not professional) reasons (see Pixley, 2009b), who are thus defined as ‘dual-income’ (Duxbury, Lyons and Higgins, 2007) or ‘dual-earner’ (Masterson and Hoobler, 2015), but not dual-career. In studies of dual-career expatriates, the distinction is important: a job is much easier to replace abroad than a career.3 For example, a job is based on meeting an economic or social need and is not usually constrained by educational qualifications, geographic location in terms of licensing requirements, industry, or advancement/progression, whereas a career relies on all of these to fulfil its objectives, which can take a lot more time – often months or years. When the terms ‘dual-income’ and ‘dual-earner’ are used inter-changeably with ‘dual-career’ to mean the same thing (e.g. Van der Velde et al., 2017), or the construct being examined is not made explicit through a clear definition (e.g. Kierner, 2015), measures are not likely to accurately represent the underlying construct (Cappelli, 2012), and comparability between studies is jeopardised (Kraimer, Bolino and Mead, 2016). The need for construct clarity extends, however, beyond the simple requirements of academic rigour, to also consider the needs of end-users. As Tharenou (2015) argues, consistent definitions are also needed for practical applications to be of value to the business community. A second issue with construct clarity is the assumption that successful dual-career expatriation is achieved when both spouses are employed abroad. When too much emphasis is placed on securing a ‘job’, as opposed to psychologically fulfilling a ‘career’, under-employment and its related outcomes, including deep levels of resentment, are likely to arise. McNulty (2012), in her study of 264 trailing spouses in 54 host locations, found that while many spouses secured employment or established a ‘new career’ while abroad, it was done in the spirit of compromise to accommodate their husband’s international career opportunity; as such, the ‘new career’ was frequently found to be unsustainable over the long-term through multiple relocations or even back home, under-paid and therefore unfulfilling, and not ideally what he or she had in mind.

TYPES OF DUAL-CAREER EXPATRIATION The landscape of contemporary global mobility is rapidly changing. In some parts of the world, such as in Asia and Europe, traditional assigned expatriation has been steadily replaced by newer and less expensive forms of mobility, such as self-initiated work arrangements, short-term assignments, and international commuting, among others (Bonache, Brewster, Suutari and De Saá, 2010; Mäkelä, Särenpää and McNulty, 2017; McNulty and Brewster, 2019; Selmer, Andresen and Cerdin, 2017; Tahvanainen, Welch and Worm, 2005). The need for increasing flexibility in the work-life arrangements of families (Eby, Dematteo and Russell, 1997; Moen and Sweet, 2004; Wan, Singh and Shaffer, 2017) means there has been considerable take up of these new forms of mobility. The utilisation of non-traditional forms of global mobility is expected to further increase in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic

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(PwC, 2021). As such, when an international relocation is presented, there are now more choices for dual-career couples, with two prevailing arrangements that can be adopted: one where there is a trailing spouse, and another where there is a stay-behind spouse. The following section considers the concerns, issues and opportunities of both arrangements, noting that the traditional expatriate trailing spouse arrangement has been more thoroughly researched, while the contemporary stay-behind spouse arrangement is significantly under-researched in global mobility studies.4 Traditional Dual-career Expatriation: The Trailing Spouse Traditional long-term expatriation frequently involves the relocation of an expatriate and their accompanying partner and children. These arrangements take the form of either a trailing spouse who gives up their career to relocate abroad and support their partner’s career, or a spouse with no career who moves abroad to support their partner just as they would at home (see McNulty, 2012). In traditional dual-career arrangements, the trailing spouse and any children become ‘dependants’ in the working expatriate’s work permit application,5 which may or may not allow the trailing spouse to work, depending on the location to which they are going (Permits Foundation, 2022). Just as for domestic relocation (e.g. Eby, 2001), traditional dual-career expatriation entails that one spouse gives up their career while the other continues in theirs. In other words, couples engaging in this type of expatriation actively pursue a ‘career prioritisation’ strategy when making decisions to relocate (Challiol and Mignonac, 2005; Gupta, Banerjee and Gaur, 2012). Career prioritisation has been defined by work-family scholars as “the relative priority of a person’s career compared to his or her partner’s career” (Greenhaus, Parasuraman, Granrose, Rabinowitz and Beutell, 1989, p. 142). The impact of career prioritisation is that the trailing spouse’s income subsequently declines, which can make it more difficult for them to express voice in subsequent relocation decisions (Hardill, Green, Dudleston and Owen, 1997; Livingstone, 2014; McNulty, 2012; Pixley, 2008). One of the biggest challenges multinational employers have encountered with traditional dual-career expatriation is overcoming the dual-career couples’ reluctance to relocate due to giving up the would-be trailing spouse’s career (Baldridge, Eddleston and Veiga, 2006; Handler and Lane, 1997). As shown earlier, this has been a topic of ongoing interest for a long time to both researchers and human resource practitioners across all types of geographical relocation (domestically and internationally) and disciplines (e.g. Becker and Moen, 1999; Bird and Schnurman-Crook, 2005; Bruce and Reed, 1994; Hall and Hall, 1979; Higgins and Duxbury, 1992; Parker and Arthur, 2004; Shahnasarian, 1991; Smith, 1992; Viers and Prouty, 2001). A particular focus of dual-career expatriation studies is whether the gender of the ‘lead’ expatriate impacts on the decision. Van der Velde, Bossink and Jansen (2005) found that male and female employees of a large Anglo-Dutch MNC were influenced by different decision factors. Women with a longer tenure in their respective professions were more willing to trail their (male) spouse than those with only a short tenure. The authors suggest by drawing on rational choice theory that women who

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have reached a certain stage in their career more easily agree to take a break because they do not perceive that it will be excessively disruptive. In another study by Groeneveld (2008) of male and female Dutch diplomats, differences in willingness to trail were dependent on life-cycle stage (no children vs child-bearing vs raising children, etc.). If the would-be trailing spouse is male (and thus representing a minority of the trailing spouse population; Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021), there are concerns about stigmatisation and discrimination when relocating to locations where traditional gender norms prevail (Harris, 2004). Early research shows that men not only predominantly seek gainful employment whilst abroad, but also have an expectation of organisational assistance to expedite the process (Punnett, 1997). However, these expectations, particularly around development opportunities (Selmer and Leung, 2003) and establishing networking contacts (Cole, 2012), are rarely met. It is often only through the (female) working spouse’s support that the male partner is able to keep their career on track during a relocation (Känsälä, Mäkelä and Suutari, 2015; Shortland, 2020). Willingness to relocate is best understood by examining the adverse impact of a move for the would-be trailing partner (Bird and Bird, 1985; Harvey and Buckley, 1998; Riusala and Suutari, 2000; Tharenou, 2008). Statistics indicate that for those who do decide to relocate, the impact of spousal employment feasibility is significant, with employment rates dropping considerably during an actual relocation (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2014; Kanstrén and Suutari, 2021; McNulty, 2012). For some, the likely change in employment status can be a conscious decision to take on family responsibilities in a primary caregiver role and to strengthen the family unit (Groeneveld, 2008; Slobodin, 2019), while also retaining an ongoing overall commitment to their career despite being unemployed (Cherry, 2010; Mäkelä and Suutari, 2013). However, the long hours endemic in expatriate roles (Cole, 2011; Shortland and Cummins, 2007) often means that the trailing spouse is doing most of this work alone. For others, the struggle to find meaningful employment can be daunting. Many are required to negotiate language issues (Cole, 2011; Roos, 2013), to overcome complications related to work permits (Beaverstock, 2005; Vijayakumar and Cunningham, 2020; Vogel et al., 2008), and to contend with a (continuing) general lack of organisational support from their partners’ company (Eby, Douthitt, Perrin, Noble, Atchley and Ladd, 2002; Kilgore and Shorrock, 1991; Kupka and Cathro, 2007). Under-employment is a common outcome (Cooke and Speirs, 2005; McNulty, 2012; Vance and McNulty, 2014; Ridgway, 2021). Recent research shows that the trailing spouse’s ‘dual-career profile’ can impact on their success when looking for employment abroad (McNulty and Moeller, 2018).

CONTEMPORARY DUAL-CAREER EXPATRIATION: THE STAY-BEHIND SPOUSE Recent studies show that career prioritisation among dual-career expatriate couples no longer assumes the traveller’s career takes precedence; staying behind to

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enhance the would-be trailing spouse’s own career can also be a reflexive choice for partners (Gupta et al., 2012; Konopaske, Robie and Ivancevich, 2005; Mutter, 2017). Sometimes referred to as ‘dual-career transnational living’, it is the result of both careers consciously being prioritised (Cho and Allen, 2019; Hardill, 2004). A good example is dual-career commuter partnerships that allow both partners to be employed in their specialised professions, thus circumventing tight labour market conditions in either the home or host location (Sandow, 2014), while prioritising their individual career development (Sallee, 2021). Couples in this scenario do so not only for financial benefit but also out of professional necessity (Lindemann, 2019), thus living some or most of the time geographically separated from each other in different countries. Global mobility consultancies, such as ECA (2016) and Mercer (2017), report that the impact on a partner’s career is a common barrier to traditional accompanied expatriation, with about one quarter of client companies globally, and 41 per cent of European companies specifically, using stay-behind arrangements to overcome this challenge. EY (2014) and PwC (2014, 2015, 2021) report similar findings, with more client companies opting for and increasing their use of ‘special arrangements’ such as employees and their spouses working and living in different countries. There are also instances when there is a preference for avoiding disruption to children’s lives, especially during critical years in their education, which can form the basis of a stay-behind decision (ECA, 2016). The arrangement in these circumstances prioritises family over career for both spouses (as parents), thus providing stability for any dependent children (Haour-Knipe, 1989; Patton, Doherty and Shield, 2014; Van der Klis and Mulder, 2008). There may also be situations where commuting reflects a prioritising of the travellers’ career as a function of: (1)

gendered beliefs, often grounded in cultural expectations, meaning that in some cultures, such as in South Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan, there is a strong belief that “a family can be maintained, even if family members do not live together for a certain period of time” (Kim and Froese, 2012, p. 3427); (2) economic necessity (Van der Klis and Mulder, 2008); or, (3) safety, security or quality of life concerns, where it is not practical for family members to live in a host location with the working expatriate (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2016; Fee, 2017; PwC, 2015). Irrespective of the drivers for deciding to engage in a stay-behind situation, the arrangement has been shown to significantly impact each member of the dual-career couple in different ways (Copeland, 2008; ECA, 2018). Families without children naturally have fewer responsibilities; however, loneliness by both spouses as a result of the others’ absence is a common outcome despite both being engaged in careers of their own. Another outcome is the travelling spouse’s feelings of isolation and temporariness while living abroad, manifested most often in sparsely furnished accom-

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modations and excessively long working hours to over-compensate for a non-existent social life (see Hutchings and Kallane, Chapter 13, this volume). Families with children naturally have more responsibilities, especially for the stay-behind spouse who may need to switch from full-time to part-time employment (Stewart and Donald, 2006) or other flexible working arrangements (Parkes, Carnell and Farmer, 2005) in order to balance their (new) single-parent domestic responsibilities (Mutter and Thorn, 2019; Sandow, 2014). Such arrangements often entail reduced pay (Edwards, 2012) or reduced promotion and career opportunities (Malatzky, 2013). Just as it does for working dual-career parents without a travelling partner (McIntosh, McQuaid, Munro and Dabir-Alai, 2012), the amount of ‘professional adaptation’ required by the stay-behind spouse is influenced by the age of any dependent children (Fischlmayr and Kollinger-Santer, 2013; Mutter and Thorn, 2019), which can contribute to unequal role distribution across work and home (Copeland, 2008). The age of any dependent children also impacts the overall work–life balance of dual-career travellers, with the greater negative impact experienced by female travellers with young children (Fischlmayr and Kollinger-Santer, 2013) who, regardless of culture, still retain most of their family caretaker responsibilities even while travelling (Fischlmayr and Puchmüller, 2015). Additionally, female travellers receive little respite when they return home (Mayerhofer, Hartmann, Michelitsch-Riedl and Kollinger, 2004; Westman, Etzion and Gattenio, 2008). While domestic research indicates that there will be a more egalitarian approach to dual-career decisions as dependent children age (Allen and Finkelstein, 2014), traditional gender ideologies prioritising family over the maternal career remains a challenge, even among today’s contemporary dual-career couples (Dittman, Henriquez and Roxburgh, 2016; Mutter and Thorn, 2019; Sallee, 2021). Indeed, for some female travellers, contemporary global mobility may actually exacerbate familial challenges compared to traditional dual-career expatriation (Shortland, 2021). In contrast, paternal career impact for contemporary dual-career expatriate couples remains relatively unkown. Whilst research grounded in the military context indicates the deployment of the female partner does not impact the male stay-behind partner’s employment as much as the reverse (Angrist and Johnson, 2000; Cooke and Speirs, 2005), this is an area that warrants further research attention.

SUPPORT AND STRATEGIES FOR DUAL-CAREER EXPATRIATION An enduring theme of most dual-career expatriate studies is (the lack of) organisational support to address the dual-career issue for traditional dual-career expatriation (Anderson, 2005; Fish and Wood, 1997; Selmer and Leung, 2003; Shortland, 2020). McNulty (2012) found that while most companies give considerable attention to the logistics of a relocation, far less effort is made to help trailing spouses build the professional and social skills needed to address their dual-career situation. As a result,

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while 80 per cent of trailing spouses in her study had a tertiary-qualified career prior to relocating, only 36 per cent were able to continue in their career once abroad. The types of support needed to overcome this problem includes outplacement services, career coaching, education reimbursement (for obtaining further qualifications), assistance to obtain work permits, professional contacts, job search assistance, annual or one-time reimbursement of expenses, cash allowances, CV preparation, and networking opportunities. Other studies have found that dual-career issues can have a negative impact on trailing spouse adjustment (Andreason, 2008; Cole, 2011; Harvey, 1997, 1998; Haslberger and Brewster, 2008; Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge, Waibel, Fliege, Bellinger and Rüger, 2022; Shaffer and Harrison, 2001). Indeed, the relationship between organisational support and adjustment during traditional dual-career expatriation is well documented (Caligiuri, Hyland and Joshi, 1998; Chen and Shaffer, 2018; Collings, Doherty, Luethy and Osborn, 2011; Shaffer, Harrison, Gilley and Luk, 2001; Takeuchi, Wang, Marinova and Yao, 2009; Van der Zee, Ali and Salome, 2005). Moreover, work–family conflict arising from other forms of global mobility (e.g. short-term assignments, international commuting) has been suggested to impact on work performance (see Mäkelä, Saarenpää and McNulty, 2017). Brown (2008) showed that interrupting or abandoning a career leads to a loss of power, identity and self-worth for the trailing spouse, with spill-over effects to the working expatriate. The Permits Foundation (2022) reports that trailing spouses perceive working during expatriation to have a positive impact on family relationships, their health and well-being, and their willingness to continue with expatriation more generally. These findings mirror those in non-expatriating populations (e.g. Schoen, Rogers and Amato, 2006), suggesting that dual-career support remains highly valued by working expatriates and their career-oriented trailing spouses. As with traditional dual-career expatriation, there is an enduring absence of focused organisational support for the contemporary stay-behind spouse. In the rare instances when it is provided by the travelling expatriate’s company, ‘support’ is typically restricted to basic elements such as arranging airfares and accommodation for the traveller (Jais, Smyrnios and Hoare, 2015). In even rarer cases, there may be an occasional offering of financial support in the form of flights for the stay-behind spouse and children to visit the traveller in the host country (Chan, Leung and Yu, 2012; Hutchings and Kallane, Chapter 13, this volume). The absence of such support, irrespective of the reasons, places the onus on the dual-career couple to develop their own strategies to achieve two sustainable careers. A recent qualitative study identified three career coordination strategies adopted by dual-career couples in this regard (Känsälä et al., 2015): the hierarchical strategy where the lead career is prioritised and the trailing spouse either opts out or scales down their career; the egalitarian strategy that requires some career restriction by both spouses as both careers are considered of equal importance; or the loose coordination strategy where each partner is equally invested in their independent careers and there is no substantial impact on the career because the couple chooses a living arrangement that sustains both. Shortland (2020), in their study of tradi-

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tional dual-career expatriation in the oil and gas industry, found support for each of the career co-ordination strategies as well as an emerging theme of co-working within the same organisation. A recent study by Mutter and Thorn (2019) found little evidence for the adoption of egalitarian or loose co-ordination strategies for stay-behind spouses. They did however, find that recurring prioritisation of the globally mobile partner’s career can lead to the stay-behind partner changing their career, often involving self-employment in a field that is authentic for them. Entrepreneurial secondary career strategies and co-working warrant further research attention in dual-career expatriation. In contrast to the above, Copeland’s (2008) study of stay-behind spouses found that effective forms of support resulting in a more favourable outlook on the living arrangement comes less from the organisation than it does from the travelling spouse. It includes the travelling spouse’s willingness to do home and car repairs (or organising to have them done), paying bills, and organising social events during their periods of return. Preparing meals and caring for elderly parents were also shared responsibilities. The organisational belief that the challenges of global mobility are expected to be borne by travellers and their families (Mayerhofer et al., 2004) may be attributed to an absence of understanding about the ramifications of such arrangements on the people living with it (Demel and Mayerhofer, 2010; Suutari, Brewster, Riusala and Syrjäkari, 2013). Military scholarship suggests that engendering feelings of inclusion (Blasko, 2015; Richardson, Mallette, O’Neal and Mancini, 2016) can encourage a positive attitude towards the organisation (Bellou and Gkousgkounis, 2015). Having a central contact point in the traveller’s organisation for the stay-behind spouse to liaise with can be helpful (de Burgh, White, Fear and Iversen, 2011; Huebner, Mancini, Bowen and Orthner, 2009), which has also been recognised in domestic Australian research regarding ‘fly in/fly out’ (FIFO) employment in the resources sector (Taylor and Simmonds, 2009). A meta-analysis conducted by Butts, Casper and Yang (2013) finds that employee’s work performance is positively impacted when supportive policies are in place that subsequently reduce work–family conflict (see also Hancock and Page, 2013).

RESEARCHING DUAL-CAREER EXPATRIATION: A FUTURE AGENDA Theoretical Challenges and Future Research Directions Before explicating specific research questions that can guide future research in this area, we first address why more methodologically rigorous research about dual-career expatriation is needed. Dual-career expatriation research has, for the past 30 years, focused largely on barriers to mobility, adjustment issues, and the role or lack of organisational support. Missing from this body of work, despite decades of scholarship, are practical theories

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(Lewin, 1945) that can explain how the issues that have been put forward might be resolved. We argue that theoretical development has the potential to not only guide organisational scholars towards asking more, and better, critical questions (Whetten, 1989), but can also enlighten organisational practitioners (Dickmann, 2017; Van de Ven, 1989). As such, it appears prudent to move away from applying theory that simply frames (and re-frames) the dual-career expatriate phenomenon as perpetually ‘issue-laden’ (see e.g. Kierner, 2018; Ridgway, 2021; Rosenbaum-Feldbrügge et al., 2022; Sallee, 2021), to instead develop theory that allows us to see the phenomenon in a different, and potentially more practical and positive, way (see e.g. Patton, Doherty and Shield, 2014). A recent example of this approach is a study by McNulty and Moeller (2018) that intentionally avoids theorising the dual-career trailing spouse as a homogenised population, but instead categorises them according to four ‘profiles’ (ready, reborn, resigned and resentful) as representative of their ‘stage’ in the traditional dual-career expatriate journey. The theoretical contribution of the study is that it adopts a dual-career success focus elucidating that (1) membership to a particular R-profile is fluid rather than fixed (indicating that dual-career challenges can be overcome), and (2) overall responsibility for dual-career success rests with the couple as opposed to the organisation (personal vs organisational agency). By challenging researchers to see the dual-career expatriate spouse through a different lens, the authors aimed to inform organisational selection and support policies. Other examples of recent theoretical development that has changed how we might view traditional dual-career expatriation includes: a grounded theory model of spousal relocation decision making (Gupta et al., 2012); a model of spousal influence on willingness to expatriate (Konopaske et al., 2005); a typology of career coordination strategies adopted by dual-career expatriate couples (Känsälä et al., 2015; see earlier); and an advancement of career capital theory to include career self-management of the dual-career trailing spouse (Kanstrén and Suutari, 2021). For contemporary dual-career expatriation (i.e. the stay-behind approach), good examples of theory development include Van der Klis and Mulder’s (2008) typology of dual-career commuter partnerships; and Westman and colleagues advancement of work-family conflict theory through the lens of international business travel (Westman and Etzion, 2002; Westman, Etzion and Chen, 2009). Mutter and Thorn (2019) similarly advance theory by testing if the three proposed career coordination strategies (hierarchical, egalitarian or loose coordination) developed by Känsälä et al. (2015) for traditional expatriation (i.e. the trailing spouse approach) can be applied to stay-behind arrangements. They found that only one of the three, the hierarchical strategy, was applied in the stay-behind arrangement. Furthermore, they identified an additional strategy, the entrepreneurial secondary-career strategy, where the stay-behind partner changed their career to accommodate the new living arrangement. Such an approach has been applied in military contexts (e.g. Agbisit, 2019; McBride and Cleymans, 2014), thus highlighting the value of studies across communities (e.g. missionary, military, sports and education) for inter-disciplinary

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learning (see e.g. McNulty, Vance and Fisher, 2017; Mutter, Chapter 11, this volume; Trembath, Chapter 10, this volume). We encourage more research that advances practical theory development about dual-career expatriation and which is solution-focused. Doing so will result in researchers asking more, and better, critical questions, which can lead to more practical findings and answers. Also needed are fresh theoretical perspectives that unpack the dual-career expatriation phenomenon for today’s much wider range of global mobility work arrangements (e.g. self-initiated moves and commuting). Recognising that dual-career expatriation also occurs outside of the traditional trailing spouse approach is a first step towards academic research remaining relevant in the broader world of business. Here, we strongly advocate for solutions-focused research that examines personal (not organisational) agency as a response to dual-career challenges, and which refrains from ‘blaming it all on the company’. New areas of research include: RQ1: What is the role and extent of personal agency in addressing dual-career expatriation challenges? (a) When considering the various types of global work arrangements, how and when does investment in personal agency as a solution to dual-career expatriation increase and decrease dual-career success? (b) When resolving dual-career expatriation challenges, to what extent and under what circumstances do individuals seek answers for themselves versus looking to the employing organisation for solutions? RQ2: To what extent are coping mechanisms for dual-career expatriation different for (a) males vs females; (b) workers vs the trailing spouse, and (c) travellers vs the stay-behind spouse? RQ3: When considering that dual-career challenges are a major barrier in individuals’ willingness to accept an international work arrangement, how are decisions about dual-career expatriation made by the families involved? RQ4: Which global work arrangements result in more and less favourable dual-career expatriation outcomes for both spouses? RQ5: Building on Känsälä et al.’s (2015) career coordination strategies: (a) Are there other strategies not yet uncovered, including those potentially accelerated by COVID-19, such as the increased adoption of remote working by the trailing spouse? (b) Are these strategies more or less successful dependent upon (i) the mobility community of focus (military, corporate, religious, sports, etc.); (ii) stage of the family’s life-cycle (no children, young children, teenagers, etc.); and (iii) stage of one or both spouses’ career? (c) Are career coordination strategies adopted by dual-career expatriate couples generalisable across traditional (trailing spouse) and contemporary (stay-behind) dual-career approaches? Why or why not? (d) To what extent does the type of global work arrangement impact on the career coordination strategies adopted by dual-career expatriate couples?

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Methodological Challenges and Future Research Directions McNulty and Brewster (2017a, 2017b) highlight that various sampling issues permeate general business expatriate scholarship, an issue that is equally germane when looking at dual-career expatriation research. Regarding sampling, there are two key issues. First, clarification of the dual-career construct is needed to avoid inadvertently studying dual-income or dual-earner couples (see earlier). Failing to screen participants to adequately ensure the sample is a homogeneous group (Tharenou, 2017) results in the absence of construct clarity, which impacts on the ability to integrate knowledge across this field of enquiry. Second, given that the construct under examination in this chapter (as an example) is dual-career expatriation and not the dual-career individual, more multi-participant research with matched samples of workers and trailing spouses, or travellers and stay-behind spouses, is required. To date, most dual-career studies have been situated either from the perspective of the employee (see Mäkelä et al., 2011), the trailing spouse (see McNulty, 2012), or the partner who stays behind (see Mutter and Thorn, 2019), thus ignoring other key stakeholders. Needed are more studies that give voice to both members of the couple in order to capture more nuanced accounts of specific factors that impact on the success of dual-career expatriation. Examples include one of Harvey’s studies where he surveyed both partners in an expatriate dual-career couple (Harvey, 1997) and, more recently, Kierner and Suutari (2017) who interviewed both partners in dual-career couples that had recently repatriated. Another voice that is almost never heard, despite their potential contribution to the conversation around issues such as work–family balance, is that of any of the impacted children (Mutter, 2018). Matched samples have many benefits: it can help to reduce common method bias in quantitative studies (Kraimer et al., 2016) and can enhance the richness and completeness of qualitative interviews and surveys (Blaikie, 2007). At the same time, researchers should be aware of the ethical and practical challenges of using matched samples. Particularly in sensitive research, consideration should be given as to whether participation could lead to conflict between the participants, or whether participants may be more guarded in their responses knowing their responses will be compared to those of their partner (Lowton, 2018). More generally however, the inclusion of multiple voices can help to move forward the conversation about this topic by providing clearer and more specific directions for future studies. Our call for matched samples aside, it is worth noting that some of the exemplar studies we cite above suffer from relatively small sample sizes. Kierner and Suutari (2017), for instance, interviewed only 14 couples, and to find them the researchers had to draw on three different sources: participants of previous studies, personal contacts, and snowballing. Thus, small samples sizes are a pervasive issue facing dual-career researchers when attempting to give voice to matched participants. The above notwithstanding, we too as authors have faced challenges in accessing both partners in a dual-career couple for our own research efforts, yet we still strongly advocate that more needs to be done to facilitate multi-participant research going forward.

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One final methodological point worth considering, while not specific to dual-career research although it is certainly pertinent, is the need for researchers to consider the cross-cultural context of their study. Some fieldwork, for example, is grounded in egalitarian cultures where dual-career expatriation is likely to be highly represented, such as in Riusala and Suutari’s (2000) study of traditional dual-career expatriation among Finnish expatriates and their spouses, and Mutter’s (2017) study of contemporary stay-behind spouses in New Zealand. Other studies are grounded in cultures where traditional gender norms prevail, such as in Gupta et al.’s (2012) study of career prioritisation among male Indian dual-career expatriates and their female spouses, and Rowson and colleagues’ study of the work identity of trailing wives in Dubai (Rowson, Myer and Holdsworth, 2021). Our point is that analysis of dual-career couples' situations requires conscious reflection about the participants’ cultural context, especially as it relates to gender norms and stereotypes (Eagly and Kite, 1987). Doing so avoids sampling homogenisation (which tends to plague research on this topic!) and which, if unaddressed, risks reducing the trustworthiness of the findings. More research is needed in the following areas: RQ6: What are the characteristics of successful dual-career expatriation from the perspective of (i) the working expatriate, (ii) the trailing spouse, and (iii) accompanying children? (a) To what extent, and why, might their views be similar to and different from each other? (b) Whose viewpoint is the most important, and why? RQ7: What are the characteristics of successful dual-career expatriation from the perspective of the employing organisation? (a) To what extent, and why, might organisations’ views about success characteristics be similar to and different from those of the dual-career family? > (b) What types of support do organisations typically provide to address the dual-career expatriation challenge in terms of (i) refusal to go, and (ii) resolving career and employment issues during the relocation? (c) What are the strategies that organisations adopt to encourage personal agency on the part of the dual-career family in resolving dual-career challenges? RQ8: What are the characteristics of successful dual-career expatriation across cultures? (a) To what extent do various cultures favour traditional (trailing spouse) dual-career expatriation over contemporary (stay-behind) approaches? (b) What are the drivers for the adoption of one approach over the other? The steadily increasing number of people who identify as being part of a dual-career couple, including those for whom global mobility has become integral to their careers (e.g. Brook and Ditchburn, Chapter 14, this volume), means that understanding the challenges of dual-career expatriation warrants our attention, perhaps now more than ever. Systematic, methodologically rigorous, empirical research is needed to increase our understanding of not only the challenges dual-career expatriates face but

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how their concerns and issues can be overcome. Drawing on existing scholarship, we propose several additional research areas aimed at advancing the conceptual and empirical development of the dual-career expatriation field of enquiry. Gender and Future Research Directions Gender is a social concept that is constructed through social interactions that differentiate between masculine and feminine traits and which forms the basis of gender roles and gender stereotypes (Blackstone, 2003). Traditional conceptions of gender automatically position males as the main financial provider whose career is seen as essential, whereas females are seen as caretakers and homemakers whose careers are optional (see e.g. Blair, 1993; Turbine and Riach, 2012). Conversely, non-traditional gender role orientations emphasise that individuals in a relationship decide, together, which gender role to adopt based on equal power and egalitarianism (see e.g. Svejenova, Vives and Alvarez, 2010; Zimmerman, Haddock, Current and Ziemba, 2003). The difference is that one orientation preferences a need for maintaining societal norms about ‘acceptable’ gender roles, while the other ignores societal rules and considers what is ‘right’ for the couple. The role of gender in dual-career expatriation remains contentious (see Janssens, Cappellen and Zanoni, 2006). Domestic research indicates that, despite an ongoing increase in women’s participation in the labour force over the last century (Fernández, 2013), and an increasing societal trend towards egalitarian career attitudes (Matias and Fontaine, 2015; Waismel-Manor and Levanon, 2017), traditional gender ideologies persist that prioritise family over the maternal career. Long work hours have been found to reinforce the separation of the work and family spheres in domestic research (Cha, 2010; Unger et al., 2015) and whether the long hours typically worked by expatriates underpins the prioritisation of family over work for the female trailing spouse has yet to be considered. In traditional dual-career approaches (hetereosexual couples with a trailing spouse), men (still) dominate as the gender for whom a relocation abroad is typically offered (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021; Gripenburg, Niemisto and Alapeteri, 2013) with recursive and potentially enduring consequences for female expatriate employees (Bastida, Pinto and Harzing, 2021; Cole and McNulty, 2011). Here, a substantial body of literature (e.g. Adler, 1984; Caligiuri and Cascio, 1998; Fischlmayr, 2002; Harvey, 1998; Izraeli, Banai and Zeira, 1980; Janssens, Cappellen and Zanoni, 2006; Selmer and Leung, 2003; Tung, 2004) has considered a range of factors that impedes women’s opportunities to be offered work abroad, among them greater family–work conflict that increases with the presence of children (Fischlmayr and Puchmüller, 2016; Harris, 2004), and challenges arising from their male (trailing) partner’s identity adjustment related to work/career disruption (Collins and Bertone, 2017; Punnett, Crocker and Stevens, 1992). Female expatriate employees, unlike men, are considered non-traditional expatriates, meaning that they “have special circumstances that standard global mobility policies typically do not address” (McNulty and Hutchings, 2016, p. 701; see also Ezzedeen and Ritchey, 2008;

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Heikkinen, Lämsä and Hiillos, 2014; Hutchings and Michailova, 2017). In early research, Punnett (1997) found that male partners predominantly want to work during the international assignment and expect the company's assistance in finding appropriate activities. Employment networks, support regarding repatriation, administrative support, and financial compensations were identified as their most important needs. More recently, Cole (2012) has found that male partners do not expect employment assistance from their wife’s company, but do wish to receive information that facilitates their own network building and job search. Most felt reasonably well adjusted to the host-country culture, but not particularly at home or at ease interacting with host-country nationals. In contemporary dual-career approaches, women are more typically the stay-behind spouse, whose unequal role distribution across work and home is more a reflection of their ‘single-parent’ domestic responsibilities and caretaker (‘nurturer’) obligations than a traditional gender orientation (Copeland, 2008; Mutter and Thorn, 2019). The at-home workload is nonetheless significant, which can impact on decisions to engage in paid work or to pursue a career at home (Hearn, Jyrkinen, Piekkari and Oinonen, 2008). Indeed, Mäkelä, Lämsä, Heikkinen and Tanskanen (2017) found that work–life conflict for females was greater than their male counterparts when they were part of a dual-career couple, but less when they were in single-career relationships. Fischlmayr and Kollonger-Santer (2013) similarly found that dual-career women engaged in international business travel retain most of their caretaker responsibilities during their travels, with little respite when they return home (see also Mayerhofer et al., 2004; Westman et al., 2008). Taken together, research on gender and expatriation illustrates that how dual-career couples navigate their situation is dependent upon their gender role orientation (traditional vs egalitarian), which is influenced to some extent by race and ethnicity (Altman and Shortland, 2008; Hutchings, Lirio and Metcalfe, 2012; Hutchings, Michailova and Harrison, 2013; Shortland, 2009; Välimäki, Lämsä and Hiillos, 2009). Implications arising from the decision as to whose job facilitates the move abroad has been shown to result in negative outcomes; for example, Geist and McManus (2012, p. 215) found that “tied movers” (those who relocate due to their spouse’s job) tend to become unequal participants in the “household economy” and subsequently pushed out of the labour market while also being minimised in further family relocation decisions. Promising research by Känsälä et al. (2015) confirms that dual-career couples with a female expatriate and male trailing partner appear to emphasise non-traditional gender role orientations that value both partners' careers more than male expatriates with female trailing spouses. This has important implications for increasing women’s participation in the global workforce. More research is needed in the following areas: RQ9: How do differences in gender norms in cultural and institutional environments of home- and host-countries impact decisions about dual-career expatriation?

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RQ10: Which approach to dual-career expatriation (trailing spouse or stay-behind) affords the greatest opportunity for gender-neutral practices across both work and family domains? (a) Which approach (trailing spouse or stay-behind) facilitates and, in turn, increases women’s participation in expatriation as the lead expatriate? (b) Are long working hours a deterrent for women’s participation in expatriation as the lead expatriate? (c) What are the ‘special circumstances’ that standard global mobility policies typically do not address for female employee expatriates? What can be done to address it? Career (Re)Prioritisation and Future Directions Career prioritisation of only one career is inherent in dual-career expatriation when the partner whose career is relatively de-prioritised chooses to trail their spouse (Challiol and Mignonac, 2005; Gupta et al., 2012), and, depending on the drivers behind the choice, also when they choose to stay behind (Van der Klis and Mulder, 2008). Unemployment as well as under-employment of traditional trailing spouses remains a fundamental concern (McNulty, 2012; Permits Foundation, 2022), particularly in relation to willingness to go (Kollinger and Koris, 2021; Riusala and Suutari, 2000; Tharenou, 2008). While very little research has been conducted on the impact of the careers of those who stay behind, indications are that it requires professional compromise in terms of adopting flexible work or part-time arrangements (Parkes et al., 2005; Slišković and Juranko, 2019), which often results in reduced pay (Edwards, 2012) and reduced promotion and career opportunities (Malatzky, 2013). Thus, one spouse’s career may become relatively de-prioritised despite it being the opposite of the couple’s intention. Reprioritising one’s career as the trailing or stay-behind spouse has received some attention. For the trailing spouse, suggestions range from facilitating mentoring relationships between those about to depart and recently repatriated (Konopaske et al., 2005), to formalising peer support from current trailing spouses who can provide assistance during the settling-in period (Cole, 2011). Whilst we are unable to find any specific suggestions focused on expediting re-employment of the repatriated dual-career spouse, McNulty’s (2012) suggestion that organisations assist spouses in maintaining a remote connection with their career during their expatriation through paid subscriptions and association memberships should contribute in some way towards career re-engagement. For the stay-behind spouse, the very limited available research indicates that for those who wish to re-focus or change their careers, there may be a need to engage in re-education or re-training (McBride and Cleymans, 2014; Mutter, 2017). The above notwithstanding, the “implementation gap remains between work-family research and practical impact” (Kossek et al., 2011, p. 353). One argument as to why, is that while researchers frequently propose a variety of solution-oriented practices,

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there is weak validation of their effectiveness (Kierner, 2015). Additionally, we know almost nothing about the impact of dual-career expatriation on the intimate partner relationship between married couples and/or their family unit (see McNulty, 2015 for a recent – and rare – exception about expatriate divorce). With the exception of some studies that broadly allude to successful relocating marriages as being built on compromise, respect, ‘personality’, social connectedness and frequent communication (Crouch, Adrian, Adler, Wood and Thomas, 2017; Isay, 1968; James, Hunsley, Navara and Alles, 2004; Van Erp, Van Der Zee, Giebels and Van Duijn, 2013; Zimmerman et al., 2003), much more research is needed to understand the mechanisms through which couples navigate the stresses and strains of daily married life while ‘on the move’. In order to bridge the practice–relevance gap between academia and industry, more research is needed in the following areas: RQ11: How have partners in dual-career expatriate couples successfully navigated the career impact of trailing their spouse, or of staying behind? RQ12: What is the long-term impact of prioritising the career of one spouse in a dual-career expatriate couple over that of the other? (a) To what extent are expatriate relationships sustainable and/or successful (i.e. divorce-free) when one spouse is required to give up or re-prioritise their career as the (i) trailing spouse or (ii) stay-behind spouse? (b) What is the psychological impact of career re-prioritisation for the (i) trailing spouse, and (ii) stay-behind spouse? RQ13: Which organisational support practices best facilitate sustainable expatriate dual-careers for (i) the traditional working/trailing spouse approach and (ii) the contemporary travelling/stay-behind approach? (a) Which personal, network and community support practices (i.e. practices that are not reliant on organisations) best facilitate sustainable expatriate dual-careers for (i) the traditional working/trailing spouse approach and (ii) the contemporary travelling/stay-behind approach? (b) How is the effectiveness of these practices measured and validated? What methods are best suited to testing their efficacy?

CONCLUSION In this chapter, we have presented a comprehensive review of expatriate dual-careers combining, for the first time, both traditional trailing spouse and contemporary stay-behind approaches. Our focus has been on expatriate dual-career couples where either partner, or both, relocate abroad. We began the chapter by introducing definitions and concepts about dual-career expatriation, including a brief history of early dual-career expatriation studies and a definition of the trailing spouse. We also discussed issues of construct clarity by explicating the psychological distinction between a job versus a career, and problems in terminological clarity.

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Our review of the literature to examine two approaches to dual-career expatriation is, to our knowledge, the first comparative attempt to do so. Here, we examined the concerns, issues and opportunities of both arrangements and unpacked the drivers for the adoption of each approach including issues of gender, children, stage of career life-cycle, financial considerations, and concerns about safety and security. Issues around refusal to go have also been discussed. A review of organisational support practices shows that while organisational support practices lag in terms of efficacy and effectiveness, expatriates’ desire for organisational intervention to help support dual-career expatriation remains strong. The major contribution of our chapter is undoubtedly the development of an extensive and detailed future research agenda to guide more studies on this important topic. Potential areas of future focus include more methodologically rigorous research about dual-career expatriation, the development of more practical theories that can explain how many of the issues put forward in our review might be resolved, and the need for fresh theoretical perspectives that can unpack the dual-career expatriation phenomenon for today’s much wider range of global mobility work arrangements. Additionally, we call for more research at the intersection of gender and expatriation to illustrate how dual-career couples can successfully navigate their situation in the context of gendered cultural expectations (traditional vs egalitarian). Concerns about race, ethnicity and stereotypes demand much more attention. Re-prioritising one’s career as the trailing or stay-behind spouse requires as much, if not more, attention. Our motivation for this chapter lies in a desire to stimulate methodologically rigorous future research, which not only applies, but also develops, theory. We believe if dual-career scholars can move on from framing and explaining the phenomenon from an issue-laden perspective to one that instead advances the theoretical foundations upon which our understanding is built, it will improve the dual-career expatriate experience for all concerned.

NOTES 1. The concept of the trailing spouse is not limited only to expatriation, being similarly discussed in the migration literature (DeLaet, 1999). Migration, however, implies a shared decision with a shared emphasis on a permanent future; thus, sacrifices by women for the ‘greater welfare of the family’ are assumed to be necessary, acceptable, and even celebrated. 2. Female breadwinner expatriates with a male trailing spouse still represent only a small proportion (20 per cent) of all relocating couples (Harvey and Wiese, 1998; Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021). 3. As an exemplar, see Dupuis and colleagues’ (2008) study about spousal willingness to relocate, which specifically differentiates between dual-income and dual-career couples. 4. The stay-behind spouse arrangement has been well-established in domestic relocation studies for over 40 years (e.g. Polegato and Barras, 1984) but rarely applied to international relocation studies, particularly in corporate communities. 5. For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) spouses relocating to locations where their partnership or marriage is not legally recognised, the trailing spouse is required to

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obtain their own work and/or residency permit independent of the working expatriate’s application; thus, they do not become ‘dependents’ but applicants in their own right (see McPhail, McNulty and Hutchings, 2016).

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Zimmerman, T.S., S.A. Haddock, L.R. Current and S. Ziemba (2003), ‘Intimate partnership: foundation to the successful balance of family and work’, American Journal of Family Therapy, 31(2), 107–24.

PART II MIGRANT FAMILIES

6. African female migrants, family-planning decision-making and work–family balance: the influence of culture and religion Lovanirina Ramboarison-Lalao, Allane Madanamoothoo, Jean-Luc Cerdin and Chris Brewster

INTRODUCTION First-generation migrants tend to have larger families than indigenous populations (Borrel and Tavan, 2003; Héran and Pinson, 2007), especially when those migrants have come from less developed countries and are now resident in more developed countries. However, this is not the case for all migrants. This raises the question, what are the antecedent factors that influence African female migrants’ family-planning decision-making, including how many children to have, in their search for a good work–family balance? Given the lack of research and theory in this area, we undertake qualitative research, interviewing a sample of African women migrants in France, to explore these issues. We respond in particular to calls for more research on ‘gender-related issues’ of migrants (Guo and Al Ariss, 2015, p. 1289), with a special focus on ‘global families’ (McNulty, 2014, p. 339) and ‘ethnic migrants’ (Al Ariss, 2013, p. 235). We follow intersectional studies (Bassett-Jones and Lloyd, 2005; Crenshaw, 2005; Essers and Benschop, 2009; Kochan et al., 2003) in combining gender, origin, religion and culture to explore the family-planning decision-making of African female migrants working in France; and examine the impact of these decisions. Family-planning decision-making affects the ability of both partners to participate fully in the labour force of their adopted country while simultaneously attempting to retain ties to the religious and cultural values of their home country. Our study signals the broader importance of transnational families in the twenty-first century (Bryceson and Vuorela, 2002) whereby female migrants who decide to have children can be thought of as creating global families. These families encompass diverse configurations, which go beyond the traditional Western view of the nuclear monogamous patriarchal family headed by a married man living with his wife and children. For McNulty (2014, p. 339), a global family consists of ‘married, de facto, live-in or long-term partner of the opposite or the same sex, with or without children, with family members that reside in one or many locations; and legally separated 161

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or divorced (single) adults with children, with family members that reside in one or many locations’. We assume in our study that the definition of global families includes migrant women who have children in a country that is not their country of origin but retain psychological ties to their country of origin, being influenced by the wider family back home and their religious and cultural values. National immigration policies, at least in most developed societies, aim to ensure that migration is managed efficiently, securely and with respect for human rights (see, for example, Permits Foundation, 2017). However, in practice, migrants are often confronted with barriers and restrictive rules, such as the language tests or citizenship tests common in several European countries. Given these challenges, migration has important consequences for family formation, kinship ties, and children’s outcomes (Clark, Glick and Bures, 2009), and can require adaptation of living arrangements over the family’s life course (Bures, 2009). As an example, Ramboarison-Lalao and colleagues (2012) have highlighted the legal barriers that many Malagasy physicians have to overcome in France, before being reunited with their wife and children. McGregor (2008) argues that issues surrounding family and children have received too little attention in the literature on contemporary diasporas and, indeed, despite the central importance of family concerns (Cooke, 2008), we know little about what happens to, for example, the traditional African female view of family when the individuals concerned move to a developed country. In the search for work–family balance, how does the importance of religion, and other artefacts of the culture of origin, impact on their decision to start a family? In this chapter, we examine the primary decision for migrants as to whether or not to have a family and how large a family to have. We use the life stories of nineteen African women working in France (a country where migration is a controversial issue; Al Ariss and Syed, 2011) to analyse their experiences in relation to starting a global family. We also provide suggestions for future research.

INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY OF AFRICAN FEMALE MIGRANTS The total number of international migrants is currently estimated at around 244 million persons (United Nations, 2015), of whom half or more are working as members of the local labour market. Migrants, and migrant women, are a significant part of the workforce in many developed countries (Chaïb, 2008; Condon, 2000), with an important flow of migrants moving from Africa to Europe (Idemudia and Boehnke, 2020). In 2015, women comprised 48.2 per cent of all international migrants worldwide with the highest percentage (52.4 per cent) in Europe (United Nations, 2015, p. 7). Despite their connection to the labour market being strong, they have been the subject of insufficient research and theoretical development in terms of international workforce mobility (Guo and Al Ariss, 2015; Morokvasic, 2008; Oso, 2000). When these women migrants are studied, it is often through the lens of a spouse who supports her partner (husband) in his professional international mobil-

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ity (Cooke, 2007; Mincer, 1977). While prioritizing family needs is an important issue for African migrant families (Akosah-Twumasi et al., 2020), many of these women will nonetheless be working themselves or will be actively searching for work (Røysum, 2018) and in any case, as this Handbook illustrates, there is value in studying the family as a unit (Haslberger and Brewster, 2008). Furthermore, whilst the effect of family-planning decision-making has been widely studied (e.g. Davia and Legazpe, 2014; Erickson, Martinengo and Hill, 2010), and its impact on the short- and long-term labour market participation of women (and to a much lesser extent men) assessed (Boëldieu and Borrel, 2001; Meurs, Pailhé and Simon, 1999), discussion of the decision as to whether or not to start a family and the implications arising from being a global family, has been neglected. The situation faced by African women when they move to developed countries is far from straightforward. Migration studies suffer from a serious problem of construct clarity (McNulty and Brewster, 2017) and a lack of certainty in definitions (Andresen, Bergdolt and Margenfeld, 2013). Definitions of migration are varied (Brown and Bean, 2016; United Nations, 1998) and often come with implicit political baggage (Feng, 2011; Hampshire, 2013). Al Ariss (2013) argues that the term migrant is very often used to categorize ethnic people moving from a developing to a developed country, regardless of their period of stay in the host country and that migrant often has a negative, and usually unstated, racial connotation of inferiority (Al Ariss, 2010). There may also be assumptions that migrants have been forced to leave their home country (Al Ariss and Crowley-Henry, 2013). Attempting to take a more objective view, we argue that the main distinguishing feature of migrants is intent to stay: migrants aim to move permanently, or at least for their working lives. They intend to settle in the new country. Since members of our sample intend to stay in France, they fall within our definition of a migrant.

FAMILY-PLANNING DECISION-MAKING AND WORK– FAMILY BALANCE In most societies, starting a family is the logical extension of life as a couple, since having a child or children is associated with future happiness, success and, in many countries, with security, status and prestige. Such decisions, however, may have a profound effect on work and mobility, particularly of the mothers (Holmes, Erickson and Hill, 2012), which leads us to ask: How does deciding to have a global family impact employment? Management studies have looked at the issue of work–family balance from a number of angles (Aryee and Luk, 1996; Mescher, Benschop and Doorewaard, 2010; Piszczek and Berg, 2014), including gender equality (Smithson and Stokoe, 2005). In Europe, at least, an increasing number of business organizations position themselves as proactive in promoting gender equal opportunities and work–family balance, because of the firm’s policy decisions and/or incentives governed by relevant European Union directives and national laws. In France, Act No. 2006-340 of

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23 March 2006 pertaining to equal pay for men and women, envisages firms giving more consideration to the issue of working hours, notably with the inclusion of reconciliation indicators from the Rapports de Situation Comparée (comparable situation reports), that consider the extra childcare costs arising from training, or access to training following a period of parental leave. Studies (e.g. Landrieux-Kartochian, 2005) have investigated work–family balance and gender in France and found that proactive measures have been introduced, going beyond the legal obligations of non-discrimination. These proactive measures are largely designed to retain talent and stimulate motivation, which should, in the end, enhance human performance and, ultimately, the organization’s financial performance. Examples of family-oriented, women-friendly HRM initiatives include taking family and domestic responsibilities into account through flexibility in working hours and/or helping with arrangements for childcare (Chiu and Ng, 2001). The instrumental reasoning behind the business case for diversity creates a win/win situation when employees achieve a good work– family balance. In addition to this salutogenic approach which promotes ideal work–family balance, pathogenic research has studied the conflict that can arise between the two spheres. Many women still face professional barriers in some firms, especially when they have children, as they may lose out on promotion or be pushed to the side-lines on their return from maternity leave. Little and colleagues (2015) note that pregnant women develop different strategies to maintain their professional image at work, indicating the work–family balance challenge starts with pregnancy. Garner and colleagues (2005) describe family life as an activity in its own right, in the same way as work. They use the DARES (Direction de l’Animation de la Recherche, des Etudes et des Statistiques: Directorate of Research, Study and Statistics) enquiry, conducted with 1000 women in France who stopped professional work on the birth of a child (Garner, Meda and Senik, 2005; Meda, Simon and Wienrick, 2003), to show how pervasive the maternal and domestic responsibilities are that force some women to stop work long-term. Collating the findings of this enquiry with those of an INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques: National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) study, Garner and colleagues (2005) noted that most of the women who opted to become housewives were previously in low-paid jobs which, the authors argue, explains their choice. Other studies on work–family balance also deal with the issue of part-time work (Bué, 2002; Durbin and Tomlinson, 2010; Lawrence and Corwin, 2003), which highly qualified women, and some low-paid ones, prefer in lieu of other alternatives. For those who do attempt to work full time, work–family balance may generate difficulties, for example by impacting negatively the stability of the couple (Fusulier and Tremblay, 2013). Atypical working hours and the difficulties inherent in some jobs also have negative repercussions on family life and increase psychosocial risks (Garner et al., 2005), particularly within migrant family structure (Cayuela et al., 2018). In the specific context of global mobility, Adler (1984) noted decades ago that cultural differences in the host country are not always to a woman’s advantage: a point we develop in our study. For African female migrants, racism linked with

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the cost of being different can also be an important issue (Idemudia and Olonisakin, 2022).

FAMILIES IN LESS-DEVELOPED SOCIETIES: CULTURE AND RELIGION MOULD THE SITUATION OF AFRICAN WOMEN The concept of family is very pronounced for African women. Attitudes to family are often strongly influenced by African tradition and religion, whether Christianity (Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox) or Islam. Indeed, African culture sees women first and foremost as mothers, motherhood as the fulfilment of femininity, and starting a family as the major goal of a married couple (Moutoum-Ekambi, 1985). Notwithstanding the polygamy model, which still prevails in many traditional African communities, families in Africa are examples of those involving a much larger, more extended concept than is usual in developed countries (Social Trend Institute Report, 2015). Women with children enjoy a privileged social status compared to others. For example, in the Duala ethnic group in Cameroon, only women with a stable married life, who have given birth to several children without any of them dying at birth or in early infancy, can help to prepare a bridal room, a great honour in African society (Moutoum-Ekambi, 1985). The first pregnancy generally occurs during adolescence and the last comes just before menopause, with only breast-feeding giving space between pregnancies (Brunel, 2005). This pattern is repeated across several countries in Africa. Having many children is synonymous with wealth, as evidenced by the traditional wish for young married couples in Madagascar for seven sons and seven daughters (Domenichini-Ramiaramanana, 1983). Despite the UN Gender Mainstreaming1 policy implemented in several countries to promote gender equality worldwide, patriarchal culture and ideologies remain dominant in Africa (Moghadan, 2011). However, while men are traditionally recognized as the head of the household, the reality is more complex. Women do much of the work and are, whatever the men think, in many ways the effective head of the family. Being aware of family-planning techniques and the fight against AIDS,2 more and more African women take the lead today on decisions about starting and expanding a family, taking control of their fertility. There are sociological studies in health education that deal with family development decisions and family-planning in African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria (Meekers and Oladosu, 1996) and Madagascar (Hajason, Pina and Raveloharimisy, 2013) but, few have investigated the impact of the decision to have children on work–family balance. The professional experience of women from ethnic minorities and developing countries who have moved to the developed world also remains underexplored (Al Ariss, 2010, 2013), and in particular research on the work experience of African female migrants remains scarce. Exceptions include studies examining the career experiences of male and female Malagasy physicians (Ramboarison-Lalao, Al Ariss and Barth, 2012), the leadership of Turkish and Moroccan female business owners

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in the Netherlands (Essers, Doorewaard and Benschop, 2013), and the work–life balance of Muslim migrant women in the west (Ali, Malik, Pereira and Al Ariss, 2017). In a recent study of African and Indian migrant families, Trovão (2016) shows the positive impact of religion on mothering practices and citizenship performance, while Pasura (2014) points to the importance of religion within African transnational diasporas. However, as it plays out in identity at work, religion remains an underexplored issue (Gebert et al., 2014). Our study thus contributes to redress this gap. In the vein of the extensive literature on acculturation of migrants in the host country (e.g. Berry, 1997, 2005; Syed, 2008), we also explore whether African female migrants preserve their family-planning cultural behaviour regarding the importance of traditions in African families (Glazer and Moynihan, 1970), or assimilate and adopt the mainstream culture of the developed host country (Adserà, Ferrer, Sigle-Rushton and Wilson, 2012).

METHODOLOGY We collected and analysed the life stories of 19 African females in France. Using a post-positivist epistemological perspective, which postulates the existence of social phenomena in the objective world and ‘lawful reasonably stable relationships’ among them (Miles and Huberman, 1994, p. 429), we used comprehensive life stories (Sanséau, 2005) to explore and better comprehend the relationship between religion, culture, family-planning, and work–family balance. Data was collected during face-to-face in-depth interviews of, generally, around one hour. In light of the sensitivity of the information collected, we have preserved the respondents’ anonymity, using pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality. The diversity of profiles meets the conditions of variety and differentiation recommended for a qualitative study of this kind. Table 6.1 provides socio-demographic information on the participants. The interviews were all conducted in French. For this chapter, quotes are translated into English. The topics discussed during the interviews included participant background information such as age, the story behind their migration to France, the length of stay in France, current job, and citizenship(s). Other questions referred to marital status, number of children, family-planning practices, and the influence of religion, culture, social and family life both in home and host countries. Although our analysis was predominantly data-driven, it was also informed by our review of the literature (Fendt and Sachs, 2008). Each narration was read several times by the researchers to allow in-depth examination of data. As our content analysis progressed, key themes began to emerge around the decision to have children and the moderating impact of religion and culture on work–family balance: our results enabled us to derive our theoretical propositions. By the time of the analysis of the 19th interview, we found we were not getting any new insights and thus deemed we had reached saturation (Bertaux, 1981) and stopped data collection. The size of our sample is acceptable for an exploratory study of this kind. From the evidence, we developed a typology (see Figure 6.1), which we present and discuss later in the chapter.

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Table 6.1 Assigned

African female migrants sample characteristics Origins

Age

names

No. of

Partner

Religion

Profession

children

Isabella

Angolan

57

7

Married to an Angolan

Protestant

Child-minder

Soafara

Malagasy

42

1

Married to a Malagasy

Protestant

Lawyer

Florence

Comorian

37

1

Married to a Comorian

Muslim

Cleaner

Sabine

Tunisian

30

1

Married to a Tunisian

Muslim

University lecturer

Houda

Congolese

33

4

Married to a Congolese

Muslim

Housewife

Fatima

Tunisian

35

1

Married to a Tunisian

Muslim

University lecturer

Nazia

Nigerian

29

3

Married to a Frenchman

Muslim

Cashier

Emeline

Rwandan

37

4

Married to a Rwandan

Protestant

Child-minder

Kanto

Malagasy

42

2

Married to a Malagasy

Protestant

Accountant

Yasmine

Algerian

30

3

Married to a Frenchman

Muslim

Cashier

Espoir

Congolese

35

6

Married to a Frenchman

Catholic

Cleaner

Jane

Ghanaian

32

3

Married to a Ghanaian

Protestant

Child-minder

Jennie

Ghanaian

42

4

Married to a Ghanaian

Protestant

Cleaner

Raivo

Malagasy

51

1

Married to a Malagasy

Protestant

Phone operator

Hanitra

Malagasy

27

1

Married to a Frenchman

Protestant

Auxiliary nurse

Wayda

Tunisian

35

2

Married to a Tunisian

Muslim

University lecturer

Sarah

Tunisian

32

4

Married to a Tunisian

Muslim

University lecturer

Cheryl

Cameroonian

38

2

Divorced from

Catholic

Unemployed with HR qualifications

a Frenchman and living with a Cameroonian Béatrice

Rwandan

39

1

Married to a Frenchman

Protestant

Nurse

FINDINGS Cultural and Religious Influences on Family-planning Decision-making and Impact on Work–family Balance The decision to have a baby: how many children? As noted, having children is primordial for African women. Some women conform to African traditions and have numerous children in France. This was the case for Isabella, 57 years old and Angolan, who arrived in France in the 1980s with her Angolan husband who was pursuing his higher education studies in theology. They have seven children in total, all born in France: The children are my pride and joy, a gift from God.

Practising Protestants, Isabella and her husband made a joint decision to have several children as recommended by God in Genesis, 1:28 ‘… be fruitful and increase in number …’. She spends most of her time looking after children and working as a child-minder. Other, younger, women have fewer children, in order to achieve a better work– family balance. Most of the 19 women interviewed opted to have only two or three

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children, or even just one child, similar to the French model. Soafara, a 42-year-old lawyer and mother of a 10-year-old child born in France, a practising Christian, like her husband from Madagascar, told us: I can’t go to work and bring up several children at the same time, it’s impossible in France.

Cheryl, a 38-year-old mother of two, and a fervent Catholic, has altered her expectations since arriving in France from Cameroon in 2002: I know it’s impossible to have lots of children in France, but I thought I’d have at least four when I arrived here with my French husband, who I met in Cameroon. He already had two … he wanted me to have an abortion when I got pregnant for the first time in 2002, but I didn’t want to because the first pregnancy is sacred … today, I have two children. I divorced my first husband, and had my second child with my partner who’s from Cameroon like me … I won’t have any more children as it’s too complicated with my work.

Announcing a pregnancy In the context of work–family balance, African women who decide to have children may find announcing their pregnancy, and their subsequent access to employment entitlements and medical procedures, problematic. All pregnant women living and working in France have the right to maternity leave. In the French Labour Code, pregnant women do not have to tell their employer about their pregnancy at any specific time. The only obligation is to inform the employer of their departure on maternity leave (Article L. 12225-24 Labour Code). However, employees can only benefit from the specific advantages that the law and collective agreements provide for them, including taking time off work to go for medical examinations, once they have announced their pregnancy to the employer. Medical absence then counts as paid working time. Some collective agreements in France also allow pregnant women to work shorter hours. This means that the employee can leave her post earlier every day from the third month of pregnancy onwards, without losing salary. Pregnant women must also declare their pregnancy to their health insurance provider by the third month at the latest, so they can be cared for and supported medically throughout their pregnancy. In addition, every pregnant employee benefits from a specific status: the Labour Code includes measures designed to protect the health of pregnant employees and their baby (Article L. 382-31-1 and L. 313-1 ff, Social Security Code). The problem for many of the migrant women in our study is that in most African cultures, women prefer not to speak about their pregnancy in order to avoid attracting evil forces to the future baby (Levy, 2008). Consequently, some African women delay announcing their pregnancy as long as possible. If they are Muslim, they will also try to ward off the evil eye by wearing amulets and avoid going to public places like toilets or steam baths. According to Levy (2008), it is only in the seventh month of pregnancy that a public disclosure is made through a henna ceremony, announcing that the future child is henceforth safe. We did, however, note a certain degree of instrumental flexibility among the Muslim women we interviewed, with the support of their husband or a close relative. Florence, a 37-year-old Muslim cleaner from the

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Comoros, married to a Comorian, told us: ‘My sister-in-law advised me to go and see my boss to tell him I was pregnant at once, which I did without telling my family … she went with me to the CAF (Caisse d’Allocations familiales: Family Allowance Fund) and the CPAM (Caisse Primaire d’Assurance Maladie: Primary Health Insurance Fund) to register my pregnancy, and showed me everything I had to do so I could go on maternity leave with a free mind.’ Thus, African women migrants may find themselves torn between, on the one hand, the wish to benefit from the protected status offered to pregnant employees by French law and, on the other, keeping the pregnancy secret to conform to their culture and/or religion. Choosing not to have children: the impact of cultural and religious influences In the search for better work–life balance, women often use contraception or termination to avoid unwanted pregnancies. While both are legal in France, African women migrants may be conflicted about whether their culture and/or religion denies them the birth control options offered in France. Preventing pregnancy By legalizing contraception, the Neuwirth Act No. 67-1176 of 28 December 1967 meant women in France could legally control the number of children they had. Subsequent legislation, relating to public health policies, reaffirmed the right to suitable contraceptive methods including hormonal products (the pill, injections, implants), the coil (IUD), and condoms. Access, however, can be restricted due to age, psychological state, culture and religion. While legal contraception is available to African migrant women, it often conflicts with their religious beliefs, even though many would like to control the size of their family for better work–family balance. Catholic African women often reject most or all forms of contraception of an abortive nature, even after they arrive in France. This is the case for hormonal products and IUDs which make the uterus inhospitable (Baulieu, Françoise and Leridon, 1999). As Cheryl put it: I went to a convent school in Douala and I always refused contraceptives, but after the unwanted birth of my second daughter, I didn’t have a choice. Sometimes I had to take the oldest to work with me.

Religious beliefs also ban the use of condoms as they are considered a barrier to the sexual act, which, according to the Papal Humanae Vitae (1968), must allow the potential for transmission of life, although Pope Benedict authorized their use for the first time in 2010 as a protection against AIDS. Under the influence of Catholicism, Catholic African migrant women prefer to use natural birth control methods, even though they are not always effective. As Cheryl also says: I didn’t want my man to use a condom as for me it’s a sin. It’s prostitutes who use them.

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African Muslim migrant women living in France appear to have more choice, even though Islam also values fertility and child-bearing (Libbus and Kridli, 1997). Islam authorizes birth control in certain circumstances such as where there are risks to the health and life of the mother or children, especially if there are already several of them, or there is a potential problem in the exercise of their religion (Al Qaradawi, 1992; Omran, 2004). Indeed, the Koran points out that ‘Allah intends for you ease and does not want to make things difficult for you’ (2:185 Koran). For Nazia, a 29-year-old Nigerian Muslim who arrived in France four years ago, contraceptive use makes little difference. According to her: It doesn’t really make much sense for a man and woman to use contraceptives since even if they use them, if Allah wants them to have a child, a child will be born. So, if God wants a woman to be pregnant, even if she’s taking the pill, she’ll become pregnant as in fact the real creator is God. And if God doesn’t want a woman to have a baby and even if she doesn’t take the pill, she won’t become pregnant. That’s why my husband and I don’t use any contraceptives and today, thank God, we have three children.

Married to a Frenchman for six years, she added that her views on religion have changed since coming to live with her husband in France. She said that she remains deeply religious, but she is more pragmatic about observance. Other women, like Hanitra, Soafara and Kanto, show more flexibility. Kanto, a 42-year-old Protestant accountant from Madagascar, told us: I’m a deaconess of the church, I have a good job, I have two children, I use an implant like everyone else and I’m happy.

The choice of birth control method also raises fewer issues in Islam. As Roudi-Fahimi (2005, p. 2) argues ‘[e]verything is allowed by law unless expressly forbidden by the Koran or the Prophet’s tradition’. Islam does, however, distinguish between birth control and abortion, as we explain in more detail below. Termination Formerly banned in France, termination (abortion) was legalized following the Veil Law No. 75-17 of 17 January 1975, which was passed after a stormy debate, permitting voluntary abortion (known in France as voluntary interruption of pregnancy) as long as the conditions laid down by the law are respected. Performed within a legal framework, terminations can be permitted for non-medical reasons, unlike a therapeutic abortion which is carried out if a pregnancy presents a risk to the mother’s health or if the unborn baby has a serious or incurable malformation (Madanamoothoo, 2011). Despite these legal protections, African migrant women living in France often still feel obliged to continue a pregnancy because of their religious beliefs, even when they fulfil the conditions stipulated by French law and would like to terminate the pregnancy. For some Muslims, human life must be respected from its conception in order to comply with Surah 23, 13–14 of the Koran:

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We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed. Then we made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot we made a (foetus) lump; then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then we developed out of it another creature.

For other Muslims, the embryo is considered as a human being only after the fifteenth day, while, for yet others, it begins only when the embryo begins to move in the mother’s womb. Most Muslim theologians base their thinking, however, on Surah 23, 12 of the Koran and consider that human life only begins after the four stages of 30 days, in other words, after 120 days (Draï and Harichaux, 1988; Morgan, 2009). This means that, for some, Muslim abortion is possible prior to 120 days gestation if the foetus suffers from a serious handicap that cannot be treated or if the pregnancy could be dangerous for the mother. Despite these edicts, Muslim African migrant women believe they still do not have full control over the decision on whether to have children or not because, in principle, termination is prohibited in Islam: ‘… whosoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind, and whosoever kills a human being, it shall be as though he had killed the whole of mankind’ (5:32 Koran). Religious confusion around abortion means that Muslim African migrant women living in France and married to atheist Frenchmen may prefer to continue a pregnancy that can be legally terminated, despite the wishes of their husband. This was the case for Yasmine, a cashier and mother of two-year-old twins, who became pregnant with her third child last year: When I told my husband the news, he was adamant … no third child – it would be too much responsibility. He asked me to get rid of it. So, I threatened to leave him and go back to Algeria with the twins if he didn’t change his mind. I don’t know if he finally changed his mind because he realized he wanted a third child or if my threats scared him. No matter, today the baby is here and I don’t regret it at all! I have too much faith for that!

In the Catholic faith, respect for human life begins from the moment the baby is conceived, as it has a human character, that it is made viable by a soul (Kenyon, 1986). Abortion is therefore a mortal sin. According to the Vatican Charter of the Rights of the Family of 19833, life is a gift from God to be respected, that must be supported in its development and cared for from the beginning till the end of its life. The divine origin of human life, made in the image of God, is based on the inalienable dignity of man, irrespective of his or her current state (Levy, 2004). A Congolese Catholic woman, Espoir, told us it was her sixth pregnancy: I’m a cleaner. So, you can imagine it’s not an easy job. You’re standing all the time. Even so, I never think about getting rid of a baby when I’m pregnant. A baby is a gift from God!

Despite the precautions taken by Espoir and her husband, who use natural birth control methods, they decided to keep their unexpected sixth child. Another Rwandan couple who also use natural birth control methods took the same decision

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when confronted with their fourth unexpected pregnancy. Emeline, 37 years old, and a practising Protestant from Rwanda, said: It was out of the question to have an abortion, it’s a real sin … I just waited until he was 4 years old before finding a job.

In the context of the search for a good work–family balance in their socio-professional integration, the narratives of the lives of the women interviewed emphasize the moderating influence of religion and culture on their decision to have children. Results also suggest that intergenerational differences and the level of skills matter. These insights lead us to formulate the following theoretical propositions: P1: The global family decision whether to have children, and how many children to have, can have a positive influence on work–family balance, under favourable conditions. P2: Culture and religion both moderate the influence of the global family-planning decision-making on work–family balance. [We note an overlapping interrelation between culture and religion: a point we discuss further below (see Figure 6.1).] P3: Intergenerational differences have an impact on both the decision to have children and subsequent family-planning, which can have a repercussion on the work– family balance. Women from the new generations tend to have a smaller number of children than women from the old generation. P4: Lower-skilled migrants are likely to have a greater number of children than high-skilled migrants, which can have a repercussion on the work–family balance.

A TYPOLOGY OF AFRICAN WOMEN MIGRANTS Culture and religion both moderate the influence of global family-planning decision-making when seeking work–family balance. The narratives of the African women migrants lead us to identify an overlapping interrelation between religious motives and home country cultural trends. The African females’ behaviour in our sample fell into five profile types (see Figure 6.1) derived from our results, according to the impact of their religion and culture of origin on their family-planning decision-making. Drawing on our theoretical propositions (P1, P2, P3, P4), the implications on work–family balance are discussed below: ● the traditionalists, who comply with their home country religion and customs in their decision to have many children. These are generally women of the older generation (P3), and/or with low-skilled jobs (P4), like the example of Isabella, 57 years old, child-minder and fervent Christian practitioner who has seven chil-

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●

●

●

●

dren all born in France. Having many children is demanding and often leads to an oversized personal sphere compared to the professional sphere. It might be difficult under these unfavourable conditions (P1, P2), in particular for high-skilled women who aspire to a meaningful job, to achieve a good work–family balance between the two spheres. the religious, who put religion before the cultural considerations of their country of origin and their country of adoption (P2). For some of these women, modern contraceptive methods and/or abortion are taboo for religious reasons. Career development for these women can often be limited, as shown in particular by the case of Espoir, a cleaner, married to a Catholic Frenchman. She stated that her sixth unexpected child was a gift from God (P4), while she refused the contraceptive methods for religious reasons. Because of the hypertrophy (Ramboarison-Lalao, Lwango and Lenoir, 2018) of both personal and professional spheres due to a demanding mothering role combined with a harsh job, a good work–family balance is, in this case, difficult to reach under unfavourable conditions (P1). the conservatives, who are guardians of cultural values above all and who retain the cultural specificity of their country of origin. As an example, Houda follows to the letter the Congolese tradition to have as many children as possible and to be the housewife her husband wanted her to be, thus complying with African patriarchal tradition. Thus, the culture of origin moderates the relationship between the family decision to have many children and the work–family balance, with an oversized personal sphere, which can have a negative impact on the equilibrium of work–family balance (P1, P2). the liberals, younger women who have broken free from the religious and cultural influences of their country of origin and have largely adopted the attitudes of their host country, like the example of Soafara who has one child. This category is consistent with the works of Adserà and colleagues (2012) who assume that as migrants become accustomed to their host countries, their fertility norms begin to resemble those of the native population through the acculturation process. While a dichotomous relationship is often assumed to characterize home country culture versus host country culture, the reality is nevertheless more complex because of the possibility of overlap among them. Common religious and cultural values inherited from French colonization may come into play, and in order to maximize favourable conditions in their search for a good work–family balance (P1), these new generations of often skilled African migrants (P3) have fewer children than older migrants (P4), ignoring both religion and the customs of their country of origin (P2). the chameleons, who move between categories. In the context of our postmodern world, African women migrants have to confront different constraints in their socio-professional integration. Therefore, their behaviour can evolve by adopting a situational opportunistic flexibility. After an unwanted pregnancy, Cheryl, for example, stated that she was forced to use contraceptives, something which was normally forbidden by her religion (P2). One would say that Cheryl has been

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forced to move from the Religious category to the Liberal one and that there are exceptions which justify bending the rules. Beyond this forced shift, other women move between categories in a more proactive way. While Kanto testified for example, that she was a fervent Christian practitioner, she also had no problem using contraceptives in order to achieve a good work–family balance at the same time (P1). The overlap makes it difficult to say whether she is exclusively Religious or Liberal (P2). To succeed in their socio-professional integration in the country of adoption, we assume that African women migrants have to be flexible and to adapt their behaviour to the situation, whether under forced constraints or in a proactive opportunistic manner. Essers and colleagues (2013, p. 1645) have highlighted the importance of this instrumental flexibility within Turkish and Moroccan female business owners in the Netherlands who used ‘various cultural repertoires to negotiate and manipulate the family norms and values in order to seek and hold their position in the public domain effectively’. The major challenge for African women migrants with African husbands is to convince them first, before convincing themselves, to become chameleons.

Figure 6.1

Influence of religion and culture of origin on the global family decision in the search of a good work–family balance: towards a fivefold typology

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CONCLUDING THOUGHTS The integration of migrants remains an important issue for individuals, for the organizations that employ them, and for society (Cerdin, Abdeljalil Diné and Brewster, 2014). For African, and perhaps other, women migrants, the decision to have children is central to work–family balance and research shows that culture of origin and religion moderate both the decision and the work–family relationship. Work–family balance is central to the integration of African women in a developed society such as France. Our findings indicate that African female migrants are often torn between the cultural and religious obligation to have children (sometimes driven by men) versus facing up to the practicalities, when one is doing it as a global family (living abroad – permanently) which women are very well aware of. We assume that a clever flexibility, which encompasses flexibility both by necessity and by opportunity, is required to achieve a good work–family balance depending on the situation, which will condition the success of their socio-professional integration in the country of adoption. In our postmodern world, African women migrants have sometimes to break from the essentialist influence of their habitus (Lupu, Spence and Empson, 2017) by being ‘chameleons’. This flexibility will enable them to juggle both work and family responsibilities effectively, through the equilibrium of life spheres (Ramboarison-Lalao et al., 2018). Our findings show also that some African women discuss family-planning issues with their husbands in the context of their quest for balance: this discussion between the woman and the head of the family differs from the traditional African concept of the dominant patriarchal model. At the same time, women with French husbands are often faced with cultural conflicts about termination and birth control – conflicts that can sometimes destroy the couple. Beyond the moderating influence of religion and culture, other major factors appear to be qualifications (high skilled versus low skilled) and generational differences, insofar as these impact on the degree of flexibility displayed during family-planning by migrant women. While the new generations tend to have fewer children than the older one, results show the lower the qualification, the higher the number of children. These issues are worth exploring further. Beyond the social desirability limitation inherent to our qualitative method, there is much that this preliminary study has not covered, and thus we call for future research. For example, our investigation bypassed the issue of migrant-family separations (Gonzalez-Ferrer, Baizán and Beauchemin, 2012; Castrejón, 2020; Shadid and Sihdu, 2021), the case of African careerist women who decide not to have any children, the mariage blanc,4 the case of sans papières5 migrants (Cissè and Quiminal, 2000), or prostitution and illegal work which many hidden migrant women, including Africans, have to deal with. In the latter case, women can find themselves torn between the need to sell sex and transgression of religious rules. Nevertheless, we offer valuable theoretical insights about the position of African migrant women and their decisions on starting and expanding global families, and the consequences for work–family balance. For future research, our theoretical prop-

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ositions leading to our typology (see Figure 6.1) can be used to conduct confirmatory quantitative research, or can be used as a basis to study women of other ethnicities and/or hidden migrants. Our initial results also suggest that studies deepening our understanding of African couples versus mixed nationality couples would be worthwhile. In managerial terms, HRM departments need to be aware of the specific cultural and religious challenges African female migrants have to deal with if they are to unleash their maximum potential. In societal terms, the spread of globalization means that international mobility affects human relations within all nationalities, including Africans, requiring adapted policies at all levels to ensure lasting peace in our global village.

NOTES 1. See the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women at http://​www​.un​.org/​womenwatch/​osagi/​gendermainstreaming​.htm. 2. See The Family Africa – Real Hope for the Future at http://​www​.familyafrica​.com/​index​ .php/​projects. 3. See Charter of the Rights of the Family at https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_19831022_family-rights_en.html. 4. ‘a white marriage’ (unconsummated marriage). 5. ‘without papers’: unlawful.

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7. Migrants and transnational family life in South America: between new families and old practices Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel

South America has been characterized as a destination of mass migrations since the nineteenth century (Cook-Martín and FitzGerald, 2010; DeAvila, 1964; Robinson, 2008). Hosting approximately one million migrant families every year since 2009 (ILO, 2016; IOM, 2018), South America and its state policymakers have observed a surge in new immigrant groups. Arising from the economic crises of 2008 and 2012, the continent has been at the centre of two immigration booms, in 2009 and 2013 respectively (Papademetriou, Sumption and Terrazas, 2010). Migrants arrived from different origins, including the United States, Western Europe, West Africa, South East Asia and the Middle East. Families of refugees, economic and environmental migrants, and asylum seekers arrival in the territories of the 12 countries of the continent have re-signified the role of the territorial borders of the Amazon, the Pampas and the Andes (Acosta and Freier, 2015; Ceriani Cernadas and Freier, 2016; Freier and Arcarazo, 2015). The question that guides this chapter is: how do South American migrant families relate to the host societies and the state that will be their new country? This chapter analyses the patterns and trends of the ‘new’ global families arriving in South America, looking at the dynamics, repercussions and stages of families from seven immigrant groups, which we consider to be the most representative of the conditions of ‘being immigrant’ among new South American families. We begin with a review of broader studies on the theme of South American global families, followed by an overview of the current status of research approaches, providing a thematic and theoretical overview of the challenges inherent in this field. Next, we present the particularities of the families of Cubans, Haitians, Senegalese, Syrians, Bengalis and Filipinos, Bolivians and Venezuelans who have chosen, or have been induced, to migrate to South America. We then note the most recent publications on this subject, highlighting the work of South American authors, including works in Spanish and Portuguese that are little-known to English-speaking audiences, which brings to the fore family, demographic and migratory studies for researchers elsewhere. We conclude with a future research agenda to identify gaps in scholarship. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the basis of our central argument: that although South America is receiving and hosting new global families every day, the practices of state and resident civil society are still old. Consistent with the aims of the Handbook, this 182

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chapter serves as a bridge to understanding and overcoming analytical, theoretical and practical obstacles to researching South American migrants.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT Many global migrant families have contributed over the past century to the formation of what is today known as South American society (Durand and Massey, 2010; Gunther, 1966; Wade, 1997). Amerindian, African American, European and Asian characteristics are present in the populations of the 12 states of South America, as well as in the dependencies of the Falkland Islands and French Guiana (Marsella and Ring, 2003; Meade, 2022). It is not surprising given that the advent of the globalization of capital has resulted in increased human mobility and new immigration flows worldwide (Davie, 1939; Guiraudon and Joppke, 2003; Hollifield, 2004; Scott, 1968). Since the global financial crisis of 2008, South American families have faced a new dynamic in their relationship with their territories, their neighbours and other nations (Bastia and vom Hau, 2013; Lindstrom and Ramirez, 2010). Until the crisis, South American families experienced limited migration by people such as Haitians, Senegalese, Filipinos and Bengalis. This changed almost overnight, with daily admissions of economic migrants and refugees, predominantly on the borders of Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador (Massey, Fischer and Capoferro, 2006), reaching historic levels of more than one million new foreign residents per year (IOM, 2018). South American families often have in their essence a migratory or overseas (d’além-mar) component, for example, many are the descendants of Portuguese and Spaniards. Despite their own assimilation, through the strengthening of cultural ties with state and with territory, and detachment from their home nations, especially in the case of Germans and Italians (Tedesco, 2013; Zanini, 2008), the acceptance of recent migrants by South American societies has nonetheless transformed from a natural receptiveness of foreigners to an increase in national anti-migration movements as well as xenophobic discourses by political leaders (Ceriani Cernadas, 2018; Martín Cárdaba, Briñol, Horcajo and Petty, 2013). Historically, migrants were defined by their nationality, and now it seems that race adds a new dimension (Acosta, 2018; Beck, Mijeski and Stark 2011). The impact on their assimilation and integration experiences in South American hosting nations is significant (e.g. Urzúa, Cabrera, Carvajal and Caqueo-Urízar, 2019), which is discussed later in this chapter. The relationship between established and newly arrived families has evolved from an already difficult integration of African Americans, to even greater prejudice against ethnic African families, such as the new flows of Haitians and Senegalese (Rangel, 2015). Racial persecution and prejudice are problems yet to be surmounted by South American societies, and constitute a barrier to the immigration of families more generally in the Americas (FitzGerald and Cook-Martín, 2014). While social xenophobia between established and newly integrated families remains characteristic of South America, in contrast, the multinational character of the continent’s family formation can be seen through a more positive lens. South

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America, being comprised of 12 sovereign states and two European overseas dependencies, brings together transnational and intercultural families. Cases are common, for example, in which a Senegalese immigrant marries a Brazilian citizen, a descendant, for example, of German on the father’s side and of Kaingangs Native American on the mother’s side, thus generating a new ‘global’ family. This family may practise an Afro-Brazilian religion like the Umbanda, or one of Arab origin such as Islam, or even of Christian-reformed such as that of the American Baptists or Brazilian Neo-Pentecostals. In this context, the definition of the concept South American multiculturalism encompasses a conjunction of different cultures living in harmony, under the aegis of the multicultural and isonomic state. Multiculturalism that is created spontaneously characterizes the formation of nations such as Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, which in their pre-Columbian origin were formed by thousands of different peoples within a common territory. In contrast to the multiculturalism upon which South America is built, the concept of migrant assimilation (Schwartz et al., 2010) can be understood as the historical and methodical process of incorporating the cultural, political and religious values of the host society into the lives of new migrants. However, in the South American case, the approach to integrating migrants has been characterized by putting a foreign national into the host nation without any kind of support or even collective acceptance. Both approaches, as we will see throughout the chapter, have proven to be unsuccessful and have been supplanted by a new type of social aggregation of migrants. In South American global families, ‘being immigrant’ has three states (or stages): the permanent state; the semi-permanent; and the impermanent. All are identified by Baeninger (2012) as specific to the South American case. These states can be aggravated or attenuated, according to which the country the family is in, and according to the sentiment of belonging – either with the host society or with the country of origin. The definition of this concept is linked to the process of transformation of an individual into a migrant. That is, the moment when he/she ceases to be a citizen established in a territory to become a person of transnational mobility. According to the demographic studies undertaken by Baeninger (2012), the permanent state is more frequent with new South American refugee families, especially those from Syria, or with those from countries where there are no cultural similarities or previous ethnic representation in the host society. One example is of Bolivians in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, where national remembrance and daily reminders of their status as migrants are necessary as identity affirmation, collective protection, and even as a relief to mitigate the processes of immigration depression (Brunnet, 2016). The semi-permanent state is an intermediate stage between the assimilation and the integration of immigrant families in South America, as defined in Berry’s acculturation model, and reviewed by Schwartz et al. (2010). There are indications (e.g. Cargnin, Rückert and Lemos, 2018; Zubrzycki, 2012) that Haitian, Senegalese, Bengali and Filipino economic immigrants to South America would fit into this category. The sentiment of belonging and status of immigrant would be invoked only in specific situations, whereas remembrances of their former situations would

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diminish gradually on a day-by-day basis as these families are integrated into the host societies. The impermanent state is the most difficult to identify in South American families, reflecting the different nuances and adaptations dependant on families’ country of origin, ethnicity, religion and host country. However, Cuban immigrants and some Venezuelan refugees meet the characteristics of this stage – cutting ties with the country of origin, total assimilation with the host nation, and the creation of new identities. This occurs as families choose to disremember the repression and persecution suffered in their countries of origin. It comes at the cost of break-ups of families and psychological ties with their homelands as they begin a new history in a new environment – one that is democratic and open to freedom of speech. It is interesting to note that the semi-permanent state is the most durable of the three stages. Two centuries later, we still perceive the same sentiment within descendants of German, Russian and Italian immigrants in South America, notably in southern Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.

CURRENT STATUS OF GLOBAL FAMILY RESEARCH IN SOUTH AMERICA Both South American historiography and anthropology and their analytical strands have been dedicated to the study of families and migration actors for at least a century and a half, from when the first coordinated migratory movements to the continent began (Carter, 1983; Taft and Robbins, 1955). Brazilian, Chilean and Argentinean universities have hundreds of research centres, laboratories and memory preservation institutes dedicated to the study of the immigration flows of dozens of nationalities, among them the migration of Germans, Italians, Japanese and Slavs (e.g. DeAvila, 1964; Fitzgerald, 2013; Margheritis, 2015). The issue of migrant families is explored by researchers across almost all fields of South American scientific knowledge, which we highlight due to their original distance from the topic: international relations, economics, psychology, social services, law, and political science. Examination of databases reveals approximately 40,000 relevant research studies from various fields. Such research includes analyses at different levels ranging from individual–individual relations, as in the work of Dreher (2017) who reviews the life of Jacobina Meurer, an exponent of German immigration in Brazil; to more complex works such as those of Arteaga (2010), who investigates the relationships of immigrant women within the Andean territory. Unusual themes of demographic sociology also occur, such as those identified in the studies of Jesus (2001) and Gerchmann (2015), which discuss the role of Teuto and Afro-Brazilian families in the creation of a football team, the Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, in southern Brazil at the beginning of the twentieth century. Decolonial theories borrowed from the discipline of geographic science and the post-positivist theories employed by international relations are the approaches that dominate migratory and global family studies in the South American academy. We

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mention, for example, the work of Durand and Lussi (2015), and those organized by Póvoa Neto and Ferreira (2005). Renowned authors such as Rogério Haesbert, Giralda Seyferth, Miriam de Oliveira Santos, Regina Petrus and many others have also used these theories with great effect and serve as a reference point for thousands of studies and researchers who venture into the field of migration. Although much work is ongoing, research around the new immigration flows addressed in this chapter continues to encounter analytical and practical difficulties. One of the notable challenges is related to the advent of social media networks. If the first Spaniards and Italians that arrived in Argentina in the nineteenth century took months to send and receive news from the Old Continent and, therefore, their status of ‘being immigrant’ was semi-permanent or impermanent, today Senegalese or Syrian immigrants maintain constant contact with their friends and family in their homeland, engendering a permanent status of ‘being immigrant’. Despite the studies of immigrant researchers such as those of Joseph Handerson (2015) in relation to Haitians, and those of the Senegalese Pape Sakho and many others, the main gaps in current literature are linked to the perception of these migrant families by South American families. For example, how does a typical Brazilian family in Rio de Janeiro perceive, receive and welcome (or not) a family of Syrian refugees? How does a traditional Buenos Aires family face the new influx of negros in the Argentinian capital? Such perceptions are explored in the following section.

MIGRANTS AND TRANSNATIONAL FAMILY LIFE IN SOUTH AMERICA From the demographic and cartographic thematic analyses of authors such as Uebel and Rückert (2017) and Texidó and Gurrieri (2012), we have identified the following seven immigrant family groups that stand out and demonstrate the different types of profiles of the transnational families in South America: Cubans, Haitians, Senegalese, Syrians, Bengalis and Filipinos, Bolivians, and Venezuelans. Each group presents unique characteristics in terms of gender, affective relationships, social insertion and economic repercussions, which represent the new contemporary profile of South American global families. While these groups have many similarities in terms of motivations to migrate, each has peculiarities in their profiles and experiences. Cubans UNHCR’s official estimates indicate that approximately 25,000 Cubans immigrated to South American countries during the period 2001 to 2016. The four countries that received the most were Peru (9,435), Argentina (6,183), Brazil (5,469) and Colombia (1,263). There are two main categories in which these migrants are represented: economic immigrants, mostly comprised of physicians and other health professionals; and refugees and asylum-seekers. These categories represent two completely different family spheres. Cubans thus represent both a permanent ‘being migrant’

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state, as in the case of economic immigrants, and an impermanent one, as in the case of refugees and asylum-seekers. Cuban immigrants have followed two demographic profiles. One type is single, with family remaining in Cuba while they (sometimes marrying host-country nationals) seek permanent residence in a host country. Refugees, on the other hand, have almost all their family nuclei together, including children, parents and parents-in-law (Cancian, 2019). As these are two distinct groups, from a political demographic view, their economic and social relations with the host societies are distinct, although a single characteristic is common to both: social exposure and the mediatization of their presence in the hosting country. Examples include the recent Brazilian media interest in the settlement of both Cuban doctors (Foreque and Nublat, 2013) and Cuban asylum-seekers (Cancian, 2019). Haitians The immigration of Haitian families to South America has boomed arising from three factors over the past 20 years: the civil war, the 2010 earthquake, and Hurricane Matthew in 2016. By 2020, Brazil’s Haitian population had grown to an estimated 143,000 while Chile had a Haitian population of an estimated 247,000 (Yates, 2021). The main characteristic of these Haitian immigrant family groups is their division into two distinct generations. The first, covering the period 2004 (the beginning of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) to the beginning of 2011, was predominantly single men and married men, who migrated without their families, usually in groups of friends and colleagues. The second generation began in 2011, intensified in September 2016 with Hurricane Matthew, and declined again in early 2017. It comprised the arrival of relatives (spouses, children, parents and in-laws) who had remained in Haiti while obtaining confirmation of employment opportunities in the host countries through first-generation immigrants. Family separation characterizes these migrant experiences. For some groups, separations spanned five years and transformed the family support structure for those who remained in Haiti. As Peres and Baeninger (2017) point out, women came to play a major role in the economic and affective coordination of families in Haiti. Women’s empowerment caused by family separation, however, changes as soon as the family reunion occurs in the host country. As the work of Mejía and Cazarotto (2017) on the Haitian transnational family in Brazil emphasizes, after the families reunite, women again move to secondary roles. This gives their husbands the exclusivity of family provision and representation within the community and restricts women’s inclusion in the labour market and their access to education. Senegalese The case of the Senegalese in South America includes no more than 25,000 immigrants (Tedesco and Kleidermacher, 2017), most of them in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Although the Senegalese diaspora has existed for about four decades,

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it is divided into phases, the latest being the one destined for South America. The Senegalese are not covered by refugee status or the granting of political asylum and are also excluded from the amnesties of migratory regularization granted to Haitians and Syrians. One way for them to remain in the host country, however, is through marriage and/or paternity. Thus, civil registry offices have recorded an increase in marriages of Senegalese, about 90 per cent of them men, to South American women, and in the birth records of Senegalese-South American children (Tedesco and Kleidermacher, 2017). The case of Senegalese migrants is unusual. Because through marriage and paternity their family construction takes place after immigration, they move though a state of permanence to impermanence. Additionally, a differentiation as to religious, cultural and professional practices prevails. We perceive these new South American Senegalese families to be a mix of African cults with Muslim and Christian elements. They are also characterized by a distancing from the professional practice of their original career. Because of the difficulties imposed by the hosting states on the revalidation of their diplomas and professional registrations, many engineers, economists, and mathematicians unfortunately work as street vendors, general service providers and industrial workers (Tedesco and Kleidermacher, 2017). Syrians South America has not been immune to the Syrian refugee crisis stemming from the 2012 civil war, albeit in relatively smaller numbers than other states given the distance, cost and logistics involved in receiving them. Syrian refugees and their families went almost exclusively to Brazil, a country with historical ties with the Syrian community; the former president, Michel Temer, is descended from Syrian Lebanese immigrants. The difficulty in learning the Portuguese language and a lack of official documents proving the educational and professional training of Syrian families initially appeared as the main obstacles to their integration in Brazil (Calegari and Baeninger, 2016). Collective efforts promoted by UNHCR in partnership with the National Committee for Refugees, the Prosecution Office, the Public Defender’s Office and federal universities are helping Syrians to overcome these obstacles. In terms of the transnational family structure of Syrians in South America, we perceive a reclusion regarding political and ideological positions, and an emergent participation in pre-established Muslim communities, namely in the cities of Foz do Iguaçu and São Paulo in the south-east region of Brazil (Pinto, 2015). We further see that Syrians are a group that have made significant progress in relation to labour market and social equality, and have experienced relatively successful academic and career outcomes. Their integration into the labour market and access to schools and tertiary education has not been as traumatic as shown in Europe or North America. Brazilian universities, for example, created a special admission process for Syrian refugees (Fleck, 2017). Syrians have also experienced greater openness and awareness about the role of women in society, a perspective similar to that held in Lebanese

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society. Nevertheless, considering the general instability in their country of origin with no prospect of a democratic solution, Syrians experience a permanent state of ‘being immigrant’. Bengalis and Filipinos When we consider the transnational relations of Bengali and Filipino families in South America, their situation is the most unusual. Both flows have similar continental origins, but face very different situations. They are grouped together here, however, for two reasons: due to their origins in South East Asia, which is a new source of South–South migration; and because the literature on these two specific flows is emerging and solely descriptive. Recently, for example, Tedesco and Vanin (2018) published a comparative study regarding Bengali and Filipino migration to Brazil, which considers their similar particularities. The preferred destinations for Bengali and Filipino migrant families are the three Guianas: French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname, and, to a lesser extent, Brazil. In the first three, workers from Bangladesh and the Philippines predominate, finding employment in mining, commerce and service industries. There, the Hindu and Muslim religions predominate alongside Neo-Pentecostal churches. In Brazil, there is migration from Filipino women who are single and who go there as domestic workers and nannies. This occurs in an irregular manner, often without work contracts or permits, thus presenting opportunities for psychological and physical exploitation (Basok and Piper, 2012; Locatelli, Mariani, Sainati and Greco, 2017). Both groups have been categorized as potential victims of human trafficking, as well as drug trafficking and smuggling in which they play the role of passive agents. The family composition of these groups identifies the predominance of single-parent families or groups composed for the occasion, that is, to regularize their migratory situation in the country of residence (Pillai, 2004). Family reunion in the traditional form of economic immigration occurs only in small portions in the Guianas, especially in Guyana and Suriname, as French Guiana is covered by the norms of the European Union, which restricts the regularization of family immigrants. In Brazil however, under the new Migration Law of 2017, family reunion is inserted into one of the new categories of visas. It is already expected that it will cover the hundreds of Bengali and Filipino families in cases in which there is no applicability of refugee or political asylum status. Bolivians Bolivian families are those who have moved the most throughout the South American territory. Dominating migratory rankings of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador, Bolivians are also among the largest migrant groups in Paraguay, Venezuela and Colombia. Their motivations are heterogeneous, ranging from escaping the regime of Evo Morales to the search for better conditions of life, work and food security (Ranincheski and Uebel, 2014). In this sense, this is the group that

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represents the largest concentration of transnational immigrant families in South America. In some cities, such as São Paulo and Buenos Aires, there are specific neighbourhoods where true Bolivian townlets are concentrated, reproducing their cultures, traditions and family relations, preserving a Bolivian and indigenous identity outside their country of origin, and therefore maintaining a permanent state of ‘being migrant’. A similar case of concentrated Bolivian migration in South America was also recorded between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at the time of the historical immigrations of Europeans, Japanese and Arabs. Thus, Bolivian families have increasingly attracted the interest of demographers, geographers and political scientists (e.g. Cerrutti, 2019; Haß and Schütze, 2019; Romero, 2022). Differentiating them from other migrant groups, the professional activity of Bolivians is not restricted to a specific sphere. They have, however, been identified within the host societies in the textile industry, gastronomy, and as small business entrepreneurs dealing in clothing, utensils and other goods. The smallest sub-group of Bolivians are asylum-seekers, whose number has increased since the first Evo Morales government took power in 2006. The main destination for asylees is Brazil, followed by Peru. There is also the identification of transnational indigenous communities, who while registered as Bolivian, circulate between the territories of Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil. In the last decade, the total number of Bolivians in family migration in South America has likely reached two million, although there is no official statistic. Venezuelans The most recent source of family migratory flow in South America is from Venezuela, increasing exponentially since 2016 due to the worsening of the political, economic and democratic crisis in the country. Recently becoming a dictatorship after years of economic and social stability and prosperity, the impacts of the regime change under the leadership of dictator Nicolás Maduro directly affected the poorer classes in Venezuela, as well as the growing middle class. In this sense, it is estimated that 2.6 million people requested refugee and asylum status up to 2017, first in neighbouring Colombia, and later in Brazil with more modest numbers estimated at about 75,000 (IOM, 2018). As of April 2020, this had increased to 4.3 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants, culminating in May 2022 with more than 5 million Venezuelan refugees residing somewhere in South America, representing an increase of almost 20 per cent in just two years (see IOM, 2022). Despite having similarities with traditional economic migrants, Venezuelan families bring with them political persecution and a need to escape from a dictatorial regime, which eroded not only democracy in the country but also the stock of food, medicine and capital. In addition to increasing poverty, state, police and social violence contributed to thousands of Venezuelan families’ decisions to migrate. Given this background, the first surveys with Venezuelan families are very recent and have been organized mainly by the UNHCR and IOM. The identification of the

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economic and professional activities of these economic refugees is still emerging. However, it is already possible to identify a permanent stage of ‘being immigrant’, since many families, composed not only of the couple and their children, but also of in-laws, siblings, nephews and neighbours, intend to return to Venezuela after the economic stabilization of the country and the full return of democracy. In this way, their permanent status is related to the way the welcoming nation recognizes them as immigrants and/or refugees, similar to the previously discussed experiences of Cuban migrants. As to the exercise of professions, family provision is egalitarian (i.e. it depends on the incomes of men and women, increased by those of children of employment age). As the level of education in Venezuela was already quite high until the rupture of democracy, many refugees have postgraduate training and regular professions, such as physicians, engineers, scientists and, in large measure, academics. Indeed, Venezuelans are applying en masse for recognition of their university diplomas so that they can practise their professions in Brazil and Colombia, indicating an impermanent state of ‘being immigrant’. Lastly, we identified in smaller numbers those Venezuelan families who intend, through an initial stay in Brazil, to apply for a work permit or seek refuge in the United States and Canada. These families closely resemble the hundreds of South American families who sought refuge in Portugal and France between the 1960s and 1980s, escaping from the dictatorships that persecuted them in all Latin American countries. Table 7.1 provides a general overview that illustrates common trends and specificities of the aforementioned groups. Table 7.1 also includes mention of the dominant theoretical lens through which each group has been studied, which is elaborated in the following section.

RELEVANT THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES The boom in South American immigration as the result of the global financial crisis of 2008 prompted scholars from different disciplines to investigate the subject through perspectives ranging from positivist analysis to more recent deconstructions based on post-positivist, decolonial and feminist theories (e.g. Acosta and Freier, 2018). We outline below the use of these perspectives, which raises implications for academic and ideological debate related to global families in South America. Post-positivist approaches in South American theories, while influenced by literatures on political science and international relations of the 1980s and 1990s in the United States and the United Kingdom, go beyond the Cartesian view of science to instead incorporate ethnic, cultural, ancestral elements and with great anthropological and sociocultural depth. This theoretical lens is the one that has most significantly infiltrated beyond the walls of universities, having greater acceptance in cultural studies, political movements, social collectives and in civil society in South American more generally (Santos, 2017). It allows the cultural background of migrants and

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Table 7.1 Group

Summary of transnational families in South America Specificities/context

Trends/status of ‘being immigrant’

Dominant theoretical lens

Cubans

Haitians

Economic migrants tend to have

a permanent ‘being migrant’ state, while decolonial

economic and political instability

refugees and asylum seekers hold an

in Cuba.

impermanent state.

Economic migrants and asylum

Tend to have a semi-permanent state.

seekers. Senegalese

Postpositivist and

Economic migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers; flows caused by

Feminist and decolonial

Economic migration under

Groups are divided among

a diaspora panorama.

semi-permanent and permanent state,

Post-positivist

according to their economic aggregation in the hosting country. Syrians

Asylum seekers and refugees;

Hold a permanent state of ‘being

Decolonial

migration and humanitarian crises migrant’, considering the general worldwide.

instability in their country of origin, with no prospect of a democratic solution.

Bengalis

Economic migrants and victims of Diverse group holding all kinds of human trafficking.

Decolonial

‘being migrant’ states, taking into account their flows, practices and motivations.

Filipinos

Economic migrants under

Patterns still emerging: mostly

a traditional diaspora, and victims permanent migrants with traces of of human trafficking.

Feminist studies and decolonial

semi-permanent, as they follow a diasporic way of migration.

Bolivians

Economic migrants and

Permanent state of ‘being migrant’.

asylum-seekers. Venezuelans

Decolonial and postpositivist

Asylum-seekers and refugees

Both permanent and impermanent states Decolonial and

due to economic instability and

of ‘being migrant’, based on the social,

dictatorship.

educational and political background of

postpositivist

each family.

transnational families to be incorporated into migratory studies and brings a new global view of transnational flows and the very meaning of human mobility. These views have been incorporated by the junior scholars of South American universities, supplanting the positivist views of the Western world, praised for so long by senior and emeritus scholars in the region. Decolonial perspectives adopt a postcolonial view of migration processes and the insertion of families in hosting societies and in the labour market. This research breaks with much of the European and North American literature, including new cultural elements of South America in theoretical discussions related to religious and social issues. In doing so, it helps to understand the new transnational flows, especially those coming from the global South and South–South migrations. It also enables discussions about the life experiences of migrants and transnational families

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to be incorporated into the reality of the hosting country; for example, sociodemographic studies on Bolivian families in Brazil and the resulting formulation of municipal public policies (see Dorfman et al., 2014; Handerson, 2015). Feminist studies, with the advent of feminist progressivism throughout Latin America, also cover the migration approach and the role of immigrant women in South American family governance. Differing from their North American and European peers in the way they discuss the related issues of gender, race and exclusion, the works of Vendrame (2016), Kosminsky (2007), Silva (2007) and Assis (2007) are good examples. The feminist perspective tends to adopt a critical approach to migratory flows and transnational family mobility, including gender equality, migrant women’s access to the labour market, and wage discrimination of migrants and refugees. Other theoretical approaches include cross-cultural perspectives and new South American anthropology. Feminist theory has been rapidly immersed in South American social movements among migrants and transnational families (e.g. Massey et al., 2006). National debates in each country of relevance focus on wage inequality, abuse, xenophobia, sexual and moral harassment, and other social issues (e.g. Molina, Czischke and Rolnik, 2019; Romero, 2022). It also serves as a background for the drafting of laws protecting migrant women in general (e.g. Basok and Piper, 2012) and migrant women in situations of vulnerability, including irregular migrants (e.g. Gorbán and Tizziani, 2018). Despite progress in South American scholarship about global families that uses the theories described above, many researchers remain rooted in the past with little evolution in their thinking related to emerging political and ideological debates, but rather repetitions and revivals of Marxist, Gramscian and Trotskyist thought. As a result, we find that many studies about family migration have a tendency to reproduce old theories of class struggle, alienation of capital, and an industrial reserve army, which finds little practical support with contemporary South American society. We find, for example, that researchers have a tendency to generalize all Bolivian immigrants in Brazil as a single ‘proletarian class’, or all anti-immigration movements as ‘fascists’. These are known to be untrue. That said, with the excessive ideological polarization of researchers on the (predominantly Marxist) left, we are now also seeing the emergence of anti-immigration, nationalist and separatist movements, white supremacists, and xenophobes. It includes some in the Academy who use their professional, academic and personal frustrations to attack immigration and its actors through direct confrontation with scholars tied to the analytical past mentioned previously. The latter often find themselves mocked or distanced from their peers at home and abroad. Today, especially in Brazil, works that continue to advocate these positions on eugenics and geographic determinism are no longer accepted. However, until the middle of the military dictatorship in the 1970s, these types of articles were still circulating (see Seyferth, 2002 for a critique). In response to the above, we note the emergence of a sub-theory that, despite not having a specific classification or consensus as to what to name it, we call ‘coordinated or limited humanitarianism’. It emerges from the three main contemporary theoretical approaches to date – multiculturalism, integration, and assimilation –

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which have dominated studies and debates on immigration over the past century (see Brettell and Hollifield, 2022; De Haas, 2021). Coordinated or limited humanitarianism is based on legal provisions, regulations and laws, but has a strong humanitarian analytical approach. This research foregrounds the position of immigrant families and advocates some specific demands. Often compared, albeit mistakenly, to Latin American progressivism, this rising theoretical trend is now followed by researchers of all ideologies, from positivists to post-positivists, feminist theorists, and experts on decolonial theory. It has also gained attention in debates and interpretations around South American global families being represented by (for example) the Brazilian jurist, Deisy Ventura. It incorporates other themes and fields such as gender issues, social inequality, and minority representation in the more progressive and more conservative spheres, which is a phenomenon we are seeing only in South America.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS So far, we have described family immigration flows and the current state of global family research in the context of South America. There still remains a vast field to be explored and studied, with at least seven new immigrant groups where research is nascent and requires analytical, theoretical and practical deepening. One of the significant challenges for research in this area is a lack of reliable immigration statistics. Unlike the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, where there is a continuous compilation of statistics, in the South American context there is no such coordination. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Organization of American States, have tried in the last decade to create an aggregated database of migration statistics in Latin America, yet data remains outdated or restricted only to national demographic censuses. Even in the official publications of, for example, the IOM (2022), it also cautions that figures are approximate and thus only estimates, suggesting that the population numbers it reports are likely to be much higher. This is indeed an area requiring more attention as a future research objective for cartographers, geographers, statisticians, policymakers, economists, and internationalists in both the private sector, which seeks to understand global families in order to offer products or services that meets their needs, and in the public sector, which is increasingly expected to optimize public policies for national citizens and newcomers alike. The role of South American territorial borders in immigration flows also needs to be explored. Borderland studies have recently emerged in the fields of geography and international relations, which look at the economic integration of migrant families in their hosting societies (see the works of Pereira Carneiro Filho, 2016; and Dorfman, Sánchez, and Moreno, 2014). An important question that arises is: what is the likely role of South American borders as global migratory crises worsen? Will these borders show control, barriers, or openness? A related area of research is the recent unprecedented influx of migrants, many of whom are refugees, and their potential to directly impact South American econo-

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mies and labour markets (IOM, 2022; Ruist, 2020). Environmental refugees, forced stateless persons, and humanitarian asylum seekers have greatly contributed to new theorizing about migration around the world (e.g. Brettell and Hollifield, 2022; De Haas, 2021; Jones, 2019; Joppke, 1998; Triandafyllidou, 2018), with a paucity of such research in the South American context. Responses thus far in other regions, notably Europe and Asia (De Haas et al., 2019; Geddes, Hadj-Abdou and Brumat, 2020), provide some insight into the likely social, health and political challenges that will arise (e.g. Legido-Quigley et al., 2019), and yet a distinctly South American perspective is needed to enhance public policy response and new theorizing about labour market challenges for global families, including issues related to poverty, housing and wages. Especially important is research that focuses on the uniquely South American policy of ‘free movement’ of migrants between hosting nations (e.g. Santestevan, 2007), with related challenges for social, economic and health support more broadly (e.g. Matlin, Depoux, Schütte, Flahault and Saso, 2018; Ratha et al., 2020). A further area requiring much more research is the legalities of migration, residency and statehood for newcomers to South America. Between 2004 and 2017, most hosting nations (among them Brazil, Argentina and Ecuador) approved and adopted new migration laws. On the one hand, it guaranteed the regularization of hundreds of families, but on the other it provided legal certainty for deportation and controversy surrounding migrants’ rights and duties, including the right to vote. For refugees especially, whose rights are protected under international law (see Hathaway, 2021; Jones, 2016), there may be related implications for hosting nations (see Bertram, 2018 and Türk, 2018 for recent commentaries). Thus, to what extent will migrant families in South America continue to be regularized and integrated, with an ageing population and a noted increase in xenophobia and anti-immigration?

CONCLUSION In this chapter we have seen how the migrations of new transnational families to South America has impacted the continent’s economic, political and social reality, as the last continent to be included in the contemporary international agenda of migration. We have focused on seven groups comprised of eight nationalities who represent the new global families of South America. We have seen that these groups have unique family characteristics and specific social characteristics. Our review of the subject highlights three predominant theoretical lenses currently popular among South American scholars researching global and immigrant families: post-positivism, decolonial theory, and feminist theory. All three are embedded in a larger sphere of scientific progressivism on the continent, despite the existence of researchers who remain tied to Marxist theories of the past, which have no practical relevance in reality. For the two million global families that have recently arrived in South America, bringing with them new practices, social reproductions and cultural systems, the

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status of ‘being immigrant’, whether permanent, semi-permanent or impermanent, retains its significance. The main challenge for a good understanding of these new families, as well as their needs and challenges, is for the optimization of the state agency. The national governments of South America currently lack two key elements: the coordination and sharing of statistics and aggregate immigration data; and the formulation and implementation of specific public policies for immigrant families. We know that since the pre-Colombian period, immigration has built South American nation states and societies. With the recent emergence of ultranationalist, separatist, supremacist and xenophobic discourses, however, this may be in jeopardy. By highlighting the trends in global family migration in South America, the intent of this chapter is to provide insights into these issues for researchers interested in this topic and to provide hope for a better and more fruitful future for all South American residents. We say this with some assurance that, since the 1800s when German and Italian colonos were just small farmers in the Southern Cone without any hope or expectation of social mobility, their descendants are today leaders in many sectors of South American society. We therefore expect in the coming decades that the descendants of Haitians, Senegalese, Cubans, Syrians, Filipinos, Bengalis, Venezuelans, Bolivians and all other nationalities will follow the same path in South America and have the same opportunities. Further understanding of these issues will come from theory, research and practice.

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PART III MOBILITY COMMUNITIES

8. Missionary families: a case study of expatriation in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Charles M. Vance, Mark E. Mendenhall and Fred E. Woods

The examination of issues, challenges, and activities of various non-corporate expatriates in religious, sports, education, and nonprofit sectors can provide useful generalizable insights for enriching our understanding of the broader expatriation phenomenon (McNulty, Vance and Fisher, 2017). Within the religious sector, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is well known for its efforts to send missionary expatriates abroad, most notably young men and women, as are parodied in the highly popular musical, The Book of Mormon. The musical’s characterization of youthful American missionaries portrays a stereotypical image of youthful, American Latter-day Saint missionaries and a very limited picture of the Church’s overall expatriation activity and experience. For example, the present authors interrupted their university studies and served two-year volunteer missions for the Church in their early 20s (Italy, Japan, and Australia, respectively) and then returned to finish their undergraduate degrees. There is little resemblance between their missionary experiences and how missionary life is portrayed in the musical. In addition to their two-year volunteer missions, one of the authors is a third culture kid (Lauring, Guttormsen and McNulty, 2019; Van Reken, Pollock and Pollock, 2017), and each author has spent significant time overseas as an expatriate on short-term and long-term international work arrangements over the course of their academic careers. Our purpose in this chapter is to provide an historical overview of expatriation within the Church and the general philosophies and perspectives that have undergirded associated human resource (HR) policy and practice for individuals and their families. Consistent with the major theme of this book, we anchor our analysis within the construct of family and do so by framing our analysis on the multiple levels of the construct that is unique to the ideology of the Church, which in turn profoundly influences the mindset, strategy, and organization of its expatriate program. We first briefly examine the multi-dimensional aspect of the construct of the family that flows out of the doctrine of the Church and that is often forcefully at play in the mindset and working environment of the missionary expatriate. After delineating this framework, we then examine the historical arc of the Church’s expatriate activities since its founding in 1830. We conclude the chapter by recommending avenues for future research that hold the potential for providing more insight into the dynamics and processes of religious expatriation. 202

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THE CHURCH’S IDEOLOGY OF THE FAMILY Key to the success of religious expatriates, particularly related to adaptation and adjustment, is their intrinsic motivation driven by cognitions associated with religious ideology and a deep sense of missionary or Church-service purpose (Presbitero, 2017). One cannot comprehend the dynamics of the Church’s expatriation practices without an understanding of the central role that family plays in its doctrine. An often-repeated official assertion within the faith states: “the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children” (Hinckley, 1995: 1). Unlike the doctrine of most Christian denominations, a core tenet of the Church is that all human beings lived as spiritual children of God before being born into mortality. Mortal birth is viewed as a uniting of “the spirit with a physical body” so that children of God can “receive a fulness of joy” (Bradford, 1992: 487). Mortal life is viewed as a necessary experience that all God’s children go through, ideally within a supportive family structure, to gain necessary experience with good and evil to prepare for further growth and advancement in the eternities. The concept of and commitment to family, both in mortality and in eternity, is at the center of the Latter-day Saint belief system, and therefore must be acknowledged and examined to gain an accurate perspective of the Church’s expatriation experience. The family is the nucleus of individual socialization in the Church, and is a powerful catalyst in overcoming fear to volunteer for expatriate missionary assignments, often to remote, under-developed parts of the world. The dimensionality of the construct of family within the Church is based on two core dimensions: (1) mortal vs. eternal, and (2) enclosed vs. extended. The framework of our analysis is illustrated in Figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1

Multidimensionality of the construct of family in Latter-day Saint ideology

In Figure 8.1, we first distinguish between the mortal and the eternal. Mortal refers to institutions or conditions that are limited in their existence to an individual’s life

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on earth; that is, upon entering into life after death these institutions or conditions would no longer exist. Eternal refers to institutions or conditions that exist both here on earth and that will continue to exist into eternity. On the other axis, enclosed refers to the degree to which an individual’s membership in a sub-institution within the Church is both temporally and spiritually circumscribed to a relatively small number of people, whereas extended reflects being in a condition where the individual is formally and spiritually linked to a wider number of people. Eternal/Extended: Humankind as Family Perhaps most fundamental in the mindset of expatriate missionaries in the Church who are sent abroad is the deep personal conviction that everyone is, beyond metaphor, literally spiritual sisters and brothers – actual daughters and sons of God – who have chosen in a pre-mortal existence to come to earth to obtain a physical body in order to gain knowledge and wisdom and to learn to serve and love one another with the goal of eventually returning to God. In recognition of this spiritual reality, members of congregations often address each other as “sister” or “brother” with their surnames appended to the title (for example, “Sister Jones” or “Brother Miller”). Thus, with this belief and mindset, expatriate missionaries consider the host nationals to whom they are assigned to serve not as “heathens” who are backward and need “fixing,” but as literal spiritual sisters and brothers who are deserving of their complete commitment, love and support, both in this life and the life hereafter. Often it is this fundamental desire to serve God and His children (i.e., their spiritual brothers and sisters) that enables expatriate missionaries to override their fear of leaving their families and friends and the comforts of home at a very young age to accept an expatriate missionary assignment. Eternal/Enclosed: The Central Position of the Nuclear Family in the Church’s Ideology The nuclear family is viewed as the core, earthly institution wherein our mortal experience takes place, and families on earth are essentially an extension of the family of God. As such, families are designed to be eternal in nature, and to remain intact throughout eternity if family members keep their covenants with God. Marriage is viewed as the main relationship wherein people develop through trial and error, sacrifice, and commitment to follow God’s counsel (Bradford, 1992: 487). Nuclear family members play an important role in the lives of expatriate missionaries. It is common for one or both parents of a missionary to have been missionaries themselves; thus, as they regularly communicate with the expatriate missionary through weekly phone/video calls, email exchanges, and regular mail, parents are able to provide guidance, counsel, and encouragement based on their own missionary service. The ongoing, weekly familial influence through this communication system is quite powerful in influencing feelings of gratitude and obligation on the part of the missionary towards family members in the home culture. For example, one former

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missionary, in reflecting on his initial youthful missionary experience, believed that his motivation to not disappoint his parents back home far outweighed his fears about how well he would be able to perform his missionary labors (Stone, 2018). Mortal/Enclosed: Congregation as Family All members of the Church are assigned to attend the geographically closest congregation to their domicile. This policy discourages “shopping around” to find a congregation that one is most comfortable in, thus creating the necessity of learning to love and serve those one finds oneself living by – often it puts members outside their social comfort zones, stretching their capacity to learn to appreciate those who culturally and/or socially differ from them. In Latter-day Saint congregations, like families, one isn’t able to choose one’s siblings or co-parishioners. Congregations in the Church are called wards and are often referred to by their members as the ward family. There is no paid local ministry in the Church, so everyone is given responsibilities that are generally rotated every two to three years, which builds strong familiarity within the ward. This results in fellow ward members of the expatriate missionary, whether by special assignment or simply through genuine concern, regularly writing to expatriate missionaries serving abroad to provide encouragement, support, and advice. Also, in the foreign location where the missionary is serving, there typically is a local ward of Church members who possess the same spiritual brothers and sisters mentality and deep associated commitment to the well-being and success of the expatriate missionary. Unlike those regularly sending encouragement and support from back home, these local host country ward family members are able to provide on-site direction, guidance, and emotional support to the expatriate missionary to promote effective adjustment to the host culture. With their joint commitment to missionary efforts, these local Church members also are able to assist missionaries in their labors. It is common for host country members to invite missionaries to enjoy meals in their homes and provide other forms of generous personal assistance, as well as accompany missionaries in visiting and sharing their teachings with other host nationals who are interested in learning about the Church. Home and host country congregations both provide significant, consistent positive influence of spiritual, financial, and emotional support and encouragement throughout the duration of missionaries’ two-year assignments. Mortal/Extended: Mission as Family The Church divides the world into geographic boundaries that form missions. As of spring 2022, the Church has 407 missions in operation, housing a total of 54,539 missionaries (Newsroom, 2022) that are on either 18-month or two-year assignments. Each mission has approximately 100 to 250 missionaries assigned to it at any given time, and individual missionaries are assigned to work in pairs and are transferred throughout cities, with pairing changes within the mission boundaries roughly every three to six months. Thus, within a two-year expatriate mission assignment, a mis-

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sionary will live and work with many different missionaries and usually be a member of between four to six different local host country congregations. Missions have an organizational structure (explained in detail later in this chapter) that is designed to provide missionaries with guidance, support, and aid. The combination of the informal and formal support structures within the mission has strong influence on individual missionaries, usually facilitating strong bonds of friendship and kinship due to shared crucible experiences (Bennis and Thomas, 2002). For many missionaries, the mission’s culture is viewed and felt as being familial in nature, with familial terminology often used as slang to refer to fellow missionaries (e.g., wives of mission presidents are commonly referred to as being mission mothers). It is not uncommon for some relationships that are formed during one’s missionary experience to be life-lasting, and it is common for mission reunions to be held decades after the end of the missionaries’ expatriation. These missionary reunions are modeled after the concept of family reunions with the ethos for both being markedly similar in nature. Division of Labor in Caring for Families Given the centrality of the construct of family in the Church’s doctrine, much attention has been given since the founding of the Church to how the family can be ideally preserved, sustained, and edified. While gender roles are viewed traditionally, they are also intertwined, and the expectation is that both women and men will support each other in leading and taking care of their own families and their congregational families (Hinckley, 1995). At the congregational level, there is no paid ministry in the Church – all aspects of pastoral and administrative functions are carried out by volunteers. Men, if they desire, are ordained to priesthood offices that entail specific administrative and pastoral responsibilities while women in the Church belong to an organization (The Relief Society) that administers a variety of pastoral and administrative responsibilities separate from those associated with priesthood offices (Oaks, 2014). For example, Among other things, Latter-day Saint women preach sermons in Sunday meetings and the Church’s general conference; serve full-time proselytizing missions; perform and officiate in holy rites in the Church’s temples; and lead organizations that minister to families, other women, young women, and children. They participate in priesthood councils at the local and general levels. Professional women teach Latter-day Saint history and theology at Church universities and in the Church’s educational programs for youth. (Gospel Topics, 2019)

The leadership responsibilities of women and men are expected to be integrated so that the congregational family operates in as well-coordinated a way and as seamlessly as possible. Traditionally, the responsibility for missionary outreach has been designated as a responsibility of those ordained to the priesthood in the Church, with the Relief Society playing a support role in missionary efforts (Hinckley, 1997). Thus, the administration of missions in the Church is led by men who hold the priest-

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hood who work closely with women who volunteer for missionary assignments. An in-depth review of how administrative and pastoral responsibilities operate and are integrated in the Church in relationship to gender are beyond the scope of this chapter (for comprehensive analyses, please see Ballard, 2013; Cassler and Sorenson, 2004; Dew, 2014; Oaks, 2014). With this multi-dimensional perspective of family in Church doctrine and practice in mind, we now provide a broad view of the historical arc of expatriation policies and practices in the Church and the general philosophies that have undergirded human resource policy formation associated with them. We divide the expatriation activity in the Church into three broad phases or eras: (1) the Sacrificial Era, 1837–1945; (2) the Familial Era, 1945–70; and (3) the Multinational Era, 1970–present (Figure 8.2). We also summarize the attendant problems, challenges, and obstacles the Church faced in deploying and managing expatriates during each era.

Figure 8.2

Expatriation activity in the Latter-day Saint Church, 1837 to present day

THE SACRIFICIAL ERA, 1837–1945 From its very beginning, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been missionary-oriented in nature. In his ministry of restoring in the “latter days” the same Church that was originally established by Jesus in antiquity, Joseph Smith fully accepted the injunction of Jesus to: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:19–20). Joseph Smith’s charge was to not “let a single corner of the earth go without a mission” (Roberts, 1978: 368), a bold undertaking for a very young Church (Britsch, 2012). Assigning, or in the Church’s vernacular that we will use hereafter in this chapter, calling mature men to become missionaries for short periods of time, became norma-

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tive from 1837 to 1880. Usually, this arrangement involved a married man leaving his wife and children for a specified time period that could range from a few weeks to a few years, depending on the nature of the assignment. Missionaries worked in pairs or companionships, and following New Testament proselyting norms, went as unpaid agents “without purse or scrip” (see Matthew 10:9–11), relying on the charity of the local populace to house and feed them (Britsch, 2001). Between 1830 and 1899, general Church leaders called over 12,000 missionaries (Neilson, 2012). We term this period the Sacrificial Era because when these men became missionaries their spouses and children had to provide for themselves in the absence of their husband and father. While neighbors and loved ones offered what support they could, often the women (who came to be known as missionary wives) had to engage in entrepreneurial activities to provide for their children in the absence of their husbands (Perrin, 2012). These early families modeled their discipleship after early Christians who suffered severe persecutions in New Testament times, and therefore they operated under the assumption that following Jesus Christ meant one would naturally have to endure hardships. Many of these women and men had already experienced severe persecution because of their faith, having been driven from their homes multiple times by mobs. They experienced forced relocations from Ohio to Missouri (at one point in Missouri, the governor issued an extermination order upon any Latter-day Saints who chose to reside in the state), from Missouri to Illinois, and finally from Illinois to Utah. The sacrifice of parting with loved ones for an extended period to follow Christ’s injunction to “go and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19–20) was viewed as a sacred responsibility by these early converts of the Church. The first group of missionaries called to go outside of North America for an extended period were sent to England in 1837, and then nine more were sent to that country in 1840, initiating a pattern of missionary-related expatriation to nations throughout the world. Between 1843 and 1865, missionaries were sent to 30 countries including Australia, Chile, Germany, Hong Kong, Jamaica, India, Palestine, Scotland, South Africa and the Society Islands (Britsch, 2001; Golding, 2010). Expatriate missionaries continued to be called to these countries throughout the Sacrificial Era, although sometimes due to war or shifts in governmental restrictions or other circumstances missionaries were recalled and had to abandon their missions (Neilson, 2012). For example, missionaries were called to Japan in 1901, and while they and subsequent missionaries labored diligently (some came to learn the language fluently), political and cultural dynamics made it difficult to establish a strong foothold there. Very few Japanese converted, and in 1923, after a particularly devastating earthquake, the missionaries were recalled from Japan and reassigned to work with Japanese immigrants in Hawaii. The Church did not have a missionary presence again in Japan until 1948 (Britsch, 1992). From 1865 to 1900, groups of missionaries were called to Belgium, Bulgaria, The Cook Islands, Croatia, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Syria, and Tonga; and from 1900 up until World War II, the missionary effort expanded to Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Latvia, Slovakia, and Zimbabwe (Britsch, 2001; Deseret News, 2012). It should be noted that large numbers of missionaries were not sent to

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every country; in some countries (e.g., Syria, Turkey), very few missionaries were ever assigned. Larger numbers of missionaries were sent to countries where the populace and culture were more hospitable and open to the missionaries’ teachings (Britsch, 2001). Emergent Issues that Arose from the Sacrificial Era During the Sacrificial Era, two major challenges surfaced for the Church: (1) familial stress; and (2) missed opportunities due to lack of human resources policies and management. The first challenge has been discussed earlier. Notably, while it was seen as a badge of honor to have the primary provider assigned to be a missionary in a far-flung corner of the world, it put a tremendous burden on the wife and children left behind (Perrin, 2012). Additionally, inequities arose in the degree of sacrifice, as some families had more financial reserves and/or extended family support to draw upon during the father’s absence than others (Golding, 2010). In many cases, wives had to primarily carry the burden of providing for their families while their husbands were far away from home on missions (Perrin, 2012). The settlement of Utah beginning in 1847 provided the Church with a stable headquarters from which to launch missionary work more effectively (Neilson, 2012), and converts from around the world (especially those from Great Britain, Central Europe, and Scandinavia) desired to relocate to Utah in order to “gather physically with other faithful members to assist in building … a covenant community of righteous Saints” (Whittaker, 2000: 459). The success in conversions up to that time revealed a great potential for increasing the Church’s membership, but to do so it required that more missionaries be sent overseas. However, “missionary demand exceeded supply” (Golding, 2010: 133). Assigning significantly higher numbers of more mature, experienced (married) men as missionaries had become unworkable (Golding, 2010) because doing so would place strains on their wives and families as well as upon local leadership resources within the Utah Territory (the Church had no paid ministry but relied on – and continues to do so to the present – on congregational members to act as clergy). To remedy these two challenges, beginning in the 1880s, men who were young adults and had not yet married were increasingly called on for missionary assignments. The unmarried young adult population was the only demographic to draw from in order to increase the number of missionaries and to reduce the number of fathers being separated from their families. This shift in policy allowed the total number of missionaries in the Church to nearly triple in size by the 1890s. In 1898, single, young adult women also were assigned to go on missions if they desired to do so, and by the turn of the century roughly 900 missionaries were being assigned annually by the Church (Neilson, 2012). The increase in numbers of missionaries required the Church to design customized missionary training classes, which were conducted at Church educational facilities. In the mid-1920s, a Salt Lake City-based Mission Home for departing missionaries was established, where for two weeks they received instruction on proper etiquette, diet and personal care, and basic missionary

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strategies for teaching Church doctrine (Ludlow, 1992). From the 1920s to the onset of World War II there began a gradual evolution away from traditional missionary norms (e.g., traveling without purse or scrip) to processes designed to oversee large missionary cadres in various countries (Neilson, 2012). The increasing practice of calling single young men and women as missionaries in preference to married men, who would otherwise be separated from their young families, set the stage for the next phase of expatriation in the Church, which we term the Familial Era.

THE FAMILIAL ERA, 1945–70 The Church’s missionary work was suspended throughout Europe, the South Pacific and Asia in the late 1930s and globally throughout World War II (Britsch, 1992). After World War II, the Church formally ended its policy of calling both married men and single men and women as missionaries, with only a few exceptions (discussed later in this chapter). It transitioned instead to a policy of calling only single men and women (approximately 19 to 21 years of age) from local congregations throughout the world, to serve as missionaries for time periods of 18 months to three years (although by the early 1970s, the uppermost length was reduced to two years, and has remained that way to the present). These young men and women constituted the vast majority of the expatriate missionary force. We note here that other types of missionaries were called to serve in this era as well – mission presidents and their families, education missionaries, and construction/labor missionaries – and we will discuss this aspect of the Church’s expatriation later in the chapter. The strategy for expatriate missionaries to learn foreign languages during the early part of this era consisted of informal, immersive learning in the host country. This laissez-faire approach worked to varying degrees, but was largely dependent upon the individual missionary to best figure out how to do it without any trained, formal guidance (Neilson, 2012). It wasn’t until 1968 that the Church’s leaders implemented a program for teaching missionaries’ foreign languages before their overseas departure. Missionary pre-departure training facilities were established in Church-owned colleges in Idaho and Hawaii, and soon afterward in Utah near Brigham Young University. These pre-departure training programs were six weeks in length and focused primarily on language acquisition and cultural orientation (Britsch, 2012). Upon completion of the pre-departure language training program, missionaries then traveled to their appointed mission country and were assigned to work in a dyad or companionship. New missionaries were paired with others who had been in the country long enough to have developed a working knowledge of the local language and cultural norms. Once assigned to their companions, the new missionary continued language and cultural learning, with general missionary training and coaching being largely the responsibility of the more experienced missionary in the companionship. This initial training assignment typically lasted for two to three months before the companionship was changed and/or the missionary was transferred to another area within the country. Under such arrangements, though perceived as being a stressful

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experience by almost all missionaries, working language fluency became common for the majority of missionaries within the first year of their sojourn (Graham, 2012; Kirk, 2014). ‘Mission Presidents’ and ‘Mission Mothers’ The sending of relatively inexperienced young men and women on long foreign assignments during the Familial Era (a practice that continues to this day) required the Church to provide a support system to help them through the inevitable personal adjustments and challenges they encountered in living and working in new, unfamiliar cultures. This led to the development of a policy where the Church began assigning experienced, married couples to leave their home congregations and become expatriates, to live abroad to become CEOs of missions and care for the young missionaries assigned to their specific mission (Britsch, 2012). These experienced couples were typically older empty nest couples or more established families with pre-college-age children, where a father was called for three years to lead and preside over a single mission as a mission president (Britsch, 2012). A distinctive feature of the Familial Era was that, unlike the time of the Sacrificial Era, the father was now expected to keep his family intact and have his wife and children accompany him (see Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume). However, in addition to caring for his own family, the father was also required to train, counsel and give spiritual support to the young and uprooted missionaries in his mission (Day, 1992). His wife was similarly expected to serve by his side with separate duties to nurture the missionaries and primarily look after their health, welfare, and safety needs (thus often being referred to by missionaries as mission mothers). This arrangement continues to the present day in the 407 Church missions located around the world where the Church is officially recognized (Newsroom, 2022). In alignment with the lay ministry orientation of the Church, the responsibility of a mission president is not a regular remunerative position, but interrupts professional employment; what financial losses accrue are part of the expected sacrifice. The family involved gives of its time and energies without salary, though there is a modest allowance for living expenses. (Day, 1992: 914)

To buffer possible financial losses incurred from mission president responsibilities, a home was provided for the mission president and family to live in without cost. During most of the Familial Era, mission presidents and their families were not provided with much on the ground support from corporate headquarters in Utah (Britsch, 2012). They were expected to arrive, exert faith, and use personal initiative to solve challenges on their own. In many cases, mission presidents asked host country members to serve as counselors or advisers to assist with mission leadership and administration. It was not until the early 1960s that the Church began formalized pre-departure training for mission presidents and their spouses (Britsch, 2012). The post-World War II years saw an increase in nuclear families being expatriated to

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assist with the missionary effort of the Church, but this trend would soon extend beyond the proselyting realm and into other Church operations as well. Labour Missionaries The worldwide membership of the Church more than tripled between the years 1900 and 1945, from 268,331 to nearly a million (979,454). Its worldwide membership continued to greatly increase into the 1950s and 1960s (Ludlow, 1992). Naturally, these new Church members required buildings for worship and communal gatherings, and in some parts of the world (especially the South Pacific) where local education systems and facilities were inadequate, their children needed to be educated as well (Anderson and Jackson, 1992). The vast majority of the need for meetinghouses and schools was in countries where skilled labor and financing were sparse. In an innovative response to this need, the Church began a different type of missionary program: the Building Missionary Program (Anderson and Jackson, 1992; Britsch, 2012). It did not replace the expatriate missionary effort we have heretofore described, but rather worked in tandem with it. In South Pacific countries, young men and women as well as young married couples were called to be labor missionaries for an assigned period, usually two years but sometimes longer. Their assignment was to learn a trade skill (e.g., carpentry, bricklaying) and to participate in constructing the needed meetinghouses and school buildings in their countries (Britsch, 2012). To lead the skill development and oversee the construction of these buildings by the labor missionaries, North American members of the Church who were experienced in the construction industry were called by the Church (not unlike mission presidents) to expatriate to countries like New Zealand, Samoa, and Tonga to supervise the training of the local labor missionaries and the construction of meetinghouses and schools by them (Anderson and Jackson, 1992). This Church building construction program began in New Zealand with the building of the Church College of New Zealand (a boarding high-school for teenagers) and the New Zealand Temple. These buildings were constructed just outside of Hamilton, New Zealand, and a Latter-day Saint community, Temple View, formed around them. This became the headquarters of the building program in the South Pacific (Anderson and Jackson, 1992; Cummings, 1961). Small factories were established at Temple View that provided materials needed for construction throughout New Zealand and the South Pacific. This initiative expanded into Australia, and by 1961 the program was established in the United Kingdom and central Europe, and a few years later in Asia and Latin America (Anderson and Jackson, 1992; Cummings, 1961). As local Church members assisted in the construction of their own chapels, they built a stronger relationship with each other and an accompanying mind shift that they were “building Zion” in their homelands (Cummings, 1961). In countries where school buildings were constructed, teachers and school administrators were required to staff them, and these too came in the form of missionaries with families, mostly from North America. Many Church members who were professional educators and school administrators were called as education missionaries

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to staff the schools that the labor missionaries built (Cummings, 1961). Like mission presidents, the construction specialists and the educators received no remuneration for their missionary labors, but rather received a modest living allowance and rent-free housing; rarely was the housing an upgrade (usually the opposite) from that to which they had been accustomed in their home country (Anderson and Jackson, 1992). During the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, numerous wives and children of American contractors, school administrators, and schoolteachers found themselves living overseas, particularly in the South Pacific, within just a few months of their husbands and fathers being called to serve as missionaries (Cummings, 1961; Mendenhall, 2023). As was common in most non-Church organizations during this period, the expatriate missionaries and their families were not provided with pre-departure cross-cultural training, nor even organized in-country training. Logistical support services were basic and oftentimes rudimentary, and most expatriate families relied on more experienced expatriates as well as host country ward members to provide them with needed knowledge and support to negotiate their new and unfamiliar environment. The children of the expatriate missionaries were not provided with any pre-departure social or cross-cultural adjustment training. Upon arrival, they were immediately enrolled into local public schools and were left to embed themselves into the host culture on their own. The extent of in-country formal social support mechanisms sponsored by the local congregations in the host countries included Boy Scouts, weekly organized youth activities, Sunday Schools, and so on. Fortuitously, the Church’s unique lay ministerial structure proved to be a boon for expatriate families under these conditions (Cummings, 1961; Mendenhall, 2023). In every congregation in the Church all over the world, each member was, and is today, expected to serve in a religious responsibility or calling. These callings can range from being the leader of the congregation, to teaching children in various age-group Sunday school classes, or to being the local meetinghouse custodian. There are scores of callings in each congregation that must be filled for the congregation to operate effectively. Expatriate parents soon after arrival were given callings that required them to meet, befriend, and immediately serve and interact with other local host country individuals in the congregation, which in turn enhanced their social adjustment in the host culture. Additionally, a support structure that exists in each congregation in the Church around the world acted as an important cross-cultural adjustment vehicle for these expatriate missionaries and their families. Every family in the Church is assigned a set of ministering brothers: two men (or an adult male and a teenager) from their congregation who have the responsibility to be aware of the family’s needs and serve as the first point of contact in any type of emergency or significant need that might befall the family. All adult women are assigned ministering sisters: two women (or an adult and a teenager) from their congregation who carry the same type of responsibility as the ministering brothers, but in this case their focus is to support the needs of women. Thus, there was an institutionalized mechanism that was in place for these expatriates that encouraged the development of immediate meaningful relationships and social supports with the host country members

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that often – but not always – promoted cross-cultural adjustment and success in the international experience. And perhaps even more fundamentally, each local member, anywhere in the world, continues today to be strongly encouraged to assist every other member, whether an expatriate or a local, as a brother or sister in the gospel, and even as a literal spirit child of God who presides over the great spiritual family (see the Humankind dimension in Figure 8.1). As explained by superordinate goal theory, such a shared long-term goal orientation, consistently instructed and promoted throughout the Church, supports the tendency of host country members to support and assist other expatriate members (Schwartz and Bardi, 2001; Gaertner and Dovidio, 2000). As described above, the Church’s policy and common practice during the Familial Era provided for high levels of interaction with host nationals, as in most cases the Church’s congregations were (and still are) integrated. The expatriates all had callings in their local congregations that required them to teach, visit, and serve host country members, and these local members had callings that required them to teach, visit, and serve the expatriates. This close-knit interaction produced cultural misunderstandings at times, but more commonly, with their shared commitment to core Church values and beliefs and as followers of Jesus Christ, this meaningful interaction resulted in mutual adaptation and, over time, growth in mutual appreciation for the strengths inherent in the cultural orientations of both parties (Mendenhall, 2023). This “all-for-one and one-for-all” congregational culture provided a built-in support system for the expatriate families that, to a great extent, compensated for their inadequate pre-departure preparation. Emergent Issues that Arose from the Familial Era During the Familial Period, challenges arose within the missionary program, both at the individual and organizational levels. As young adult, unmarried missionaries largely constituted the missionary force in the Familial Era (except for mission presidents and labor and education missionaries accompanied overseas by their families), concerns arose regarding how to help them more effectively adjust to new cultures, learn new languages, manage emotional stability and illness, adjust to missionary life itself, and to re-adjust to their home cultures upon return. It is important to note that Latter-day Saint missions are not traditional “mission trips” where young adults travel to a foreign country for a few weeks or months to provide humanitarian service and then return home. Latter-day Saint missionaries live amongst host nationals in the same neighborhoods and in similar living conditions to them. They are out and moving around daily from 10:30a.m. until 9:30p.m. They are naturally drawn to those who suffer – the homeless, refugees, and those who often don’t fit in with society. Those who are assigned to developing world countries see things that they have never encountered before: murders, child alcoholism, gang violence, criminal behavior, poverty, child abuse, and suicide. The stress associated with Latter-day Saint missionary service is high. Incidents of anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness were common at one time or another for many. Essentially, missionaries were

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placed in a crucible experience that had the potential to facilitate transformational growth (Bennis and Thomas, 2002) but also could overwhelm extant intrapersonal coping mechanisms. Beyond the aid and support that mission presidents and their wives and other missionaries personally rendered, during the Familial Era there were few resources available to missionaries in-country who wrestled with the inherent challenges of missionary life. Like most organizations, the Church does not publish statistics on early returns of expatriates, but a minority – how sizeable is open to question – could not adjust and returned home early. As might be expected, when one takes on an idealistic quest and is not able to complete it due to illness, homesickness, physical limitations, and/or emotional challenges, it is natural to feel a deep sense of failure. This self-imposed stigmatization was common in early returnees and difficult for them to resolve despite the best efforts of family and friends to aid them. Others stayed throughout the assignment, thus avoiding self-stigmatization, but never effectively adjusted and were less effective in their performance than those who did elect to return (Doty-Yells, 2017). For the missionaries who did adjust to life abroad and the host culture, a common challenge was re-entry shock. After spending two years abroad with an entire focus on serving and helping others, returning home to the United States, Canada, or Great Britain was difficult on many levels. For example, missionaries often returned with health issues that needed attention, or had trouble reconciling the disparities of wealth and convenience between their home and mission country. No formal repatriation training programs existed, and families and local congregations were the sole source of support for returning missionaries. Successful readjustment was common, but varied missionary by missionary in terms of its length and the degree of stress associated with it. Toward the end of the Familial Era, the cost of sending large numbers of families abroad on labour and education missions and overseeing construction projects from Church headquarters became untenable (Prince and Wright, 2005). In 1965, the Church began to contract with local construction companies for the building of meetinghouses and in the 1970s began employing host nationals as school teachers and school administrators to staff the Church’s educational institutions (Prince and Wright, 2005). By the 1970s the Church had become a global entity with many remote congregations and administrative arms that increasingly required more sophisticated organizational structuring to oversee and control its operations (Prince and Wright, 2005). Various types of organizational designs were implemented and then adjusted to manage the Church’s growth, taking it into a new era, one that we label the Multinational Era.

THE MULTINATIONAL ERA, 1970–PRESENT Although it held a global perspective from the start, in the 1970s the Church began to increasingly organize itself in ways similar to that of multinational corporations

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(MNCs) in terms of structure, strategy, and administration, with attendant effects on its expatriation strategy. International Mission With increasing awareness and concern for the needs of professional expatriates residing outside of areas where the Church had local congregations and support services, the Church established an International Mission in 1973 (Brockbank, 1973; Hunter, 1974). Prior to this era, the nearest mission president typically took care of expatriate Latter-day Saint individuals or lone expatriate families scattered abroad. For example, prior to the formation of the International Mission, the president of the Swiss Mission was responsible for individual expatriate members in unincorporated Europe (i.e., members without a Church unit), North Africa, and the Middle East. The International Mission functioned for a decade before being supplanted in 1984 by Areas, or Church administrative geographic regions organized in the U.S.A. and throughout the world. There now are 22 of these geographic Areas, seven in North America and 15 throughout the rest of the world. Each Area is led by three-person officially authorized Area Presidencies, typically consisting of men who are full-time global Church leaders called general authorities and beneath them in the organizational structure, area authorities, as well as regional lay priesthood leaders serving in the Church part-time (i.e., while still maintaining their regular employment). These Area Presidency leaders administer the local and regional spiritual affairs of the Church, as well as coordinate Church-wide initiatives and programs (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2022). It should be noted that several North America Area Presidency members with their families are non-U.S. expatriates, called as Church general authorities and living in the U.S.A. in Salt Lake City, Utah where the Church headquarters is based. These experienced individuals tend to remain at headquarters until they retire with emeritus status. To a significant degree, these individuals are selected for their expertise and diverse geographic and global perspectives that help broaden home country leadership perspectives for enhanced decision-making (Gertsen and Søderberg, 2012; Vance and Ensher, 2002). Leadership staffing in these Area Presidencies is consistent with a modern transnational MNC competitive strategy, where to a great extent leadership talent is recruited globally without concern for national passport (Collings and Scullion, 2009). Members of the 15 Area Presidencies outside of North America typically live in an area headquarters city with their families and within the designated boundaries of the multiple-country area (except for the Middle East/Africa North Area, which is administered from Church headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah). These presidencies typically are composed of one or more leaders from one of the countries within the area or region. For example, currently the Philippines Area, has a president that is Fijian, and one assistant (called a counselor) is a Korean, while the other assistant is an American (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2022). In some Areas of a relatively small geographic region with multiple countries represented, such as

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in Europe, some Area Presidency members may live with their families in a nearby country and regularly commute to the Area headquarters (Mäkelä, Sarenpää and McNulty, 2017). Besides attending to other Church-related administrative duties, such as youth religious education and social and humanitarian services, these Area Presidencies take care of the individual worship and ecclesiastical needs of professional expatriates in locations with few or no local members, and who desire to form small Church units or groups for fellowship and support. Full-time Administrative Expatriates In addition to the International Mission, the Church has several paid non-ecclesiastical professional expatriates in senior leadership roles from the U.S.A. and other countries undertaking three to six-year foreign assignments, who deal with various technical and business needs and professional specialization functions within the 15 designated geographic areas outside of North America. They are employed to manage legal, financial, project management, humanitarian, educational, and other types of temporal needs of the Church in those areas. As with more conventional MNC expatriates, a major goal of these senior expatriates, often in semi-retirement from their home country career, is to provide training and development for local member professionals to eventually take over the reins of local professional leadership in technical and functional areas. These senior leadership expatriates, whose work is often coordinated with the more ecclesiastical efforts of the Area Presidencies, also typically reside with a spouse and their children in the same city as the Area Presidency headquarters. Unlike the challenging predicament of the traditional MNC expatriate’s trailing spouse who faces unemployment and identity issues (McNulty, 2012), these often serve in tandem with their spouses, or are involved in separate assignments involving various types of pastoral, charitable or administrative work. Increase in Women Missionaries Perhaps the greatest change in active involvement of women as expatriate missionaries has come since the fall of 2012, when the accepted minimum age for single young women to serve as missionaries was lowered from 21 to 19. Since that time, there has been a huge increase in the representation of young women among the young Latter-day Saint missionaries serving throughout the world, more than doubling from approximately 12 to 26 percent (Newsroom, 2019). The dramatic increase in young women’s participation as expatriate missionaries, who will acquire significant and transformative international experiences, and which will facilitate the development of inclusive global leadership competencies (Vance, 2005), is likely to have a positive impact on the future of the global Church as a whole, as well as on the lives and world views of future children in the families of these (then former) expatriate women missionaries.

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Formal Mission Training Today, there are 10 missionary training centers (MTCs) around the world dedicated to preparing single male (ages 18–25) and single female expatriate missionaries (ages 19 and older – there is no upper age limit for single women who desire to volunteer) to serve in over 400 missions. Senior couple missionaries (see the next section in the chapter) also attend the MTCs. Training occurs over three to six weeks – three weeks for missionaries that are already language fluent and longer for others (Newsroom, 2022). The most prominent MTC is adjacent to Brigham Young University in Utah, while smaller MTCs are located in São Paulo, Brazil, Bogotá, Colombia, Preston, England, Accra, Ghana, Mexico City, Mexico, Auckland, New Zealand, Lima, Peru, Manilla, Philippines and Johannesburg, South Africa. These MTCs are typically staffed and led by headquarters (U.S.) expatriates, host country nationals, third country national male leaders and their wives, and other expatriate specialized personnel (Newsroom, 2022). Humanitarian Outreach Although the primary emphasis for expatriate missionaries today is upon the core purpose of following Jesus’ injunction to “preach the gospel to all creation,” increasingly Latter-day Saint expatriate missionaries are also expected to perform regular charitable service for Church members and non-members alike, following the broader proselytization admonition often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel always, and sometimes use words” (Galli, 2009). Although non-proselyting voluntary service expatriate missionaries were found in the previous Familial Era (e.g., in construction and education), they are increasingly found today providing voluntary assistance in a variety of areas including social services, medical and healthcare, education, agriculture advisement, and infrastructure development (Newsroom, 2022). Senior Couple Missionaries A growing number of current expatriate missionaries, now about eight percent of the total missionary cadre, are married couples of retirement age – empty nesters without child-rearing responsibilities. The husband and wife are considered co-equal in their expatriate duties. These senior couples serve for six to 24 months, work in local Church leadership development and youth engagement, and provide administrative support functions by fulfilling specific assignments given by local Church unit leaders and mission presidents. Others may work in global humanitarian assignments related to such needs as vision care, newborn education and care, immunization, and refugee services throughout the world, with Church-sponsored charitable organizations such as LDS Charities and the Latter-day Saint Humanitarian Center (Newsroom, 2022). These senior couples are part of the wider trend of senior expatriate volunteers from Western countries who are providing a wide variety of volunteer and full-time

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services, in their home country and abroad, to nonprofit and charitable organizations that take advantage of their maturity, experience, and professional training (Einolf, 2009; Myers, Inkson, and Pringle, 2017; Toossi, 2006, 2012). Emergent Issues Arising in the Multinational Era The leaders of the Church would likely be the first to admit that the expatriation element of the Church’s organizational structure rarely runs smoothly, due to human error and the fact that the expatriates that are sent abroad are mostly quite young (between 18 and 24 years of age), and thus are prone to making mistakes, errors in judgment, and cross-cultural adjustment challenges (Doty-Yells, 2017; Gull, 2017; West, 2018). However, despite the challenges, the Church now is able to efficiently handle the weekly entry and re-entry of cadres of new and returning expatriates, and daily maintains an overall expatriate force of 54,539 missionaries that require support, housing, healthcare, transportation, training, and leadership. That said, the nature of mission life and its inherent challenges has not appreciably changed from what we described in the Familial Era; though spiritually rewarding, it is difficult, challenging, and can at times be dangerous to be an expatriate missionary. This is a challenge that will never go away, no matter the era (Stack, 2017). In the Multinational Era, especially in the past 15 years, the Church has responded to these challenges in a variety of ways. For example, mission regions have physicians assigned to them who are able to consult with missionaries who have medical and emotional issues and who can provide immediate guidance to mission presidents. A resource initiative, Adjusting to Missionary Life (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013), based on proven clinical psychological practices such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, was established in 2013 to assist missionaries to understand how stress affects their physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual well-being, and to learn how to apply efficacious cognitive and behavioral techniques to manage stress and its various manifestations. Advances in affordable communication technology has enabled missionaries to have weekly video conference calls with their families, which provide them with encouragement and help them remain emotionally close while overseas. Before the technological advances of the 2000s, the only way to affordably communicate with family members in the home culture was via letter writing. Heightened communication with family in the home country has had a positive impact on the majority of expatriate missionaries compared to the restricted contact in the Sacrificial and Familial Eras. Despite these efforts, a minority of missionaries continue to return early from their mission assignments. Most Latter-day Saints know someone from their ward or extended family who returned early due to illness, emotional struggles, physical injury, or for other reasons. Though Church leaders strongly teach that early returnees are to be welcomed, appreciated, and honored, early return is still often accompanied by an internal feeling of failure and discouragement on the part of the missionary (Doty-Yells, 2017). Dealing with not being able to finish a missionary assignment – an assignment that the missionary often looked forward to from early

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childhood – is a difficult challenge. In contrast to the Familial Era, policies for early returning missionaries are now more flexible in nature; for example, early returnees are able to be assigned to serve locally in situations that best fit their circumstances. In other words, they may continue their mission in their home country and complete it there; however, the nature of their service in terms of their daily assigned tasks is usually different than those they were assigned abroad. This custom-designed missionary service has the goal to buffer feelings of failure by allowing early returnees to finish their missionary assignments and to give them a sense of emotional and spiritual completion.

FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDA In this chapter, we have reviewed the historical case of Latter-day Saint missionary expatriation since the founding of the Church in 1830, and we have done so within the context of a multi-dimensional concept of family that emanates from core doctrine of the Church, delineating expatriation policy eras and their associated practices. In this section, we explore areas for future research for global mobility, religious studies, and other scholars, which we believe will aid in a developing a better understanding of the dynamics and processes associated with religious expatriation for families. Efficacy of Local Support for Religious Expatriate Family Success The importance of the role of the local host country congregation members in supporting the adjustment and success of missionary expatriate family members seems to be an under-researched variable in the missiology literature. Recent work in the international management field has demonstrated the valuable role and influence of local host country nationals, whether within the expatriate’s organization or within the local environment, in enhancing such aspects as international adjustment and the development of intercultural competence and social capital (van Bakel et al., 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017). These findings align with our review; namely, that host country nationals can be a vital aid to religious missionary success. But we feel that this variable should be investigated for its effect on all expatriate family members. Little is known about the actual dynamics that undergird this phenomenon. For example, what variables dampen inclination to offer aid and assistance to expatriate missionaries and their family members vs. what variables facilitate it? A variety of possibilities come to mind for the former, such as condescending behavior, lack of cultural empathy, divergent goals, negative past experience with expatriate missionaries, low delegation of power by the expatriate, and so on. In terms of facilitation, possible variables include possession of expertise that host nationals desire to acquire, exhibition of respect on the part of expatriate family members – including children – for the host culture and for host nationals, ability to speak the local language, degree of cultural distance between the expatriate family’s home culture and the local culture, and sharing a superordinate goal. A more nuanced understanding

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of these dynamics would allow religious organizations to better select and place missionaries and their families and align their talents to specific congregational milieus. Content and Sequence of Pre-departure Training The Church’s pre-departure training currently focuses almost exclusively on language acquisition. Little time is spent on educating Latter-day Saint missionaries on the history, anthropology, government, geography, or economics of the country of assignment. Mission presidents and their spouses are jointly trained before departure for six months or longer via numerous conference calls, online, reading assignments, distance mentoring, and a pre-departure face-to-face training seminar. The training focus is primarily on spiritual, leadership, and administrative facets of their responsibilities, with limited emphasis on the history, anthropology, government, geography, or economics of the country of assignment. Children of mission presidents and their spouses do not receive specialized training from the Church before moving abroad. Being able to translate such knowledge into interpersonal/relationship development strategies to bond with host nationals is yet another layer of cognitive sophistication, alternatively labelled by scholars as cultural intelligence (Earley and Mosakowski, 2004), global competency (Bird et al., 2010), and global mindset (Levy et al., 2007). The time available for pre-departure training, for all types of religious organizations is likely limited, and thus trade-offs are inevitable in terms of what content will be privileged in training program design. It is our belief that more of this type of content (e.g., cultural intelligence, historical, anthropological) needs to be included in pre-departure training for Latter-day Saint missionaries. A second concern, however, is that research in the area of pre-departure cross-cultural training is mixed – sometimes it is effective, sometimes it isn’t (Mendenhall et al., 2004). Mixed findings always point to a complexity in processes that operate beneath the surface of a phenomenon. Thus, more research needs to be done to determine the breadth and depth of content that is relevant for pre-departure training. For example, it may be that intensive education on cultural/historical/political dynamics of the host country can reach a threshold beyond which it yields diminishing returns. That is, it may be that until one actually has direct experience living and working in the host country, the knowledge that exceeds basic, introductory levels cannot be fully comprehended and internalized by trainees. More insight about the nature and degree of cultural content and its sequencing in training for expatriate missionaries and their families and how it combines best with language acquisition needs to be investigated. It may be that some levels of content are best learned pre-departure and other levels while in-country, which leads to the next proposed avenue of research: in-country developmental processes. In-country Developmental Processes Previous research has argued that in-country training is supportive to the enhancement of expatriate adjustment and global leadership skill development (Mendenhall,

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2001; Mendenhall and Stahl, 2000; Tarique and Caligiuri, 2009); more specifically, in-country training that is experiential/immersive vs. pedagogical in nature is superior for the development of intercultural competencies (Caligiuri and Thoroughgood, 2015; Pless, Maak and Stahl, 2011; Oddou and Mendenhall, 2018). It would seem that the majority of religious missionaries and their families of all denominations are placed in conditions that qualify as experiential/immersive in nature, and thus would be prime candidates to gain a better understanding of how on-going experiences in an immersive new cultural context generate the development of intercultural skills necessary for effective leadership in the global context. Yet, this population of expatriates has been largely overlooked by organizational behavior and religious studies scholars. Of primary interest is discovering what variables significantly influence successful intercultural competency development in experiential/immersion contexts – crucible contexts – and which variables dampen such acquisition. From our review of Latter-day Saint missionaries and their families, it is clear that some find the immersive context overwhelming and return early – more common albeit to young unaccompanied expatriates than family expatriation; thus, a question arises: what variables/factors differentiate them from those who adjust and thrive overseas? Is it entirely personality based, or a factor of age and life experience? Or, does the nature of the local Church surrogate family social support context in the first two months overseas have non-proportional, long-term outcomes on effectiveness? That is, if a missionary happens to find herself in the first two months in-country in a context where others are kind, competent, coaching-oriented, and maternalistic/paternalistic, does that influence exceed personality orientation or interact with it in unique ways? Also, does incurring a lingering physical illness in the first two months in-country negatively impact being able to learn coping skills that are necessary to manage emotions and adjust to the culture? Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, what degree does family support from the home country play in thriving overseas? Is family support a key adjustment factor that increases coping and acculturation? At present, scholars have not investigated the nature of support from family members in the home country with in-country adjustment. Also, as we reviewed earlier, recently the Church has deployed various resources to aid the adjustment of expatriate missionaries (e.g., increased video calls to family in the home country, cognitive-behavior therapy-based tactics to reduce stress and aid adjustment). Research into the effectiveness of these approaches would be beneficial to both the Church and future missionary families. Knowing the relationships between such variables would allow for a more strategic placement of missionaries in their first location during their international missionary assignment, and perhaps lead to fewer early returns.

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The Role of Religious Expatriates in Influencing Shifts in Local Church Culture In our review, we illustrate that the Church spends significant effort and resources to harmonize and standardize policies, practices, and structures throughout all congregations in all countries to develop a global organizational identity, ideology, and set of priorities and values. Doing so serves to enhance alignment, information flow, agility, and versatility in more successfully planning and implementing its strategies, operations, and initiatives (Chow and Liu, 2009; Gupta and Govindarajan, 2000). In this respect, the Church is highly centralized and goes to great lengths to ensure that whenever someone or their family walks into one of its congregations anywhere in the world, the visitor(s) will experience the same type of worship experience. That said, any indigenous and local cultural practice, set of norms, or tradition that does not conflict with core Church values and beliefs is celebrated and reinforced in the social life of the ward (Rutherford, 2016). Obviously, it is a balance that can be difficult to maintain, but that is ultimately the North Star around which performance and quality of organizational life is assessed. Conversely, other religious organizations are more fluid in their culture, and allow local congregations’ autonomy to privilege certain beliefs, mores, and practices over others. In these denominations, attending a worship service in Perth, Australia one week and attending a worship service the next week in Bangkok, Thailand may constitute two very different types of worship experiences. Expatriate missionaries and their families, especially mission presidents, are often sent for command and control (Kobrin, 1988) as well as for pastoral and ministerial purposes; that is, to some extent they are there to ensure that primary beliefs and practices remain at the forefront of worship and in the collective belief system of the local congregation. Little is known, however, about how expatriate missionaries and their families influence the evolution and shaping of local belief and worship dynamics. While much work has been done on syncretism via historical, sociological, anthropological, and philosophical analyses (Leopold and Jensen, 2004), and some work exists on the role host national converts play in shaping local religious cultures (Rutherford, 2016), drilling down to better understand how the individual expatriate missionary and their family influences consistency of practice or the altering of existing practice is an under-researched area in the field. In many ways, this may be the most important dimension that expatriate missionaries and their families operate within and much of the influence they convey may not be consciously done by them. Simply by enacting behaviors and communicating beliefs and opinions that reflect their individual interpretations of doctrine and worship, in natural ways without intentional strategizing on their part, likely has more powerful influence effects at the grass-roots level on denominational change than would seem so on the surface. Social learning theory may provide a useful framework for studying how expatriate missionaries and their families both consciously and subconsciously influence the privileging of either orthodox practices or

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emergent, syncretic practices in both the congregational community and within host national parishioners’ private lives. The Need for a Typology of Religious Expatriates Finally, focusing on the familial nature of expatriation leads us to highlight a problem that the expatriate literature has suffered for many years due to a lack of clarity regarding the operationalization of the construct expatriate (McNulty and Brewster, 2017). There was an unspoken assumption by scholars that an expatriate meant the same thing to everyone (i.e., an expatriate was any individual who lived in a different country other than their country of birth or citizenship). Scholars wound up populating their samples with expatriates that diverged from each other on a wide variety of variables. Upon reviewing the expatriate literature, McNulty and Brewster (2017) concluded, “There has been a sloppy and almost casual use of terminology, a failure to define terms adequately, or in many cases at all, and too many unstated assumptions about the people being researched that, collectively, has resulted in reducing understanding of the meanings of ‘expatriate’” (pp. 27–8). As noted by Reiche, Lee and Allen (2019: 360–61), “Without a clear and comprehensive construct definition, scholars may lump together qualitatively different forms of” expatriate experiences, which in turn winds up “disguising important differences in the individual experience and organizational management” associated with global mobility. This state of affairs caused findings to be conflated, and made it difficult to generalize findings with specificity. It is difficult for a research field to productively evolve when this problem persists (Pfeffer, 1993; Reiche et al., 2017). The research domain of religious expatriates appears to suffer from the same problem. It is likely that religious expatriates differ significantly from other types of expatriates on variables such as motivation to go abroad, purpose of the overseas assignment, nature of performance assessment, degree of interaction with host nationals, and no doubt many others. Religious expatriates can, and should, be differentiated not only from other types of expatriates but even amongst each other using cogent variables such as age, accompanied-status, length of stay, roles, denomination, degree of remuneration and other financial support, past experience abroad, and so on. The creation of a typology or some other type of conceptual framework seems necessary to act as a useful heuristic for scholars studying religious expatriation, as it would enable a delineation of the nature of the samples of religious expatriates with specificity, thus allowing other scholars to be able to transparently ascertain the extent of generalizability of these studies’ findings. In addition, it would benefit religious organizations to confidently ascertain which research studies to draw from to inform their global mobility practices and policies (Reiche et al., 2019). The lack of a typology or conceptual framework is perhaps the most important gap in the field of religious expatriation at present. For examples of such configurations, see McNulty and Brewster (2017) and Reiche et al. (2017).

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CONCLUSION In this chapter, we have provided a broad historical overview of the evolution of expatriate policy in a religious organization and its influence on the families of its expatriate missionaries and the influence of the family on its unmarried expatriates’ in-country adjustment. As stated above, we believe our analysis points to future streams of expatriate research that have largely gone unnoticed when investigating expatriation that takes place in business and governmental contexts, and in some cases, in the missiology literature as well. In addition to the previous areas we have discussed above, the Church’s practice of allowing empty nesters to accept expatriate assignments in order to make use of their life experience and professional training to strengthen local congregations may hold useful implications for organizations in other industries. Creative application of this concept in the for-profit sector may hold the potential to suggest possible solutions to the war on talent and or aging workforce challenges in society and in the workplace. In studying the various responses the Church has made to the emergent challenges it faced at different time periods regarding its expatriates, we have gained a deeper appreciation of the inherent difficulty in meeting expatriates’ needs through policy creation. Even the most well-intentioned and carefully crafted policies do not seem to be able to prevent adversity or trigger timely healing interventions for all of an organization’s expatriates. To date, the expatriation literature has largely taken organizations to task for failing to prepare, train, and support families and individuals who live and work abroad. While this focus is critical, nevertheless, it seems increasingly clear to us that enlightened organizational policy toward expatriation is a necessary, but insufficient component to expatriate productivity. Perhaps it might be fruitful for global mobility scholars to consider venturing out to explore the whitespaces that exist between HR policy and programs and strategies and the lived reality of their expatriates. We are not entirely sure what these whitespaces are in any rich detail to formulate exactly how they should be addressed by scholars. But we sense that this may be where the real Goliaths lay in the lived expatriate experience. As we have considered what our own whitespaces might have been – and are – as expatriates, it seems they have to do with, in part, feeling oneself as other – either from external input or from one’s self-realization of being separate on a variety of dimensions – and then, turning one’s will to choose over and over again to fight to integrate and complexify one’s sense of self to allow for new, hard-won wisdom to feel welcome and natural within us. It is a Sisyphean process that is more sweet than bitter for us, but we have observed that it has had the opposite effect on some whom we have known. That is only a part of the whitespaces of expatriation, only one illustration. To date, empirically minded social scientists have tended to shy away from exploring such processes; perhaps it is time we pay more attention to them.

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Whittaker, D.J. (2000), ‘Mormon missiology: an introduction and guide to the sources’, in S.D. Ricks, D.W. Parry, and A.H. Hedges (eds.), The disciple as witness: essays on Latter-day Saint history and doctrine in honor of Richard Lloyd Anderson, Provo, UT: The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, pp. 459–538.

9. Expatriate children: lessons learned from missionary kids (MKs) Cheryl Doss and Braam Oberholster

This chapter examines missionary children in history, reviews the development of the third culture kids/missionary kids (TCK/MK) concept, and provides an overview of research on MKs from major sending countries. Implications for theory and practice, including recommendations for further research, are offered. By missionary kids we mean the children of families who have moved internationally for religious purposes. From the outset, we note that missionaries may originate from a range of faith traditions – Protestant Christian, Roman Catholic Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and so on. Because of the unavailability of research on missionary children in other world religions and the mostly celibate nature of Catholic mission, the discussion in this chapter is limited to Protestant Christian missionary families and children. We contribute to studies of expatriation in the international business domain by linking it with the literature relating to religious-based expatriation (see Vance, Mendenhall and Woods, Chapter 8, this volume). Our review of missionary kids is an important step in bringing to the academy the richness of understanding the concept of family in global contexts, and in particular, the religious/missionary domain. Missionary children have been part of Judeo-Christian heritage since the very beginning. Whether one can exactly equate the movement of peoples in the Bible with mission today, the fact is that families with children have served God outside their home countries since biblical times. Abraham and his family left their homeland in answer to God’s call over 3,000 years ago (Genesis 12) and Joseph moved his entire family to Egypt through divine providence (Genesis 45). The Old Testament records many stories of God’s mission to the world through the movement of families across nations and cultures. Christianity has always been a missionary-sending religion, yet little is known about missionary children in New Testament times or during the early centuries of the Christian church. Perhaps it is only in common with the conventions of the times that missionary children were not mentioned in the New Testament or perhaps they did not accompany the married apostles who travelled with their wives (1 Corinthians 9:5) or the missionary couple, Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:18). Later in the Christian era, it is likely that most missionaries were unmarried priests and brothers, such as Patrick, missionary to Ireland (ad 432), Boniface, missionary and martyr in Germany (ad 753), the Franciscan friars, missionaries to China (ad 1289), and the Dominicans, missionaries to West Africa (ad 1486), to name a few (Culbertson, 2002). 231

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The Protestant missionary movement that began in the late eighteenth century records, for the first time, families with children going to the mission field in larger numbers (Tucker, 2004). During a time when few diplomats, businessmen, or military forces took their families along on deployments, missionaries took their children abroad. The nineteenth century also saw an increase in European immigration to the New World. Unlike immigrants, missionary families did not usually change their citizenship. They maintained financial, social, and political connections to their countries of origin, expecting to return there in old age should they survive the rigours of mission service. Missionary parents expected their children to be educated in their mother tongue and to identify with their passport country. In the nineteenth century, accepting a call to be a missionary meant that all other considerations – personal comfort, family well-being, even physical safety – were expected to take second place. Such expectations created a new class of mobile people who lived between two worlds as families, deeply embedded in a host culture while retaining their home culture identity.

A HISTORY OF MISSIONARY CHILDREN Missionaries go to the mission field for many reasons including an inner desire to serve others and share their faith in God, to address the many humanitarian needs in the world, to fill an institutional or denominational position, or to find a more interesting or fulfilling place to work. The principal motivation, however, is that most missionaries go because they believe God has called them to this particular kind of life and ministry (Oberholster and Doss, 2017). Going abroad as a family is an important part of missionary witness that, despite the inherent risks and challenges, provides personal and missional support and a living model of Christian family relationships (Priest, 2014). William Carey (1761–1834), considered the father of the modern missionary movement, is an example of a great humanitarian who worked untiringly for the good of the Indian people (Mangalwadi and Mangalwadi, 1999). Carey had high ideals for missionary family life that embedded the nuclear family in a strong support system with other missionary families (see, as an example today, Vance et al., Chapter 8, this volume). He believed the family would ‘work together’ and ‘model Christian community’ as an individual family and as part of a group of equally committed other families (Carey, 1792). His own family life reveals both the challenges he faced in reaching his ideal and the benefits of the wider mission family for missionary children. After several years in India, Carey’s wife became insane and had to be physically restrained in a locked room. Without a mother’s care and with a very busy father, the Carey children were considered unmannered, undisciplined, and uneducated until taken in hand by other missionaries in the mission community. Yet, through their father’s example and the nurture of the wider mission family, Carey’s sons all chose to follow in their father’s footsteps in mission (McFarland, 2014).

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Nineteenth-century missionaries often felt torn between their calling and the health and safety of their children (Cloutier, 2014). Some missionary families found it necessary to send their children of five or six years of age, or even younger, to the home country for care and education, resulting in many years of separation. Hundreds of small graves in countries around the world are testimony to the difficult living conditions of missionary families and the frequent death of missionary children in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Cloutier, 2014). For example, Jonathon Goforth (1859–1936), famous for his work in China, fathered 11 children of which only six survived (Tucker, 2004). The hardships of missionary life nonetheless need to be seen in the context of the times; in an era when child mortality in one’s homeland (usually North America or Europe) often reached 20 to 30 per cent, such loss was seen as one more sacrifice missionaries made for the sake of their calling (Bowers, 1998). Gradually, resources for missionary children emerged in the countries in which their families served. MK schools emerged in Asia, Africa and South America, such as the China Inland Mission School at Chefoo, China established in 1880; Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya established in 1902; and Alliance Academy International founded in 1929 in Quito, Ecuador. Some historic MK schools (e.g. Woodstock School established in Mussoorie, India in 1854; and Dalat International School founded in 1942 in Penang, Malaysia) survive to this day as international schools attended by children of many backgrounds. Boarding schools for MKs run by sending agencies became increasingly common in the early part of the twentieth century (Renicks and Wilcox, 2004). MKs often travelled in groups for several days to get to their schools, sometimes crossing other national borders. The impact of this mobile lifestyle on MKs was largely unexplored until the mid-twentieth century. Following the Second World War, a surge in missionary deployment (Bowers, 1998), accompanied by an increasing number of business, military and diplomatic families working internationally (McNulty and Selmer, 2017), drew research attention to global families and their children.

DEVELOPING TERMINOLOGY FOR ‘MISSIONARY KIDS’ In the 1960s, Ruth and John Useem, researchers at Michigan State University, became interested in globally mobile families. They coined the term third culture kids (TCKs) to describe the children in the families they were studying (Useem and Useem, 1967). Empirical research on missionary kids, an easily identifiable sub-group of the larger TCK category, was an early result of the Useems’ work. The children of missionaries are now known more formally as missionary kids with the acronym MKs appearing in print alongside designations for other types of TCKs – ‘BizKids’ for those serving in business, ‘Military Brats’ for children enacting family life in military contexts (Cottrell, 2002), and so on. Adult third culture kids and adult missionary kids (ATCKs/AMKs), designating those TCKs/MKs who are

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over the age of 18, gives credence to the idea that the TCK/MK childhood remains a foundational part of the person into adulthood (Bushong, 2013). In recent years, a third category – cross-cultural kids (CCKs) – has been used to describe the growing number of children who live between worlds (Van Reken, Pollock and Pollock, 2017), with some not necessarily doing so due to their parents’ employment across borders but in contexts akin to psychological (rather than physical) mobility. A good example is children sent to international schools in their home country who are thoroughly socialized in a culture different than their parents’ or their own culture. Examples of CCKs in the context of global families conceptualized in this Handbook (e.g. as engaging in physical mobility) would be migrant children who spend part of each year in two or more countries, and immigrant children who are sent back to the ‘home’ country to study or to spend time with their grandparents and other relatives. In all this mix of terminologies, missionary kids may fit a number of categories. Some MKs are children of immigrant parents who become missionaries, many others attend international schools whose culture is different from both their home and their host cultures, and a few are also BizKids having parents engaged in ‘business as mission’. What is common to all designations is an identity best captured by David Pollock’s TCK profile, which we explain next.

DAVID POLLOCK AND THE CARE OF MKs David Pollock developed the TCK profile while working with MKs at Rift Valley Academy in the 1970s. Returning to the United States in 1980, Pollock reorganized the Manhattan Youth Service into Interaction International, with the goal of providing care and resources for third culture kids (History of Interaction International, n.d.). His untiring advocacy, charismatic teaching and fertile theory development still provide much of the conceptual basis for understanding TCKs/MKs today. Pollock’s book, Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, co-authored with Ruth Van Reken1 and now in its third edition (co-authored with Michael Pollock, David’s son in 2017), has become the standard text for all types of expatriate children. However, the concept of TCKs is foundationally based on Pollock’s work with missionary kids in the first instance, and then by extension to other communities in which children live mobile lives. Pollock’s TCK profile (2017) has proven remarkably durable across TCK populations and over time. Under headings such as Mobility and Leave-taking, Worldview, Intercultural Skills, and Relationships, Pollock explores the way an international life changes children whose lives are mobile during their developmental years (Van Reken, Pollock and Pollock, 2017). The profile lists both the benefits and challenges that the TCK lifestyle brings (a summary of which is provided in Figure 9.1). Pollock’s concept of a flow of care became the theme for the first International Conference on Missionary Kids that brought focus and energy to the research and care of MKs in particular (Pollock, 1998).

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Source: Adapted from Third Culture Kids (Van Reken, Pollock and Pollock, 2017).

Figure 9.1

TCK profile

MK RESEARCH FINDINGS: IMPLICATIONS FOR RAISING HEALTHY TCKs2 In the 1980’s, three International Conferences on Missionary Kids (ICMK – Manila 1984; Quito 1987; Nairobi 1989) were convened to discuss the impact of mission life on the children of missionaries (Powell, 1998). These conferences highlighted the many unknowns about MKs and the need for more empirical research to better understand how the mission experience impacted their adult lives, thus resulting in a large research project, MK CART/CORE (‘Missionary Kid Consultation and Resource Team/Committee on Research and Endowment’), and several books (Echerd and Arathoon, 1987, 1989; Bowers, 1998; Andrews, 2004). MK CART/CORE extensively surveyed hundreds of American missionary families for more than 15 years. Andrews’ (2004) book, The Missionary Family, reports the conclusions of that research, including a chapter by Hawley reviewing 30 years of research on missionary families and MKs. Findings of the MK CART/CORE study provides a number of clues for fostering a healthy life for TCKs. Of the 245

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parent respondents, 95 per cent were satisfied with their family life. Of the 377 MKs (ages 7–18) surveyed, 97 per cent said, if given a choice, they would choose to be born MKs (Pauls and Pauls, 2004). Along with overall satisfaction with expatriate life, missionary families sometimes reported conflict between their work goals and family obligations. Missionary families tended to healthfully resolve that conflict by involving the entire family in their ministries, maintaining a warm and close family life, and adopting supportive and communicative parenting styles (Andrews, 2004). These studies of MKs suggest that a sense of shared family purpose for expatriation and warm, caring family relationships can help TCKs, and by extension expatriate children in general, to develop positive feelings toward their international childhoods. But there are key differences that also need to be considered. Missionary families tend to differ from other types of expatriate families in specific ways such as, … likely to be more deeply embedded in the host culture, know one or two local languages, live almost entirely on the local economy, have less disposable income, have a longer overseas tenure, and generally manifest a deeper dedication and meaning for being there. (Powell, 2004, p. 15)

Notably, learning multiple languages, interacting with multiple ethnicities, and openness to new experiences are three of the traits Tarique and Weisbord (2013) found to be predictors of cross-cultural competency in ATCKs. Throughout the literature, the pivotal role of the family in nurturing MKs is emphasized. As part of the MK CART/CORE project, Andrews (1995, 2004) reports on the life, ministry, and spiritual satisfaction of missionary families; higher levels of satisfaction were found in families with healthy family-of-origin relationships who practised spiritual disciplines. Using the six stages of family life cycle identified by McGoldrick and Carter (1982), O’Donnell (1987) developed a list of significant developmental tasks of missionary families related to the realignment of generations and the re-negotiation of roles. Dodd (1997) investigated the moderating impact of family resources on stressors finding that, while marital relationships were stronger than test norms in the missionary families sampled, parent/adolescent communication scores were below expectations. Gomez (1999) focused on the meaning of being a missionary family in the different stages of the missionary life cycle; for each group in their study, a ritual such as a sending ceremony or retirement event, was supportive of missionary identity. Gardner (1987) looked at career transitions and how the resultant stress impacts Wycliffe missionary parents and children. Researching 204 adult MKs, Key (2018) found that parental attachment, cultural adaptation, and social support impacted AMKs’ psychological distress while the experience of trauma did not. Kim, Eltiti, Crawford and Pak (2019) examined the impact of parental affection and cultural identity on MKs’ coping ability and found that increased coping correlates with their mother’s verbal expressions of affection for Western-identified MKs and non-verbal forms of maternal affection for Asian-identified MKs. This research suggests that foundational to raising healthy TCKs is missionary parents’ resiliency

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and affection, marital strength, good communication skills, and an ability to deal adequately with the stresses of an international life. In addition to researching the family’s role in MK development, a wide range of MK-specific topics has been studied, including career development of MKs (Bikos et al., 2014), effectiveness of transition seminars on MK well-being (Davis, Suarez, Crawford and Rehfuss, 2013), MK repatriation and adjustment to college (Hervey, 2009; Huff, 2001; Klemens, 2008), MK mobility and attachment style (Little, 2015), repatriation adjustment and exposure to home culture (Priest, 2003; Martin, 2013), religious attitudes and intercultural competence (Melles and Frey, 2017), school experiences during home assignments (Wandersee Wiemer, 2011), and MK psychological well-being (Bushong, 2013; Hartman, 2022; Rasco, 2009; Wrobbel and Plueddemann, 1990; Wickstrom and Fleck, 1983). A substantial body of research also looks at the education of MKs, particularly the boarding school experience (e.g. Bikos et al., 2009; Klemens and Bikos, 2009; Wickstrom and Andrews, 1993). The MK CART/CORE Boarding School Study identified desired qualities in MK boarding school staff. Other studies by Kim (2001) and Linton (2013) highlight the relational factors necessary for a positive boarding school experience. Wrobbel (2009) found MK educational outcomes comparable between those who attend national (local) schools and those in other types of schools (international, MK, homeschooling). All of these studies give support to the importance of the wider community in raising healthy TCKs. Teachers and other adults, and expatriates as well as locals, provide TCKs with role models for adult life beyond the family, modeling for TCKs how to live between worlds. Each can also demonstrate the various occupations expatriate children may aspire to, and can offer advice on careers, transition, and adjustment issues. Critically, these ‘others’ in the child’s life can provide essential relationships that are needed for a healthy TCK adult identity to develop (Bushong, 2013). In the research about ATCKs, the MK CART/CORE research team surveyed adult MKs (AMKs). Among other findings, 92 per cent of AMKs completed college, 4 per cent earned doctorates, 44 per cent received scholarships, and 11 per cent were named to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities (Powell, 2004). Of the 608 AMKs responding, 17.4 per cent had themselves served as missionaries (Pauls and Pauls, 2004). In studying intra-family relationships, Joy (2004) found that spiritual well-being, religious well-being and existential well-being all had statistically significant correlations with AMKs’ feelings of warmth and closeness to their families, especially their fathers. Data on the divorce rate among AMKs is mixed, although still relatively low compared to the general population; the MK CART/CORE study finds a 4.7 per cent divorce rate, while Purnell (2004) finds the divorce rate to be 15 per cent, suggesting that MKs ability to form healthy adult work and family relationships may be a key reason why. A valuable finding in all of these studies for the wider expatriate communities in which families enact global life is the correlation of family closeness and parental affection to enhance expatriate children’s coping ability and well-being.

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One of the outcomes from a better understanding of MKs is the growth of support systems for their care. The importance of a shared purpose for family expatriation convinced many missionary training organizations, such as Mission Training International (MTI) and others, to offer pre-field training for MKs. Discovering the struggle many MKs have with repatriation encouraged the growth of seminars provided by sending churches, mission agencies and Christian organizations such as MTI and the Narramore Foundation to help MKs through the re-entry process. Understanding the importance of healthy missionary families resulted in the development of organizations such as Interaction International and Barnabas International that focus on supporting and encouraging them in global family life. In the 1980s, the Mental Health and Mission Conference began with eight psychologists looking for ways to improve missionary and MK care; the annual meeting now draws over 200 caregivers from around the world to share research, discuss best practices, and network. Such sharing helps missionary care organizations better understand and respond to the changing dynamics of the missionary family and MK experience. As the number of missionaries grows, the complexity of the missionary experience and MK life also grows. The need for multiple support systems, available in numerous languages, suitable for various cultures, and using diverse modalities is constantly increasing. Since the 1970s, the number of countries sending out missionaries has expanded substantially. While the single largest sending country remains the United States (135,000 missionaries), of the approximately 430,000 Christian missionaries worldwide, some 40,000 are from Brazil and 35,000 from South Korea, the second and third largest sending countries respectively (Zurlo, Johnson and Crossing, 2020). Though research about the care of MKs from English-speaking countries has grown in recent decades, more MKs originate today from other countries as a result of the growth of Christianity in the global South. To better understand MKs from countries outside the English-speaking world, research findings about MKs from the second and third major missionary sending countries – Brazil and South Korea – follows.

RESEARCH ON BRAZILIAN MKs An extensive search of library holdings and databases yielded little research in English or Portuguese about MKs in or from Brazil.3 The few studies that could be found suggest that Brazilian MKs and missionary families share some similar characteristics with other research populations. For example, the seven Brazilian AMKs, age 17 to 77, participating in a study by Killing (2006) reflected that there is a strong search for belonging and identity common among TCKs in general. Ribeiro (2014), researching the intra-family relationships of 41 Brazilian missionaries, finds concern for their children’s future one of the factors impacting family interactions and decision-making. De Pérez (2014) documents the difficulty TCKs find in adjusting to school when they return to Brazil without adequate Portuguese language skills. Homeschooling is not recognized in Brazil and distance learning programmes are

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scarce and expensive; thus, most Brazilian MKs are educated in English in their host countries, complicating their educational future in Brazil.4 Homeschooling has become common among English-speaking missionary families in recent decades in tandem with social changes in the United States. As Gaither (2008) points out, homeschooling in the USA has come full circle from being widely practised in colonial times, to counter-cultural in the 1970s and 1980s, to mainstream and protected by law in most all 50 states by the 1990s. A corresponding growth in the availability and quality of Christian distance education and homeschool support in English gives missionary families from English-speaking countries numerous options. The mobility of missionary life and high cost of international schools makes homeschooling attractive to missionary families, especially if the only other option is to send very young children away to boarding school. However, in some countries, such as Brazil, children must have government recognized certificates of school completion at every level of education, which makes it difficult for Brazilian missionary families to homeschool even if they wish to do so. Similar schooling dilemmas confront the parents of TCKs from the many countries where homeschooling has gained neither social acceptability nor related resources, and where schools in the family’s home language are unavailable in the host country (as illustrated in the discussion of Korean MKs in the next section). While research on TCKs/MKs is still developing in Brazil, care and support of Brazilian MKs is growing, being formally established in 2007 when Flechas, the first Brazilian MK Care department, was founded at the WEC Brazil Headquarters in Belo Horizonte. The Brazilian Association of Cross-Cultural Missions (AMTB – Associação de Missões Transculturais do Brasil) then opened Philos, the MK branch of missionary member care under the department Cuidado Integral do Missionário – Brasil in 2009. Philhos works to develop resources, training and orientation to help mission agencies and churches care for their MKs as well as yearly meetings for MKs over 16 years of age. MK caregivers from Brazil have participated in the MK summits held in Korea in 2016 and 2017 that focus on non-English-speaking MKs.5 With Brazil currently the second largest missionary sending country, future research on Brazilian MKs is a topic that is ripe for study. Research is needed to identify the educational options available to Brazilian families and to better understand how those options impact Brazilian MK cultural identity and repatriation. Specifically, studying Brazilian MKs may yield helpful understanding of the similarities and differences between Portuguese- and English-speaking MK populations.

RESEARCH ON SOUTH KOREAN MKs A substantial body of literature discusses the issues faced by MKs from South Korea, with two areas of concern emerging: the education of Korean MKs, and the development of a Korean identity especially as related to re-entry. Other areas of research include parent–child relationships, the psychological issues of Korean MKs, and Korean language proficiency. Appendix A lists a number of these studies by topic.6

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A 2012 study by the Korean Research Institute for Mission (KRIM) surveyed 19,798 adult Korean missionaries with 17,432 missionary children serving in 175 countries. It found that almost 50 per cent of children were in elementary or secondary school, with 35.9 per cent in local schools, 28.6 per cent in international schools, 14 per cent in schools based in Korea, 9 per cent homeschooled, 8.9 per cent in MK schools (some international and some Korean MK schools), and 3 per cent in ‘other options’ (Moon, 2013). Thus, for a majority of Korean MKs, the language of education is not their mother tongue, with O’Donnell (2013) reporting that most Korean missionary parents prefer education in English for their children. Doing so, they believe, will open opportunities for their children’s future. This aspiration is juxtaposed with Korean missionary parents’ concerns about ensuring their children maintain Korean values, heritage and identity (Lee, 1997). The language in which Korean MKs are educated impacts their ability to obtain higher education in the home country, to communicate and connect with extended family, to fulfil societal responsibilities such as military service, and to ultimately shape their relationships and identity for the rest of their life. Inadequate proficiency in the home country language can therefore add to MKs’ sense of not belonging (e.g. Choi, 2013): In the long term, MKs may benefit from being bilingual, but the processes that give them this advantage can be quite stressful. When MKs return to Korea on furlough, their Korean language abilities are routinely tested by their grandparents and church members, and all too often the children are made to feel shame for their deficiencies. (Moon, 2013, p. 252)

Because of the collectivist nature of Korean culture, some believe that merely taking children abroad can mean they will never feel completely at home again in South Korea (Edlin, 1998). As the number of Korean expatriates across all communities grows, some international MK schools have added Korean teachers, dorm parents and curricula for their Korean students, while Korean schools for MKs have been opened in several countries (Yoon, 2013). In a comparison of two such schools (an international school with Korean staff, and a Korean MK school), Korean MKs were found to form a strong Korean and international identity at both schools, with little impact arising from the local culture (Deza and Kwon, 2005). Spiritual well-being, a positive attitude and strong parent–child relationships statistically correlated with Korean MK satisfaction and resilience. Yoon (2016) found that father–MK attachment was especially correlated with Korean MKs’ positive attitude toward serving in mission themselves. The available research on Korean MKs echoes many of the findings and family concerns found in research on English-speaking MKs – the need for good MK education, finding a coherent adult identity, and improving parent–child relationships. The collectivist and homogeneity of Korean culture may increase the difficulty Korean MKs face in the re-entry process and increase parental concern for maintaining a Korean identity. The focus on Korean MK education found in the literature likely reflects the high value of education in the Korean culture, which aligns with concerns

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expressed by both South Korean and Japanese multinational corporation expatriates (Cho, Hutchings and Marchant, 2013; Kim and Froese, 2012; Nukaga, 2013).

CONCLUSIONS DRAWN FROM MK RESEARCH There appears to be an ebb in the publication of primary research focused specifically on MKs in recent years, particularly in the United States. However, MKs are often part of the research cohort in TCK studies more generally, making it difficult to draw specific conclusions. Recent research focused on MKs mainly addresses concerns related to re-entry and MK education. While some scholars may argue that this is all there is to know about the MK experience, we argue that the MK context has radically changed in recent years (Oberholster and Doss, 2017) requiring that past research questions be revisited. The MK of the past often lived in a rural setting with limited access to telecommunications and media, and they were frequently homeschooled or in an MK school and involved as a member of the family ‘team’ in the purpose of the expatriate mission while deeply embedded in the host culture (Andrews, 2004; Powell, 2004). Today, MKs are more likely to live in urban areas, have dual-career parents, and to attend international schools where they are exposed to an internationally diverse cohort of peers, while being somewhat insulated from the host culture (Tanu, 2018). They may be less involved as a missionary family team member and be more exposed to secular values through the internet, mobile telecommunications, social media and their non-missionary peers. With such a radically changed MK context, is what we know and understand about the MK experience thus far still relevant? The changing context of the MK experience requires that we re-examine previous research. In the past, for example, missionary families resolved work-family conflict by involving the entire family in their ministry. In an urban-based, dual-career tentmaker-missionary family with children, how are tensions between career/work goals and family responsibilities addressed? How do parents, particularly fathers, develop a close-knit family bond to engender spiritual, religious, and existential well-being in their children when they are expatriate international business travellers crossing national borders multiple days per week? As pointed out earlier, MKs have traditionally lived in communities with an extensive physical support system, yet in what ways has this changed in the internet era where support can now be accessed virtually and online? How can mission-sending organizations continue to meet the dynamic member care needs of families in the context of modernized mission work? There is also a need for a more globally inclusive understanding of MKs beyond South Korea and Brazil. MK-related research is still needed for other Latin American and emerging missionary-sending regions such as Africa and East Asia (e.g. from countries such as China, Indonesia and the Philippines). As is evidenced by the different concerns explored by the North American- versus South Korean-based MK research, it is likely that there are differences in the concerns and interests among newer missionary-sending regions and countries due to cultural, linguistic and ethnic

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differences. For example, while missionaries originating from countries with good education systems (e.g. South Korea) have concerns about comparable-quality MK education while abroad, those from countries with weaker educational systems may be more concerned with acquiring an MK education that will have a stepping stone effect that provides a better quality education than could be found in their home country. Other concerns can relate to the influence of other MKs and TCKs in general on children’s value formation; for example, how do parents engender African-based Ubuntu values in their children while they attend school with MKs originating from highly individualistic cultural backgrounds?

IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE While our chapter thus far has focused heavily on the experience of missionary kids as one example of expatriate children, there are clearly other communities and contexts in which expatriate children live abroad. Yet, within these communities, which includes the diplomatic corps, humanitarian and aid work, military, and corporate expatriation, very little research beyond MK scholarship has been devoted specifically to the impact of expatriation upon the children of these families. While some studies (e.g. Takeuchi, Wang and Marinova, 2005) recognize that family characteristics affect the working expatriate’s workplace stress, and other studies (e.g. Lazarova, Westman and Shaffer, 2010; Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012; Reiche et al., 2021) expand expatriate adjustment to also include family role adjustment, family flexibility and cross-cultural adjustment, very few studies have anything much to say about children. Rare exceptions include Vögel, van Vuuren and Millard (2008) and Lazarova, McNulty and Semeniuk (2015) who specifically examine the differences between required and provided support for each family component (expatriate worker, spouse and children), and Mutter (2017) who studied the mobility decisions made by spouses of professional sailors. One possible explanation for such a gap is the heavy reliance by other fields on TCK research findings stemming from missionary contexts. Since the TCK research by Pollock, Van Reken and Pollock (2017) includes children from missionary, diplomatic corps, humanitarian agency, military personnel and corporate expatriate families, it could be assumed that aggregated TCK characteristics applies equally. Yet, this assumption ignores fundamental differences in contexts across communities. For example, military kids live on a compound where all amenities are provided and therefore have little need to exit the compound and interact with host country people; they also typically live in one country for only two to three years before repatriating. MKs, in contrast, are more engaged in missionary activities in the local community, and live longer in the host country for up to five to seven years (Powell, 2004; Useem and Cottrell, 1999). By comparison, children of corporate expatriates often spend a considerable amount of time abroad overall and are more likely than MKs to live in several consecutive countries without repatriating. Like MKs, these children may experience a high interaction with host and home country nationals

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(Cottrell, 2002) but, just as for military children, they can also find themselves living mostly in ‘expatriate bubbles’ (Fechter, 2007) as a result of their relative affluence and enrolment at international schools. All of these differences point to the need for more evidence-based support that is tailored to the specific needs and experiences of the communities in which these children live abroad. Another area where mission scholarship has the potential to extend research in other communities is the mission focus on ‘expatriate member care’. Originating as a concept deeply devoted to the care and support of MKs, which originated with Arthur J. Brown’s classic 1907 book on missionary life that identified family issues as a stressor impacting mission service (Brown, 1907), within the last three decades the missionary member care field has blossomed to become more global, contextualized for workers to and from various countries, and inclusive of humanitarian workers of many types (O’Donnell 2015). Conferences, books, podcasts and other media address the multiple issues facing missionaries and missionary children. Age-appropriate pre-field training, on-field support and re-entry seminars specifically for MKs are offered by numerous organizations. While it took until the 1960s and 1970s for the topic of missionary family life to make its way into mission publications and organizational discussions, children’s issues came to fore with the three International Conferences on Missionary Kids (ICMK – Manila 1984; Quito 1987; Nairobi 1989), vividly highlighting the need to better understand and support MKs: The 1970s were noteworthy for the rising influence of mental health practitioners, women, and people with firsthand experience in mission. People were talking openly and at times passionately about the challenges of mission life. Many writings from the 1970s addressed the areas of missionary preparation, selection/evaluation, field adjustment, longevity, children’s issues, women’s roles, and reentry: in short, how to better support and equip mission personnel. (O’Donnell, 2015) [italics added]

As discussed in an earlier section, from that time to the present research and writing on MKs has greatly expanded. In the 1990s, research among multiple mission sending organizations and missionary families from numerous countries clearly showed that a major cause of early return from the field were family considerations, making the care and support of missionary family life essential to organizational health and mission effectiveness (Taylor, 1997). It is notable that a similar development of care structures for expatriate families and children across all types of communities is needed, but which is sorely missing. One response to this need has been the creation, in 1998, of the Families in Global Transition (FIGT.org) annual conference and research network to ‘… promote cross-sector connections for sharing research and developing best practices …’ for the care of globally mobile families. For practitioners and researchers interested in studying expatriate children, there are several points of interest emerging from MK research. AMKs may be well-suited for working abroad as expatriates themselves in any community they choose, having acquired cross-cultural relationship skills, cultural and location adaptability, and a level of comfort with being global nomads at an early age (Bonebright, 2010; Selmer and Lam, 2004; Walker, 2019). Yet, there remains very limited scholarly research on

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this topic overall. Tellingly, early research found that few AMKs choose to pursue a career in international business (Useem and Cottrell, 1999) because they prefer careers where they can exercise expertise, leadership, and independence, usually found in human service fields (e.g. physicians, nursing, community development work, or disaster relief services; Cottrell, 2002). This is despite people with AMK skillsets being exactly what multinational corporations say they may need (Selmer, McNulty and Lauring, 2021). Scholarly research on AMKs shows, for example, that they are equipped with innovation and flexibility learned from their embedded experiences as children in uncertain cross-cultural contexts. As multilinguals, they know or quickly learn how to decode verbal and nonverbal messages in unfamiliar contexts, and they also understand the importance of collaboration, which is essential when partnering across government, non-government and business sectors (Tarique and Weisbord, 2013; Useem and Cottrell, 1999).

FUTURE RESEARCH AGENDA We propose several research questions to help advance conceptual and empirical development in the study of expatriate children. A fundamental question relates to the degree of interest shown and support provided by the employer in the issues expatriate employees and their families face (Safi and Saxena, 2020), which needs to go beyond developing a family-friendly workplace to a broader whole-of-family care approach. An important research question going forward is to understand how a comprehensive employee (member) care programme that includes all family members, including children, contributes to the success of the expatriate experience overall. While in the past the modus operandi in many organizations has been that work and life happen in two separate spheres, the trend in recent decades is increasingly toward family-friendly workplace practices. For caring organizations, it goes beyond recruiting and retaining talent to instead enhancing the satisfaction, performance, success and life of employees. Within the corporate context, Shah, Torres de Oliveira, Barker, Moeller and Nguyen (2022) suggest that organizational support positively influences the adjustment of expatriate workers, their spouses, and children. Thus: RQ1: To what extent do organizations show an interest in and offer support to families impacted by global mobility through employee care programmes? (a) What specific support is offered to the children of families impacted by global mobility? (b) How do various components of employee care relate to the success of the international assignment as it pertains to children? There are many components and dimensions to holistic employee care, including family-friendly workplace practices such as flexible time, childcare services, a supportive work-life organizational culture, parental leave, work from home options, compressed work week, and so on. However, employee care goes beyond these

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practices to also include pre-field and language training for all family members and doing so at an age-appropriate level, and TCK-supportive educational alternatives with appropriately trained staff (van der Laken, Van Engen, Van Veldhoven and Paauwe, 2019). Thus: RQ2: Which components and practices of employee care encourage, and conversely discourage, expatriate family well-being? RQ3: In what ways and to what extent do factors that impact on expatriate children’s psychological, social and educational well-being contribute to expatriate family well-being? The contexts and demands of work and life differ from city to city and country to country for global families. This challenges an organization to determine which employee care policies and provisions can be generically applied to all expatriate contexts regardless of location, versus the need for specific policies tailored to local contexts. Clearly, urban- and rural-based families will have different support needs. In addition to differing work and life contexts, employees and their families will originate from diverse backgrounds, which shape their expectations and coping mechanisms (Kim, Eltiti, Crawford and Pak, 2019), thus highlighting the importance of exploring the psychological adjustment of expatriate children from different countries and regions (Warinowski and Laakkonen, 2020). Additionally, whereas much of the initial research on member (employee) care is based on religious expatriates (Doss and Oberholster, 2017; Presbitero, 2017), in recent years the corporate research agenda has broadened to explore employee care dimensions; Warinowski (2019), for example, recognizes the need for more nuanced research to compare the impact of the expatriation experience on children of self-initiated vs company-assigned expatriates. These contextual differences leading us to suggest the following research questions: RQ4: How global versus local do employee care models need to be? RQ5: How do care expectations and effectiveness differ among global families based on geographical region (South Asia, Asia Pacific, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America)? RQ6: How do care models differ across the different communities in which global families’ expatriate?

CONCLUSION This chapter has discussed the history of expatriate families in Protestant missions and reviewed the literature on how to raise healthy expatriate children through the lens of missionary kids. Building on the conceptual work of Pollock and Van Reken in relation to TCKs, a considerable amount of scholarship about expatriate children has focused on the well-being of MKs. As a result, we have presented an extensive review of MK-related research in the three major missionary-sending countries of the

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USA, Brazil and South Korea. Noting that the holistic well-being of the entire global family is a critical component of successful expatriation, numerous organizations have developed comprehensive member care programmes that includes children. Yet these programmes appear to be the exclusive domain of the missionary community, necessitating that more research in other communities is undertaken. Our review also shows that healthy expatriate children through the context of missionary expatriation appear to be raised in close, caring family environments where there exists resilience and affection, a strong marital relationship, communication skills, an ability to deal with stress, and a spiritual base. In addition, children’s well-being is enhanced by an extensive physical support system that is multi-dimensional and which includes involvement of a wider community such as the family, school, mission (employer), and church. An effective support system also spans the time from before departure, through the duration of the deployment, to after returning to the home base.

NOTES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Ruth van Reken’s first book, Letters Never Sent, published in 1988 is considered the precursor to her eventual collaboration with David Pollock, being based on her experiences as an MK and then later a missionary wife in Africa. Portions of this section were first published in B. Oberholster and C. Doss (2017), ‘Missionary (religious) expatriates’, in Yvonne McNulty and Jan Selmer (eds), Research Handbook of Expatriates, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing (pp. 316–34). Some Brazilian MKs may make up a small number of respondents in English-speaking studies. Personal email from Alicia Macedo, 31 January 2018. With thanks to Alicia Macedo, national coordinator of Philos, for providing information on Brazilian MK research and care. We are indebted to Ok Kyung Ha for assisting us with researching and translating the Korean resources listed in Appendix A.

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on the psychological well-being of returnee college students and ordinary college students: Mediating effects of resilience]. 상담학연구 [Korea Journal of Counseling], 16(3), 433–9. Kim, H. M. and H. J. Kim (2014), 집단미술치료가 해외 귀국청소년의 자아정체감과 문 화 간 감수성에 미치는 효과 [The effect of group art therapy on the ego-edentity and intercultural sensitivity of Korean TCK]. 상담학연구 [Korean Journal of Counseling], 15(3), 1125–44. Kim, I. K. (2012), 한국 선교사의 자녀 양육을 위한 부모 교육 프로그램 요구 분석 [A needs analysis of a parent education programme caring for Korean missionary kids]. Master’s thesis, Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul, Korea. Kim, J. and F. J. Froese (2012), ‘Expatriation willingness in Asia: the importance of host-country characteristics and employees’ role commitments’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(16), 3414–33. Kim, J. H. (2000), 한국 선교사 자녀의 정체성 형성에 미친 부모역할 [The role of parents in the identity formation of Korean MKs: Based on the college students in South Korea]. 기독교교육연구, 12(1), available at Korea Education & Research Information Service (KERIS 19623147). Kim, J. O., S. Eltiti, N. Crawford and J. Pak (2019), ‘Effect of cultural identification and family affection on coping abilities in missionary kids’, Journal of Religion and Health, 58, 1872–85. Kim, M. K. (2022), ‘Christian counseling care for young adults returning from third culture: focusing on MK’, Journal of Counseling and Gospel, 30(1), 37–58. Kim, P. Y., H. S. Cheon, J. H. Hyun, E. S. Chang and H. C. D. Yoo (2017), ‘Psychological experiences of Korean missionary “kids” (MKs): a qualitative inquiry’, Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 1–15. Kim, S. W. (2008),「제 3문화 아이들(TCK)」의 정체성 분석과 교육적 대안 탐색 [The analysis of TCKs' self-identity and the educational]. Master’s thesis, Korea National University of Education, Chungbuk, Korea. Kim, Y. J. (2015), 귀국 학생을 위한 한국어문화교육 연구 동향 분석과 향후 과제-문화 교육을 중심으로 [A study on research trends and future directions of Korean language and culture education for students who returned from abroad: Focusing on culture education]. 한국언어문화학 [Journal of the International Network for Korean Language and Culture], 12(3), 1–24. Klemens, M. J. (2008), ‘Psychological well-being, ethnic identity, and sociocultural adaptation in college aged missionary kids’, doctoral dissertation, available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (No. 304801254). Klemens, M. J. and L. H. Bikos (2009), ‘Psychological well-being and sociocultural adaptation in college-aged, repatriated, missionary kids’, Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 12(7), 721–33. Kwak, J. Y. (2008), 한국 대학생 영어 학습자들의 독해 전략 비교 연구: 일반 대학생 과 선교사자녀 대학생을 중심으로 [A study on the reading strategies of Korean college students: Comparison of ordinary college students and 'missionary kids' college students]. Master’s thesis, Chongshin Theological Seminary, Seoul, Korea. Kwon, M. Y. (2013), 선교사 자녀의 영적 안녕감, 긍정적 사고, 부모-자녀관계가 현 지 적응유연성에 미치는 영향 [Effects of spiritual well-being, positive thinking, and parent-child relationship on the missionary kids' resilience at mission field]. Master’s thesis, Goshin University, Busan, Korea. Lazarova, M., Y. McNulty and M. Semeniuk (2015), ‘Expatriate family narratives on international mobility: key characteristics of the successful moveable family’, in Vesa Suutari and Liisa Mäkelä (eds), Work and Family Interface in the International Career Context (pp. 29–51). Heidelberg: Springer.

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Lazarova, M., M. Westman and M. A Shaffer (2010), ‘Elucidating the positive side of the work-family interface on international assignments: a model of expatriate work and family performance’, Academy of Management Review, 35(1), 93–117. Lee, B. and M. S. Park (2020), ‘A study on the adaptation process of the missionary kids to studying abroad.’ JCE, 9(5), 303–27. Lee, M. Y. (1997), 한국 선교사 자녀의 정체성 형성을 위한 교육 과정: 현지 국제학교 에 다니는 경우를 중심으로 [(A) curriculum for helping Korean missionary kid’s identity formation: In a case of attending a mission field international school]. Master’s thesis, Asia Union Theological Seminary, Gyunggi, Korea (KDMT1199731429). Lee, S. Y. (2009), 귀국 선교사 자녀(MK)의 스트레스 관리를 위한 개별지도 프로그램 개 발 [A programme on returned missionary kids (MK) for the stress management]. Master’s thesis, Handong Global University, Gyeongbuk, Korea. Linton, D. B. (2013), ‘The traits, characteristics, and qualities of international Christian school teachers valued by third culture kids’, doctoral dissertation, available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (No. 1348909153). Little, K. M. (2015), ‘The influence of childhood mobility on adult attachment style in white missionary kids of north American and European nationalities’, doctoral dissertation, available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (No. 1689691067). Ma, M. and B. Kang. (2021), ‘Research on the care and mobilization of missionary kids and strategic implications for the Korean church: a case study of college students at H University’, The Journal of Korean Evangelical Missiological Society, 54(2), 73–118. Mangalwadi, V. and R. Mangalwadi (1999), The Legacy of William Carey, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. Martin, E. E. (2013), ‘Reentry of adult missionary kids into their country of citizenship after high school in host country’, doctoral dissertation, available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (No. 1466272773). McFarland, A. D. (2014), ‘William Carey’s vision for missionary families’, in Dwight P. Baker and Robert J. Priest (eds), The Missionary Family (pp. 107–8), Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library. McGoldrick, M. and E. Carter (1982), ‘The stages of the family life cycle’, in F. Walsh (ed.), Normal Family Processes, New York: Guilford. McNulty, Y. and J. Selmer (2017), ‘Introduction: overview of early expatriate studies – 1952 to 1979’, in Yvonne McNulty and Jan Selmer (eds), Research Handbook of Expatriates (pp. 3–20), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Melles, E. A. and L. L. Frey (2017), ‘Promoting religious acceptance: the relationship between intercultural competence and religious attitudes among Third Culture Kids’, Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 20(8), 812–26. Moon, S. S.-C. (2013), ‘Korean missionary children and their educational needs’, in Family Accountability in Mission: Korean and Western Case Studies (pp. 243–58), New Haven, CT: OMSC Publications. Mun, M. and J. Kim. (2020), ‘A study on the formation of Korean identity of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) who experienced cultural transformation during elementary education’, The Korean Association for Qualitative Inquiry, 6(4), 225–66. Mutter, J. (2017), ‘The global mobility decisions of professional sailors’ spouses’, Journal of Global Mobility, 5(2), 203–19. Nukaga, M. (2013), ‘Planning for a successful return home: transnational habitus and education strategies among Japanese expatriate mothers in Los Angeles’, International Sociology, 28(1), 66–83. Oberholster, B. and C. Doss (2017), ‘Missionary (religious) expatriates’, in Yvonne McNulty and Jan Selmer (eds), Research Handbook of Expatriates (pp. 316–34), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

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O’Donnell, K. (1987), ‘Developmental tasks in the life cycle of mission families’, Journal of Psychology and Theology, 15(4), 281–90. O’Donnell, K. (2015), ‘The missional heart of member care’, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 39(2), 91–6. O’Donnell, M. L. L. (2013), ‘Response to “Korean Culture and English Language”’, in Family Accountability in Mission: Korean and Western Case Studies (pp. 53–8), New Haven, CT: OMSC Publications. Oh, K. J., K. R. Park and S. J. Oh (2010), 해외거주 후 국내대학에 진학한 귀국 대학생의 문화적응양상과 심리사회적 적응 [The cultural adaptation and psychosocial adjustment of college students studying in Korea upon re-entry], 한국심리학회지: 문화 및 사회문 제, 16(2), 125–46. Oh, T. K. (2021), ‘Missiological implications of Charlotte Mason’s educational thought: focused on home education for missionary children’, The Journal of Korean Evangelical Missiological Society, 56(0), 119–57. Park, H. S. (2000), 한국 선교사의 자녀 신앙교육에 대한 연구 [A study on the faith of Korean MKs]. Master’s thesis, Kosin University, Chungnam, Korea. Park, J. H. (2003), 한국 선교사 자녀 교육 현실에 대한 방안 [A proposal for Korean MK education]. Master’s thesis, GaeYack Theological Seminary, Gwangju, Korea (KDMT1200305403). Park, M. (2022), ‘A qualitative case study on the experiences of the education for children of Protestant missionary in Korea working abroad’, JCE, 11(1), 189–215. Pauls, N. and D. Pauls (2004), ‘Educational research: appraisal and response’, in Leslie A. Andrews (ed.), The Family in Mission, Palmer Lake, CO: Mission Training International. Pollock, D. C. (1998), ‘Developing a flow of care’, in J. M. Bowers (ed.), Raising Resilient MKs, Colorado Springs: CO: ACSI. Pollock, D. C., R. Van Reken and M. V, Pollock (2017), Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, 3rd edn, Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. Powell, J. (1998), ‘MK Research’, in Joyce M. Bowers (ed.), Raising Resilient MKs, Colorado Springs: CO: ACSI. Powell, J. R. (2004), ‘Systemic and organizational aspects of families’, in Leslie A. Andrews (ed.), The Family in Mission, Palmer Lake, CO: Mission Training International. Presbitero, A. (2017), ‘Religious expatriates’ cultural intelligence and adaptation: the role of intrinsic motivation for successful expatriation’, Journal of Global Mobility, 5(2), 146–57. Priest, R. J. (2003), ‘Etiology of adult missionary kid (AMK) life-struggles’, Missiology, 31(2), 171–92. Priest, R. J. (2014), ‘Introduction: family in mission’, in Dwight P. Baker and Robert J. Priest (eds), The Missionary Family, Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library. Purnell, E. M. (2004), ‘MKs and marriage: observations on choices they make’, in Leslie A. Andrews (ed.), The Family in Mission, Palmer Lake, CO: Mission Training International. Rasco, R. (2009), ‘Personality traits in Caucasian missionary kids raised in a different culture’, doctoral dissertation, available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (No. 305168525). Reiche, B. S., M. Dimitrova, M. Westman, S. Chen, O. Wurtz, M. Lazarova and M. A. Shaffer (2021), ‘Expatriate work role engagement and work-family interface: a conditional crossover and spillover perspective’, Human Relations, 76(3), https://​doi​.org/​10​.1177/​ 00187267211046816. Renicks, P. M. and D. K. Wilcox (2004), ‘History and trends in the education of missionary kids’, in Leslie A. Andrews (ed.), The Family in Mission: Understanding and Caring for Those Who Serve, Palmer Lake, CO: Mission Training International. Ribeiro, R. F. F. (2014), ‘Famílias Brasileiras Em Missões Transculturais: Análise Intrafamiliar Da Escolha Em Ser Família Missionária’, doctoral dissertation, Universidade do Porto – FPCE-UP, Porto, Portugal.

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Rosenbusch, K. and M. Cseh (2012), ‘The cross-cultural adjustment process of expatriate families in a multinational organization: a family system theory perspective’, Human Resource Development International, 15(1), 61–77. Ryu, H. N. (2011), 선교사 자녀를 위한 한국 언어·문화 교육 방안 연구 [Research on Korean language and culture education method for missionary kids]. Master’s thesis, Keimyung University, Korea. Safi, B. and P. Saxena (2020), ‘An intensive literature review on expatriates’ issues and concerns during an international assignment’, International Journal of Management, 11(7), 485–99. Selmer, J. and H. Lam (2004), ‘“Third-culture kids”: future business expatriates?’, Personnel Review, 33(4), 430–45. Selmer, J., Y. McNulty and J. Lauring (2021), ‘Third culture kids: early talent potential for global work?’, in Ibraiz Tarique (ed.), Companion to Talent Management, Abingdon: Routledge. Seo, H. J. (2016), 집단표현예술치료가 선교사자녀(MK)의 대인관계와 사회적응력에 미 치는 효과 [The effects of group expressive arts therapy on the missionary kids' interpersonal relationship and the social-adjustment ability]. Master’s thesis, Myongji University, Seoul, Korea. Seo, H. J. and M. S. Choi (2021), ‘A study on the effect of group expressive art therapy on missionary’s kids to interpersonal relationships and social stress: cross-cultural growth background’, KJCAES, 16(5), 187–216. Shah, D., R. Torres de Oliveira, M. Barker, M. Moeller and T. Nguyen (2022), ‘Expatriate family adjustment: how organizational support on international assignments matters’, Journal of International Management, 28(2), 1–16. Shin, J. Y. (2002), 해외 주재 한국 선교사 자녀를 위한 이중 언어 교육 연구 [A study on the bilingual education for Korean MKs living abroad]. Master’s thesis, Goshin Theological Seminary, Busan, Korea (KDMT1200238653). Shin, S. A. (2002), 한국 선교사 자녀 교육에 관한 고찰: 선교기관들의 정책을 중심으로 [Analysis of Korea MK education: Focus on the policies of the mission agencies]. Master’s thesis, Hapdong Theological Seminary, Suwon, Korea (KDMT1200223380). Takeuchi, R., M. Wang and S. V. Marinova (2005), ‘Antecedents and consequences of psychological workplace strain during expatriation: a cross-sectional and longitudinal investigation’, Personnel Psychology, 58(4), 925–48. Tan, E. C., K. T. Wang and A. B. Cottrell (2021), ‘A systematic review of third culture kids empirical research’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 82, 81–98. Tanu, D. (2018), Growing up in Transit: The Politics of Belonging at an International School, Kindle Ebo, New York: Berghahn Books. Tarique, I. and E. Weisbord (2013), ‘Antecedents of dynamic cross-cultural competence in adult third culture kids (ATCKS)’, Journal of Global Mobility, 1(2), 139–60. Taylor, W. D. (ed.) (1997), Too Valuable to Lose: Exploring the Causes and Cures of Missionary Attrition, Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library. Tucker, R. A. (2004), From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Useem, R. H. and A. H. Cottrell (1999), ‘Third culture kids: focus of major study’, TCK World.com, available at http://​www​.tckworld​.com/​useem/​art1​.html (accessed 22 January 2018). Useem, R. and J. Useem (1967), ‘The interfaces of a binational third culture: a study of the American community in India’, Journal of Social Issues, 22(1), 130–43. Van der Laken, P. A., M. L. Van Engen, M. J. P. M. Van Veldhoven and J. Paauwe (2019), ‘Fostering expatriate success: a meta-analysis of the differential benefits of social support’, Human Resource Management Review, 29, 1–22. Van Reken, R. E., D. C. Pollock and M. V. Pollock (2017), Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds, Yarmouth, ME: Nicholas Brealey.

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Vögel, A. J., J. J. van Vuuren and S. M. Millard (2008), ‘Preparation, support and training requirements of South African expatriates’, South African Journal of Business Management, 39(3), 33–40. Walker, J. (2019), ‘From missionary kid to global bridge builder: missions’ place in American foreign policy and international relations’, A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy, 14, 4–7. Wandersee Wiemer, B. J. (2011), ‘The third culture kid in the first culture classroom: school experiences of missionary children during home ministry assignment’, doctoral dissertation, available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (No. 883993169). Warinowski, A. (2019), ‘What about “expatriate children”? Child-level perspective on self-initiated expatriation of Finns abroad’, in Driss Habti and Maria Elo (eds), Global Mobility of Highly Skilled People: International Perspectives on Migration (pp. 255–73), Cham: Springer. Warinowski, A. and E. Laakkonen (2020), ‘Psychological adjustment of expatriate children in cultural transitions’, International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, 11(1), 1–22, https://​doi​.org/​10​.18357/​ijcyfs111202019471. Wickstrom, D. L. and L. A. Andrews (1993), ‘Personality characteristics of staff members at selected overseas missionary boarding schools’, Journal of Psychology and Theology, 21, 74–85. Wickstrom, D. L. and J. R. Fleck (1983), ‘Missionary children: correlates of self-esteem and dependency’, Journal of Psychology and Theology, 11, 226–35. Wrobbel, K. A. (2009), ‘Missionary kids in national schools: a viable option?’, Missiology, 37(2), 209–19. Wrobbel, K. A. and J. E. Plueddemann (1990), ‘Psychological development in adult missionary kids’, Journal of Psychology and Theology, 18(4), 363–74. Yoon, H.-S. (2013), ‘Response to “Providing Education” in Family Accountability in Mission: Korean and Western Case Studies, New Haven, CT: OMSC Publications. Yoon, S. (2016), 청소년기의 선교사자녀의 애착, 분리개별화가 자아정체감에 미치는 영향에 대한 선교상담학적 연구 [Effects about ego-identity formation of missionary kids according to their attachments and separation and individuation in the missional counseling perspective]. Master’s thesis, Chongshin Theological Seminary, Seoul, Korea. Youn, H. K. (2010), ‘The educational difficulties of Korean missionary children on the mission field: a narrative-pastoral approach’, doctoral dissertation, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Youn, H. K. (2011), ‘A discussion about difficulties of university education for Korean missionary children’, Dutch Reformed Theological Journal [Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif], 52(1–2), 272–84. Zurlo, G. A., T. M. Johnson and P. F. Crossing (2020), ‘World Christianity and mission 2020: ongoing shift to the global South,’ International Bulletin of Mission Research, 44(1), 8–19.

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APPENDIX A: CATEGORIZED MK LITERATURE FROM SOUTH KOREAN SOURCES Education Baek, J. H. (2006). 한국 선교사 자녀 교육 문제 [A study on the issues of Korean MK education]. Ban, S. S. (2002). 한국 선교사 자녀 교육을 위한 홈스쿨링에 관한 연구 [A study of home schooling for Korean MKs education]. Bang, J. B. and B. Jun (2020). ‘Multicultural Educational Approach to Change of Awareness of Korean MK Education’. Cho, S. H. (2003). 한국 선교사 자녀 케어를 위한 공동 양육 프로그램 연구 : 필리핀 Faith Academy의 기숙사와 태국 푸른 초장을 중심으로 [A study on the communal nurture programme of Korean MKs: based on the boarding house of Faith Academy in the Philippines and Green Field in Thailand]. Choi, W. Y. (2000). 선교사 자녀 교육 진단과 제안 [Analysis and suggestion on MK education]. Ha, J. S. (2012). 한국 선교사 자녀 교육 방안 연구: 홈스쿨링을 중심으로 [A study on educational options for Korean missionary kids]. Jae, S. W. (2002). 한국 선교사 자녀교육 집중 연구: 선교사 자녀 교육 기관 중심으 로 [A study on the education of Korean missionary kids: Focused on the educational institutions]. Kang, E. Y. (1999). 한국인 선교사 자녀 교육을 위한 한 연구 [A study on the education of Korean Missionary Kids]. Kang, Y. J. (2020). ‘몽골 울란바타르 선교사자녀학교 UBMK School 유치원의 기독교 유아 교육과정 운영의 실제’ [Practice of Christian early childhood education curriculum operation focused on Ulaanbaatar missionary kids School in Mongolia]. Kim, B. R. (2009). 한국 선교사 자녀 교육에 관한 연구 [Research on Korean missionary children’s education]. Kim, E. K. (2006). Investigation of education for missionary children. Kim, G. S. (2008). 타문화권 안에서 한국 선교사 자녀의 교육과 대안 [Cross-cultural alternatives for education of Korean missionary children]. Lee, B. and M. S. Park. (2020). ‘A Study on the Adaptation Process of the Missionary Kids to Studying Abroad’. Oh, T. K. (2021). ‘Missiological Implications of Charlotte Mason’s Educational Thought: Focused on Home Education for Missionary Children’. Park, J. H. (2003). 한국 선교사 자녀 교육 현실에 대한 방안 [A proposal for Korean MK education]. Park, M. (2022). ‘A Qualitative Case Study on the Experiences of the Education for Children of Protestant Missionary in Korea Working Abroad’. Ryu, H. N. (2011). 선교사 자녀를 위한 한국 언어·문화 교육 방안 연구 [Research on Korean language and culture education method for missionary kids]. Shin, S. A. (2002). 한국 선교사 자녀 교육에 관한 고찰: 선교기관들의 정책을 중심으로 [Analysis of Korea MK education: Focus on the policies of the mission agencies]. Youn, H. K. (2010). The educational difficulties of Korean missionary children on the mission field: A narrative-pastoral approach. Youn, H. K. (2011). A discussion about the difficulties of university education for Korean missionary children.

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Development of a Korean Identity Baek, A. G. (2000). 선교사 자녀들의 정체성 형성에 관한 연구: 서울에 거주하는 한국 선교사 자녀를 중심으로 [A study on MK identity formation: Focused on MKs living in Seoul]. Choi, S. J. (1998). A study of cultural identity among Korean missionary kids at Faith Academy in the Philippines. Chung, J. O. (2003). 해외 귀국 청소년들의 학교생활적응 특성에 관한 연구:질적 분석을 통한 귀국 중학생들의 경험 파악 중심으로 [A study on the adjustment of Korean adolescents to school in Korea upon re-entry: Focusing on the experience of returning middle school students through qualitative analysis]. Ha, O. K. (2018). Re-entry Challenges: Comparison and Contrasts Between Korean and American MKs. Han, S. (2020). ‘선교사 자녀의 선교지 내 외상적 스트레스 경험과 귀국 후 적응 과정 탐 색’ [An exploration of Missionary Kidses: Comparison and Contrasts Between Korean and American MKs.to Korea]. Jeon, E. J. (2016). 재입국한 선교사 자녀의 자아 정체성 형성을 위한 연구 [A study on the identity formation of MKs upon re-entry]. Kim, C. H. (1996). 해외 귀국 청소년의 적응과 자아존중감에 관한 연구 [A study on the adjustment and self-esteem of Korean adolescents upon re-entry]. Kim, D. H. (1999). Character of MKs and the aim of education for Korean MKs. Kim, D. Y. (2020). ‘콜라주 미술치료 프로그램이 재입국 MK 청소년의 진로성숙에 미치 는 효과’ [Effect of Collage Art Therapy Programme on the career maturity of Missionary Kids re-entry]. Kim, D. Y. and S. J. Yun. (2021). ‘An Analysis of Research Trends in Acculturation of Cross Culture Kids (CCKs)’. Kim, M. K. (2022). ‘Christian Counseling Care for Young Adults Returning from Third Culture: Focusing on MK’. Lee, S. Y. (2009). 귀국 선교사 자녀(MK)의 스트레스 관리를 위한 개별지도 프로그램 개 발 [A programme on returned missionary kids(MK) stress management]. Mun, M. and J. Kim. (2020). ‘A Study on the Formation of Korean Identity of Third Culture Kids (TCKs) who Experienced Cultural Transformation during Elementary Education’. Oh, K. J., K. R. Park and S. J. Oh (2010). 해외거주 후 국내대학에 진학한 귀국 대학생의 문화적응양상과 심리사회적 적응 [The cultural adaptation and psychosocial adjustment of college students studying in Korea upon re-entry].

Parent–Child Relationships Ahn, E. K. (2010). 부모의 의사소통 유형에 따른 선교사 자녀의 자아존중감과 신 앙에 관한 연구 : 사티어의 의사소통 이론을 중심으로 [A study on the self-esteem and faith of MKs according to parental communication patterns: Focusing on Satirion during Elementary EducJae, J. W. (2000). 선교사 자녀 돌봄을 위한 부모의 국내준비 [ParentsW. (2000). on for the care of missionary kids in Korea] (Master’s thesis, Chongshin University, Korea). (KERIS 08213741). Kim, D. S. (2003). 선교사 자녀들에게 있어서 부모와의 관계가 신앙에 미치는 영향: 국 내에 거주하고 있는 선교사 자녀들 가운데 중,고등학생을 중심으로 [An impact of parent-child relationship on the faith of MKs: Focusing on MK middle and high school students in Korea]. Kim, I. K. (2012). 한국 선교사의 자녀 양육을 위한 부모 교육 프로그램 요구 분석 [A needs analysis of a parent education programme caring for Korean missionary kids].

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Kim, J. H. (2000). 한국 선교사 자녀의 정체성 형성에 미친 부모역할 [The role of parents in the identity formation of Korean MKs: Based on the college students in Korea]. Kwon, M. Y. (2013). 선교사 자녀의 영적 안녕감, 긍정적 사고, 부모-자녀관계가 현 지 적응유연성에 미치는 영향 [Effects of spiritual well-being, positive thinking, and parent-child relationship on the missionary kids' resilience at mission field].

Psychological Issues Cho, J. A. (2013). 선교사 자녀들(MK)의 불안과 우울 감소에 그룹 음악치료 프로그램이 미치는 영향 [The influence of group music programme in reducing missionary kid (MK)’s anxiety and depression]. Choi, E. (2004). Psychological difficulties and counseling principles applicable to missionary kids. Eun, H. (2012). 가족체계적 관점에서 본 선교사자녀의 스트레스에 관한 연구: 초기 청 년기 한국거주자 중심으로 [A study on missionary kids’ stress in view of family system theory]. Kim, H. J., C. W Nam and S. K. Lee (2015). 귀국 대학생과 일반 대학생의 사회적 지지가 심리적 안녕감에 미치는 영향: 회복탄력성의 매개효과 [The impact of social support on the psychological well-being of returnee college students and ordinary college students: Mediating effects of resilience]. Kim, H. M. and H. J. Kim (2014). 집단미술치료가 해외 귀국청소년의 자아정체감과 문 화 간 감수성에 미치는 효과 [The effect of group art therapy on the ego-edentity and intercultural sensitivity of Korean TCK]. Kim, P. Y., H. S. Cheon, J. H. Hyun, E. S. Chang and H. C. D. Yoo (2017). Psychological experiences of Korean missionary “kids” (MKs): A qualitative inquiry. Ma, M. and B. Kang (2021). ‘Research on the Care and Mobilization of Missionary Kids and Strategic Implications for the Korean Church: A Case Study of College Students at H University’. Park, H. S. (2000). 한국 선교사의 자녀 신앙교육에 대한 연구 [A study on the faith of Korean MKs]. Seo, H. J. (2016). 집단표현예술치료가 선교사자녀(MK)의 대인관계와 사회적응력에 미 치는 효과 [The effects of group expressive arts therapy on the missionary kids’ interpersonal relationship and the social-adjustment ability]. Seo, H. J. and M. S. Choi. (2021). ‘A Study on the Effect of Group Expressive Art Therapy on Missionary’s Kids to Interpersonal relationships and Social Stress: Cross-cultural Growth Background’. Yoon, S. (2016). 청소년기의 선교사자녀의 애착, 분리개별화가 자아정체감에 미치는 영 향에 대한 선교상담학적 연구 [Effects about ego-identity formation of missionary kids according to their attachments and separation and individuation in the missional counselling perspective].

Korean Language Proficiency Choi, J. H. (2012). 한국어교육: 한국어 숙달도에 영향을 주는 요인 연구-TCK 를 중심 으로 [A study on the factors affecting Korean language proficiency – Focusing on Third Culture Kids]. Choi, J. H. (2013). 터키 거주 선교사 자녀의 한국어 능력 변인 연구 [A study on the Korean language proficiency variables of Korean MKs in Turkey]. Kim, Y. J. (2015). 귀국 학생을 위한 한국어문화교육 연구 동향 분석과 향후 과제-문화 교육을 중심으로 [A study on research trends and future directions of Korean language and culture education for students who returned from abroad: Focusing on culture education].

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Kwak, J. Y. (2008). 한국 대학생 영어 학습자들의 독해 전략 비교 연구: 일반 대학생 과 선교사자녀 대학생을 중심으로 [A study on the reading strategies of Korean college students: Comparison of ordinary college students and ‘missionary kids’ college students]. Shin, J. Y. (2002). 해외 주재 한국 선교사 자녀를 위한 이중 언어 교육 연구 [A study on the bilingual education for Korean MKs living abroad].

10. Global families in transnational education Jodie Trembath

There are certain pervasive assumptions around careers in education. The first, and perhaps most prevalent, is that education is inherently a ‘family-friendly’ career choice. This outdated generalisation assumes that educators arrive at work between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., clock off between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and enjoy 12 weeks holiday per year, with plenty of flexibility and autonomy in between. Educators, therefore, should be perfectly positioned to have and raise families. This flawed premise assumedly harks back to an era prior to the now-ubiquitous use of new managerialism in education (Deem and Brehony 2005). A second common line of thought about careers in education, particularly in the literature on the topic, is that these careers are globally boundaryless, aligning mostly with the notion that education systems are relatively homogeneous. To put it another way, while there is a natural assumption that cultures vary across different countries, there is a parallel and paradoxical assumption that modern education systems are predominantly imitations of a dominant Anglo/European model that, therefore, does not significantly vary across different countries. Thus, if education systems are assumed to be similar regardless as to where one goes, then a career in education should in turn be perfectly transplantable (i.e. the fertile soil of one education system should be identical to the fertile soil of another). This chapter aims to problematise assumptions about careers in education, particularly in an era of increasing globalisation in the education sector, for one key reason – while these assumptions persist, it does a disservice to the families of the educators they allegedly describe. By exploring the literature about the family lives of expatriate educators and tying that together with examples from fieldwork conducted at an international university in Vietnam, this chapter aims to dispel these (and other) assumptions and provide a more nuanced view of families in today’s transnational education environment. To achieve its goals, the chapter begins by providing a review of the literature relevant to the two assumptions above about careers in education – (1) that education is a family-friendly career, and (2) that education is a globally transplantable career. It then presents three cases from an international university in Vietnam, with analysis of how these assumptions do and do not fit into the existing literature on careers in education and expatriate management in general. It is followed by a discussion of practical implications for families, institutions and researchers, with suggestions for future research directions.

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ASSUMPTION 1: EDUCATION IS A ‘FAMILY-FRIENDLY’ CAREER CHOICE Defining Family and ‘Family-friendly’ The term ‘family-friendly’ is redolent with ambiguity. Different contexts demand that it be interpreted differently, and even when it is applied to workplaces and workplace policies, what counts as ‘family-friendly’ varies across countries, sectors and individual organisations. Some researchers define family-friendly as carers and maternity leave, workloads that allow for increased time with family (i.e. no more than an average of 30 hours of work per week, according to one study; Jackson and Scharman 2002), flexible and alternative working hours and locations, and onsite/ assistance with childcare (Feeney et al. 2014; Meara 2013; Philipsen et al. 2017; Su and Bozeman 2016). Notable about these definitions is the assumption of a family that includes children (i.e. a traditional nuclear family). In different contexts, however, the definition of who and what counts as ‘family’ varies, which is often true for expatriates whose immediate or extended family may or may not have relocated with them (see Hutchings and Kallane, Chapter 13, this volume; Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume). Those expatriating may have blended their own family with a local family, may include older generations, or be part of a same-sex couple (see Kallane, Mutter and Collins, Chapter 1, this volume; Michaels and Tamm, Chapter 12, this volume). Examples of all these types of families were visible at the fieldsite, which are categorised in this chapter as families because they categorised themselves as families. However, human resource departments responsible for relocating employees abroad often do not extend their policies to such a broad set of definitions. For example, in some countries, ‘family-friendly’ policies still do not apply to the partners of LGBTIQ, meaning that some choose not to bring their spouses or children with them because, as McPhail, McNulty and Hutchings (2016) point out, homosexuality is still punishable by death in some countries and is illegal or highly stigmatised in many others. Notable about the above definitions is that they all emerge from Western contexts. Yet, while most Western workplaces emphasise the importance of flexible working hours for families, a comparative study between firms in China, Kenya and Thailand on the relationship between family-friendly policies and transformational leadership (Wang and Walumbwa 2007) showed that in all three of these collectivist countries, flexible working hours were not valued by employees and therefore had no positive effect on organisational commitment. In a study conducted in South Korea, although many of the policies were similar, family-friendly policies also made specific mention of elder-care (Kim 2008). In Hong Kong, where long working hours and heavy workloads are said to have contributed to the world’s lowest crude birthrate (as of 2009), a study concluded that women who were postponing childbirth due to concerns about their career and financial position would change their positions if induced with tax reductions or subsidies, and support via childcare services (Wong

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et al. 2011). These studies illustrate that there is some way to go to determine a clear and concise definition of the meaning of ‘family-friendly’ across cultural and societal contexts. Education Careers and Lifestyle Accommodations While it is not uncommon for individuals to enter a career in education with their family (or future family) in mind (Troman 2008), a career in education is often not as ‘family-friendly’ as it appears. Chambers et al. (2010), in their study of retention during the ‘Initial Teacher Preparation’ stage of secondary teacher training in the UK, pointed out that two of the most common reasons for trainee withdrawal from these programmes are the high workload and the impact that the practicum (in-school) training has on their personal relationships and family lives. In interviews with people who had undertaken training but withdrawn before completion, the authors found that the participants – all of whom had children of their own by the time they began their training – went into education as a second career with (what turned out to be) unrealistic views of its family-friendly nature. Universities follow a similar pattern, where the tenure system has created a particularly pernicious confluence of difficulties for academic employees. To be offered tenure means, ostensibly, to be granted a permanent academic position at a specific university. While to a non-academic this may sound like a bizarre luxury from a bygone era, the difficulty of tenure lies in the two-class system it represents – on the one hand are those with tenure who have high status in the university and a reasonable living wage (Altbach et al. 2012) that they can rely on for the rest of their working lives. On the other hand, 70 per cent of academics in the US (Kaplan 2010) and 91 per cent in Germany (Enders 2015) do not have tenure. Many of these academics have been on the ‘tenure track’ for years, applied for tenure after the appropriate time, and missed out for a variety of reasons (gender and family responsibilities, many argue, being two; Weisshaar 2017). Many are not permitted to re-apply at the same university having been stigmatised as ‘second-rate’. Following ‘tenure denial’, they either seek another tenure track position elsewhere, remain in their current university in a non-academic position, or leave academia altogether. By this time, most academics have been working towards tenure for between 10 and 15 years, often on very low incomes (Altbach et al. 2012), from which their careers may never recover (Stivale 2006). These challenges are excaberbated for female academics, academics of colour, or academics who are not citizens of the country in which they are working. For example, a study of economics faculty who had recently been denied tenure found that, controlling for other variables, men received 61 per cent more interviews than similarly qualified women, and that skin colour and citizenship played a role in whether or not they were offered interviews at other US universities (List 2001). While the US higher education system exemplifies the difficulties encountered for academics, it is important to note that contemporary higher education is a global sector, and one of the key consequences of the increasing competition for academic tenure at the national level is that academics from all over the world are frequently

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required to mobilise if they wish to remain in the profession. With an increasingly global war for academic talent in universities, it is likely that competition for academic jobs emerges from all corners of the earth, and that, consequently, many academics need to be prepared to move to other corners of the earth in pursuit of an academic career. This has a range of consequences for both academic careers and on the families of academics. For example, a study from the UAE (Dickson 2019) demonstrated that, as has been shown in many other studies, expatriate academic mothers often undertake the vast majority of the coordination of domestic work and childcare in their households but that, even with domestic help, it didn’t give them more time to undertake their academic work and to progress their careers. The Two-body Problem: Partners and Spouses As with most expatriate families, the adjustment of an educator’s partner or spouse to the host country usually has a strong impact on the adjustment and subsequent work performance of the educator, as well as having a positive effect on their retention, at least through to the end of their contract (Agha-Alikhani 2016; Black and Stephens 1989; Selmer and Lauring 2011). One consideration that is especially prevalent for expatriate academics is the very high prevalence of dual-career spouses (see Mutter and Kallane, Chapter 5, this volume). Wolf-Wendel et al. (2003) estimated that 80 per cent of academics had a spouse or partner who was a working professional, and in fact, close to half of those partners were fellow academics, with later research suggesting these figures have remained relatively consistent (Putnam et al. 2018; Sotirin and Goltz 2019). This has come to be known as the ‘two-body problem’, where both partners within a relationship are pursuing professional careers, and therefore international relocation for work must take both parties into account (McNulty and Moeller 2018). Sotirin and Goltz (2019) point out that dual-career couples in academia face specific challenges due to the linear nature of academic careers, which often fails to accommodate life stages/cycles and family dynamics. This can be particularly problematic for academics who take time out of their careers to raise children or whose productivity is impacted by child or elder care. These unique characteristics become compounded by the challenges associated with academic expatriation, particularly if a couple has expatriated to a location with limited or niche academic employment options, making it difficult for both partners to find appropriate work. Yet, some international schools actually prefer to employ ‘educator-couples’, including those with accompanying children who are then offered free or discounted tuition at the education institution at which their parents are teaching (Zilber 2005). Effects of Mobility on Transnational Youth Is expatriation family-friendly for the children of global educators? There has been considerable psychological research on ‘third culture kids’ (TCK) (Van Reken, Pollock and Pollock 2017; see Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume; and

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Kallane, Mutter and Collins, Chapter 1, this volume). Much of this research shows that the experience of being dislocated from one’s national culture and the familiarity of friends/extended family at a young age can be deeply destabilising for children (Tanu 2018). Davis et al. (2015), for example, posit that the effect of always feeling different – either to the locals of the host culture because of the child’s nationality, or to their peers in their home culture because of their experiences during expatriation – can lead to difficulties in forming a coherent sense of self, challenges in forming or breaking attachments to others, and unresolved grief stemming from the multiple losses catalysed first by the act of expatriation itself, and then by living within a highly transient community. These emotional and psychological difficulties can be confounded by the lack of control a child may feel about their circumstances. While an adult may (or may not) have chosen to expatriate, a child is more likely to feel they had no choice. It is not to say that there are no benefits from expatriation for young people, or that every child who expatriates with their parents will be psychologically scarred. Davis et al. (2015) go to great lengths to point out that the challenges faced by third culture kids can create even greater resilience and emotional awareness than occurs naturally among their monocultural peers. This is due to ‘stress-induced growth’ (p. 173), particularly if the TCK has access to counselling or other resources to help them process their stress and to resolve trauma and grief as it occurs.

ASSUMPTION 2: EDUCATION IS GLOBALLY CONSISTENT Under the discourse of educational careers as a globalisation-as-Westernisationas-homogenisation, education is a global profession designed to prepare students to be global citizens who can grow up to live and work anywhere in the world (De Wit 2011). By this logic, if all international schools and universities are preparing their students to be global citizens, then any internationally minded educator should be able to transplant themselves into any international school or university, anywhere in the world, because all of these educational institutions should be doing essentially the same things in similar ways. This is, of course, not the case. The Fallacy of Homogenisation in Globalisation Globalisation scholar Jan Aart Scholte (2005) claims that while globalisation may have emerged from Western modernity as capitalism, neoliberalism, industrialism, rationalism, urbanism and individualism, the ways that these paradigms have been interpreted in different places has created space for altered approaches across the world, and led to greater pluralism and contestation in the construction of knowledge rather than homogenisation. From an empirical perspective, pluralism is visible in the literature about the experiences of expatriate academics. Many are surprised, for example, upon arrival in new countries to find significant differences to the universities from which they

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have hailed. This may be because the new university has a greater focus on teaching or research (Shin and Jung 2013), that the role of the academic is seen as more or less prestigious (Kim 2015), that workloads, student behaviours, or recruitment and career ladder issues are different (Jepsen et al. 2014), or that there is more or less academic freedom and autonomy than they are accustomed to (Schoepp 2011). Primary and secondary school teachers report similar adjustment difficulties. Halicioglu (2015) identified issues around culture shock and adjustment to the new school environment; having a multicultural cohort of students for the first time, or having a lack of understanding of the students from the local culture; interacting and potentially having differing values from colleagues, who may hail from anywhere in the world; feeling isolated or marked as ‘different’ by local students; as well as unfamiliarity with the new curriculum and with academic, pastoral and organisational philosophies. These challenges occur at the same time as adjustments in their personal life are needed, thus adding to the stress of a relocation (see McNulty and Carter 2018). Sites of Western Colonial Reconstruction Much of this chapter focuses on the experiences of educators and academics, but the assumptions discussed here apply similarly to accompanying children. International schools are an ideal example of the assumption that education is a globally consistent construct. As Öztabak (2022) points out, international schools are based on the notion that the goal of education is to raise individuals with universally common (i.e. Western) values, to improve the human condition, promote knowledge of global problem areas, and ultimately establish some kind of world order or peace. This underlying premise paves the way for ‘international’ curricula. Expatriate parents often cite opportunities for their children to have an international education as a key motivation to expatriate (Richardson 2006; Tanu 2018). An international education has been found to provide many benefits to students, including a greater understanding of the world and exposure to a diversity of cultures and experiences (Davis et al. 2015); indeed, international schools market themselves as being highly diverse and inclusive. Yet, Tanu (2018) argues that international schools can be sites that reinforce and reproduce structural differences and colonial class hierarchies, even while it is obscured through the rhetoric of inclusivity.

CASE STUDIES: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF TRANSNATIONAL EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL FAMILIES The cases used in this chapter are drawn from fieldwork at an international university in Vietnam that we have given the pseudonym ‘International-Vietnamese University’

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(hereafter, IVU); we do so to protect the confidentiality of the university and the case participants. Conducted over a nine-month period, the fieldwork included: ● Systematic ethnographic observation, which involved attendance at and participation in events and activities alongside the university’s academic staff, such as staff lunches, ‘town halls’ and staff meetings, and staff-student social events; ● Shadowing (e.g. McDonald 2005), a method in which the researcher followed a specific key informant (with their knowledge and consent) for a prolonged period of time; ● Interviews with expatriate academics,1 which took two forms – unstructured discussions of their experiences at IVU, and semi-structured ‘life-history’ interviews aimed at understanding self-narratives; and interviews with local academics and non-academic university staff using a traditional semi-structured approach; ● A survey of local academics designed to better understand the prevalence of themes that emerged out of the interviews; ● A content analysis of the university intranet and other online staff communications. The three specific cases below were written using data from this fieldwork. Minor details have been changed to protect identities, but all attempts have been made to make those changes consistent with the original content. All names are pseudonyms, and children of interviewees have not been named. IVU is a fully foreign-owned and operated entity with a solid reputation both within and outside Vietnam. The language of instruction on campus is English, and both students and staff must meet similar levels of English-proficiency to those needed to study or work at a university located in a Western country. Being able to cite employment at IVU on one’s academic CV is similar to having worked at most mid-level universities in Western countries. For academics looking for work, the appeal of IVU is: (a) the institution’s positive reputation, combined with a variety of motivations typically discussed in the literature; (b) the perception that competition for employment is lower, as fewer people wish to move to Vietnam than to Western countries (Richardson and McKenna 2002); (c) the novelty of having an adventure (Richardson and McKenna 2002; Wilkins and Annabi 2021); and/or (d) the reputational value that comes from demonstrating international experience (Richardson and McKenna 2003; Selmer, Trembath and Lauring, 2017). The fact that the language of instruction is English is also a drawcard for many academics, many of whom never go on to become proficient in, or even try to learn, Vietnamese (as is often the case when many academics expatriate; see Luef 2020). The three academics in the case studies below are from different departments and disciplines, different countries of origin, and have different family circumstances. What their stories demonstrate is the extent to which the two assumptions discussed above do not hold true.

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CASE STUDY 1: A LOCAL HIRE ‘LIVING IN THE MOMENT’ IVU academic Tara and husband Anthony moved to Vietnam in their late twenties so that Anthony could do an MBA at IVU. They had been in Vietnam for five years at the time of the interview. Having completed an undergraduate business degree in their home country of New Zealand, Anthony realised that the couple could afford to live, comfortably but carefully, on a single salary in Vietnam (i.e. Tara’s), while he studied in English to obtain a globally recognised postgraduate degree for a similar price to what he would pay at home, from an international university with a good reputation. Tara had previous experience as a high school teacher, and had worked part-time as a tutor while studying full-time for her Master’s in Journalism. She secured a position as a lecturer in IVU’s Marketing and Communications faculty not long after the couple arrived in Vietnam, but was employed as a ‘local hire’, meaning that she did not receive any of the perks made available to academics hired from abroad: I was a bit shocked [about the salary] actually, it was only half what I’d been earning as a teacher in New Zealand. I’d had friends who’d been expats and been given the most amazing packages, so when they [IVU] offered me the job and told me the salary, I was a bit like …. ‘Oh. But you must help pay for rent or something, right? Or annual flights home? Or … something?’ And my new boss actually laughed at me, which looking back was fair enough, because there’s nothing like that for academics.

Tara’s career took off at IVU. As an early-career academic, she ‘threw herself into the publishing game’ and relished the opportunity to use her research to learn more about the host country, and then use that in her teaching. She described it as being like ‘a big fish in a little pond – you get a lot more opportunities, being an expat here, things no one would be offering you at a Uni back home’, such as the opportunity to be mentored by senior academics, co-authoring opportunities, invitations to speak at conferences around Asia, and the chance to be on committees and part of governance structures that would typically only involve much more senior academics in New Zealand. When asked what she felt the difference was, Tara said that in Vietnam, her whiteness gave her an advantage over more experienced Vietnamese academics, ‘because the students apparently want to see white faces on campus, so the university sees us [white academics] as more valuable. It’s a bit gross when you put it like that, but still, that’s just the reality.’ After completing his degree, Anthony had anticipated being able to also work at IVU, and the couple had committed to remaining in Vietnam for at least another few years. However, the university underwent budget cuts and put a freeze on hiring new staff meaning that for many months, he was unable to find work. It was very unusual for foreigners – especially white, expatriate men – to be looking for positions below Director level, but at 29, well-qualified but relatively inexperienced, Anthony didn’t feel comfortable applying for these. Tara said that Vietnamese employers found his applications for lower-level positions, that typ-

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ically only went to Vietnamese employees, confusing: ‘they didn’t seem to know what to do with him, what category to put him in.’ She felt that his struggle to find work had had a significant impact on his professional confidence as well as his personal self-esteem and she felt guilty that he was having such a difficult time when her own career was going so well. This had caused tension in their relationship. Compounding the situation was that, towards the end of Anthony’s study, the couple had moved to a more expensive apartment, anticipating that they would soon be doubling their income. Tara had been experiencing anxiety about their previous neighbourhood, which they had discovered was locally known as ‘little mafia’. ‘It had gotten to the point where I really hated leaving the house, so eventually we decided it wasn’t worth it and we moved.’ However, the longer Anthony was unemployed, the more challenging it became. After six months of job hunting, Anthony was hired as a client manager by one of the international banks. However, having applied for and been accepted into a position typically reserved for Vietnamese employees, he was hired on a typical Vietnamese salary, which was about a third of what Tara was earning. As a consequence, despite Tara’s burgeoning academic career, Tara and Anthony struggled with their finances over the next few years – although Tara said that rather than worrying or planning a way around this, they more commonly just ‘lived in the moment, and then dealt with the consequences at the end of the pay cycle!’. They had bought a house in Australia before moving to Vietnam, and while their tenants’ rent covered their mortgage, ‘a fair chunk’ of their monthly income went to covering the costs of upkeep. They didn’t want to sell it, as they saw it as a form of insurance that would eventually encourage them to move home. So, for years, money was very tight: Everyone thinks it’s really cheap to live in Vietnam, and it can be, but we have responsibilities back home as well. Also, Anthony doesn’t eat Vietnamese food anymore, he got really sick in our first few months here and now even the smell of it puts him off, so we mostly eat [Western] take-out and that’s not cheap. And neither is cooking for ourselves, believe it or not, not the things we actually know how to cook anyway. To be honest, even now we live paycheck-to-paycheck. It’s quite embarrassing, ʼcos I’d always been really good with money before coming to Vietnam – except that we know there are heaps of other academics here in the same boat, especially the ones with kids.

Tara said that her friends with children at international schools were doing it particularly tough financially, and that three of her friends had left IVU that year because they could no longer afford to send their children to school on an academic’s wage: I honestly don’t know how anyone can be an academic and a parent at the same time. We can barely take care of ourselves. I’m hardly ever home, I come in [to IVU] early and I’m never out of here till well after 7, 8 p.m. Ha! And we came to Vietnam thinking it would be more relaxed, like being on a holiday! Yeah right. And then, Anthony goes out for drinks after work with his colleagues most evenings, and then we meet

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somewhere for dinner, but to be honest it hasn’t been the best thing for our relationship because it just feels like we hardly ever see each other anymore. I have my friends and he has his friends.

In another conversation, she said: We’ve been together a long time, more than 10 years already, and as far as I’m concerned, he’s my family, but it’s a little too easy to let things drift here. We’ve talked about seeing a counsellor, but it’s not like the government’s going to pay for us here, so that’s another expense! So, I’m not sure what to do.

Anthony and Tara stayed in Vietnam for another two years after their interviews, before moving back to New Zealand for Tara to finish the PhD she had started remotely, several years earlier. Tara and Anthony’s case as a childless couple in their early thirties touches on many of the issues that global families in transnational education experience. Anthony’s struggle to find work as a professional in Vietnam once he completed his MBA typifies the two-body problem described earlier (Wolf-Wendel et al. 2003). The consequences of Anthony’s struggle went beyond the financial; Tara believed it also had an impact on his self-esteem and professional confidence. Tara and Anthony’s case also raises a concern infrequently discussed in the literature on expatriates – that of financial difficulties. A recent study of expatriate academics working in Poland and Slovakia explored the issue, showing that the expenses of being an academic in a foreign country (the cost of travel back and forth from the home country and spending on an international education for any dependent children) caused them to find other ways to supplement their wages (Kamil 2022). Expatriates in this study did so by taking on extra academic and non-academic jobs, acquiring external funding from their home country’s government, or relying on savings. Tara and Anthony did none of these, preferring to ‘live in the moment’ and deal with the consequences later, even though rationally they were aware that this was not a sound plan. In a study of the financial concerns of expatriates in the UAE, Suri and Purohit (2017) found that the financial literacy of the 389 participants was low. This meant that generally, the respondents had difficulty managing their money, balancing their bank accounts, preparing a budget, saving, investing, or planning for the future. As we might expect, more educated expatriates were found to have greater financial literacy, with the implication that it should correspond to greater wealth. However, as we see in this case study, both Tara and Anthony have high levels of education, and Anthony’s degree even had courses focused on finance, and yet they struggled financially. The issue they faced seems to be less that they had difficulty understanding how to budget their money but that they did not feel they had enough income to do so effectively; they instead chose to ignore the problem hoping it would go away. There is a paucity of literature about expatriate educators and affordability to relocate, yet financial difficulty was a regular point of discussion for many of the respondents at IVU, not just for Tara and Anthony.

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Tara and Anthony further described that their working conditions were less than family-friendly, even though they were only a family of two. It led Tara to consider that she probably could not continue in academia in Vietnam if they did have a child: from a financial perspective, because of the long hours they both worked, and because of the socialising and drinking expected of Anthony through his work. Tara alluded to difficulties in their relationship, and although she didn’t go into great detail, McNulty’s (2015) study of expatriate divorce offers some clues. The author found that there are two main explanations for expatriate divorce; that expatriation exacerbates existing issues in a marriage that were present before going abroad; or that during expatriation one or both partners succumb to a type of ‘group think’ that makes ordinarily destructive behaviours back home, like alcoholism or extra-marital affairs, more socially acceptable once abroad (i.e. ‘all my friends here are doing it’), which is exacerbated by the absence of family role models to ‘set them straight’. Tara and Anthony’s case offers an additional possibility; that the circumstances of the host culture may also create problems for a couple. It is worth noting that, in the literature on non-expatriate marriages in Western countries, financial difficulties are often highly correlated with marriage breakdown (Bridges and Disney 2016; Dew et al. 2012). This case also illustrates the ways in which academia is not globally consistent or homogeneous. Tara describes that she was given opportunities that would never have come to her so early in her career if she’d remained in New Zealand. Thus, by simply being a white, Western academic in a developing Asian country, she gained what can be described as ‘white capital’ (see Trembath 2019, p. 108), that is, a form of cultural capital that is embodied through skin, hair and eye colour, texture and shape, as well as through other proxy indicators of whiteness such as accent and a Western style of dress (see Lauring et al. 2022 for a recent discussion). This was, to some degree, true of Tara, who had been able to trade on her whiteness to get ahead in her academic career, even though this had not translated to being financially comfortable in the short to medium term, at least. We can see that Tanu’s (2018) description of international schools as sites of Western colonial reconstruction also rings true in the context of international universities, again demonstrating that the global education market is not homogeneous, and different locations, while having inherent differences, also manifest different experiences for some academics and their families compared to others.

CASE STUDY 2: ALLOWING VIETNAM TO ‘TAKE OVER’ Stefan, a European academic in his late forties who had migrated to Australia in his twenties, arrived at IVU in early 2015 to take up a senior academic management role – a significant step above the level of Deputy Dean that he had reached at his previous university. He described himself as ambitious, and said he always knew that he would need international experience to progress into the higher echelons of Australian academe: his ultimate goal. His wife, Helen, and his two teen-

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age children accompanied him to Vietnam. Stefan said that his kids weren’t very happy about relocating, having not wanted to leave their high school friends back in Australia. Although they had been in Vietnam for more than a year and attended the Australian International School where the curriculum should have been familiar, he felt that his children had still ‘found it pretty hard to settle in’ and things were still ‘extremely difficult, yeah, a year or so down the track, they still found it difficult’. Stefan talked a lot about the pressures of the job to travel extensively and to socialise with his industry connections outside of work hours. In his previous role in Australia, he had attended industry networking dinners or drinks most weeks, but would be home around 8 or 9 p.m. In Vietnam, part of his responsibility was to organise dinners and drinks to network with different industry players. This meant that at least two or three nights per week, he was out until very late in the evening or the early hours of the morning and – male Vietnamese culture being what it was – this also required heavy drinking. He said that, although Helen had been by his side through 20 years of previous work in Australian universities, she was struggling to understand why things had changed so dramatically. She was also, Stefan said, fairly isolated, as she wasn’t working and hadn’t made any close friends. He felt that she often found herself lonely. Stefan discussed that it was very easy to get ‘carried away’ in Vietnam, and also described this as ‘allowing Vietnam to take over’. He felt that he had guarded against this quite well, because every ‘social’ event he was involved with during the week was attended with only one goal – to build his department. But he admitted that it had not been easy, and if he ever left Vietnam, it would be because of the difficulty his family had in adjusting to their new lifestyle. Stefan announced his resignation from IVU about 18 months into his three-year work permit and five-year employment contract. He moved back to Australia, to the same city he and his family had been living in before moving abroad, although to a different university (similarly ranked to both IVU and his previous Australian employer). He retained the senior level position that he obtained by joining IVU. We can see in this case study that Stefan and his family were confronted by typical expatriate challenges in (1) being unable to adjust to the new cultural environment, and (2) consequently breaking the contract and returning home earlier than planned (Black and Stephens 1989). Interestingly, when first asked if he felt that his experience of being an academic in Vietnam had been very different to Australia, Stefan was quick to reply that it was ‘exactly the same’, and to reinforce the idea that academia is indeed a global profession. But throughout the discussion, he grew more thoughtful, later saying that the differences in the culture, the environment, and other things outside of the workplace had actually had a profound effect on his experience of being an academic at IVU. Additionally, the cultural differences that had necessitated Stefan’s additional time away from his family during week nights had baffled his wife, Helen. He revealed that she could not fathom why the task was essentially the same – to maintain and develop relationships with industry leaders in order to

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stimulate funding and grant opportunities, as well as internships and future employment for students – yet the networking involved much later nights and much heavier drinking. This came down, of course, to Vietnamese culture. As Parker (2010) points out, nhậu, or informal social drinking, is one of the key ways that business is facilitated in Vietnam and in other Asian countries, particularly between men, and this behaviour is not merely encouraged, but expected. For Helen, it meant increased isolation (Collins and Bertone 2017) – women were not encouraged to participate in these events, as husbands and wives in Vietnam do not often socialise together (Dinh et al. 1990; Phinney 2008). Some researchers have argued that it is more difficult for teens than younger children to expatriate (Tanu 2018), and Stefan also made this point indicating that he had friends and colleagues with younger children who seemed to have adjusted more effectively than his own had. Educational psychologist Erik Eriksen (cited in Tanu 2018), along with Van Reken et al. (2017), note that adolescence is the critical phase during which a person determines who they are in relation to others, while transnational mobility necessitates a constant reinventing of oneself, of having to start again each time one moves, or each time one’s social circle moves on, which can then interfere with the process of coming to know oneself and forming a coherent sense of identity. Without having interviewed Stefan’s children, it’s impossible to say whether this was the case for them. However, as Stefan had claimed that the only thing that would cause him to leave IVU was if things didn’t improve for his children, it is possible they did not, in fact, adjust to their new cultural environment over time, as Stefan had hoped. Stefan’s experience does not speak to the notion of academia as a family-friendly environment, particularly given that Stefan’s wife was left alone most of the time to undertake the vast majority of household management and child-rearing duties. While in the first case study, Tara could not imagine how she could remain in academia in Vietnam if she had children, Stefan’s case shows that it is possible if one spouse does not work. The case also does not illustrate a homogeneous global education sector. Despite relocating from one Western-style and similarly-ranked university to another, albeit in an Asian country, Stefan was initially confident that he was indeed experiencing the global consistency that many academics assume will be the case. However, as he unpacked both his own experiences and, especially, reflected on those of his children in their international school environment, it soon became clear that he could no longer hold on to that assumption.

CASE STUDY 3: ‘WE’RE A CHRISTIAN FAMILY AND THAT HELPS’ Manuel arrived in Vietnam to take up his academic role at IVU less than 12 months prior to participating in the fieldwork interviews. He was accompanied by his wife Rosita and 13-year-old son. Manuel had a PhD in software engineering, and his

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wife a Master’s degree in environmental management. A deeply religious family, Manuel and Rosita had decided to educate their son through ACE – Accelerated Christian Education – a schooling system in which the students set their own curriculum content and learn at their own pace. Their son had attended a Montessori school in the Philippines, but Manuel and Rosita believed he both preferred and was doing better in the new learning environment, which was a form of home schooling, conducted in the home of one of their friends. ACE sent them the educational framework and materials, and the friend, a mother of one of the other students, helped the children work through the materials at their own speed. Manuel worried for his son’s social development in Vietnam, not because he believed it was in any way stunted; in fact, quite the opposite – he was concerned that there was too much social opportunity: He loves it here. He’s very social – much more than me at that age. He is always surrounded by girls. At his age, I thought girls were really scary! But he’s very handsome, and pays a lot of attention to fashion, so I’m really trying to guide him, because I know he’s trying to find his way and his body is raging with hormones. We are a Christian family, and that helps – we pray together, we share our experiences of God, and he’s a good kid, but it’s not easy.

Although they were living away from the Philippines, Manuel and Rosita did their utmost to help their son maintain his connection to his cultural roots. For example, they enrolled him in classes taught in Tagalog and Filipino, so that he could keep up with his mother tongue. The family spent a lot of time together on weekends with the Filipino community, partly through a Christian worship group that Manuel led on a Sunday morning. On Sunday afternoons, the family goes into the city centre to one of the big parks, where Vietnamese teenagers often hang out and look for tourists with whom to practise their English. Together, the family spends time with these Vietnamese teens, chatting in English and learning about each other’s cultures. They have become friendly with a few of the regular teens, and feel that the experience has been beneficial on both sides. Manuel finds his academic job very stressful. He is not familiar with the content he has been asked to teach, again highlighting that claims around the global homogenisation of education may be more fallacy than fact. So, in addition to his full teaching load, he has been taking several massive open online courses (MOOCs) in the evening after his family goes to bed, to ensure that his knowledge is always at least one step ahead of his students. He started experiencing anxiety soon after starting work at IVU, which he had not experienced to this extent before coming to Vietnam, and has been diagnosed with dangerously high blood pressure. However, he knows that Rosita and his son are very happy in Vietnam and feels that this is God’s plan for their family right now, so he is willing to trust in that. Perhaps most striking about Manuel and Rosita’s case is the way they draw on their strong Christian values in managing their family’s adjustment to life in Vietnam. There is little said in the research about the effects of religious belief on adjustment

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or job satisfaction, with the exception of some recent studies related to expatriate missionaries (Oberholster and Doss 2017; see also Vance, Mendenhall and Woods, Chapter 8, this volume, and Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume). Manuel and Rosita see their religion not only as their reason for being in Vietnam – they are following ‘God’s plan for their family’ – but also as one of the key resources that they draw upon to assist with their transition. It could be argued that Manuel’s multiple roles, as lecturer, father and leader of his Christian worship community all complement each other, giving him different resources to help him cope with his high workload and the anxiety he has been experiencing at work. Despite the dearth of research on expatriate’s faith as a coping mechanism, there has been some correlation made between faith and job satisfaction. Ghazzawi, Smith and Cao (2016) found in a study of the major religions in the USA that a high level of religious commitment could be linked to job satisfaction, particularly amongst middle income earners. In the case of devout Christians like Manuel and Rosita, this may perhaps be linked to the notion that hard work and strong work values have been correlated with high levels of religiosity (Yeganeh 2014), and therefore that working hard is part of fulfilling one’s Christian duty and answering a higher calling (Ghazzawi et al. 2016). Furthermore, Manuel and Rosita managed to bypass the financial difficulties caused by expensive international school fees by utilising a form of Christian home/community schooling. Thus, by interweaving their faith, their religiously and culturally homogeneous community within Vietnam, and their family values both at work and at leisure, Manuel and Rosita believe they are successfully navigating what has sometimes been a difficult transition.

IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS The implications emerging from this chapter are multiple. Rather than exploring and developing or disputing specific theories, the chapter has problematised two core assumptions that are held and oft-repeated about careers in education. In doing so, it has laid the groundwork for future theoretical development in the area of expatriate careers and education careers. Furthermore, the implications for practice relate to both families and educational institutions. Practical Implications Families in global education are strongly encouraged to consider the specific cultural idiosyncrasies of their chosen host nation, and how these may apply to their unique familial circumstances. Forearmed is forewarned, and knowing in advance about norms affecting other expatriates in the country, such as the difficulties in finding a job once there, or the cost of international schooling, or the likelihood that one of the parents will be required to network in the evenings after work, is the kind of information that helps families to make well-informed decisions about a move.

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Bearing in mind Tanu’s (2018) point – that even privileged migration can feel like displacement when agency is taken away – it is in the entire family’s best interest to have the buy-in of all family members to expatriate. It is also important for educators to remember that their education careers will not necessarily get easier, just because they are in an exotic location at which their compatriots choose to holiday. All three of the academics in the case studies here talked about their very high workloads, adding to the argument of plurality in global education, and the toll that long hours had taken on their own health and on the relationships with their families. At most educational institutions where expatriate facilitators are employed, orientation procedures do not adequately account for the challenges of expatriating an entire family (Trembath and Hansen 2019). Communicating directly with the spouse of the employed expatriate has been recommended as one way of mitigating the sense of isolation that partners can feel, while conveying a greater sense of support to the family as a whole (McNulty 2012). Trembath and Hansen (2019) have cautioned, however, that support offered by the institution will only reap benefits if tailored to the needs of the recipients. Thus, for example, as indicated earlier, if the organisation offers flexible working hours, but this is not considered valuable by the expatriate or their family (Wang and Walumbwa 2007), it is unlikely that the family will perceive this as an offer of support, or see this as an indication that the institution cares about the family’s well-being or adjustment. Future Research Directions There are three specific areas recommended for future research. First, further research is needed about the affordability of expatriation for educators. Not all expatriates receive ‘hardship packages’ and many have self-initiated their relocation, thus receiving little or no financial support from their employing institution to assist with their move (Selmer et al. 2017). As Altbach et al. (2012) point out in their global study of academic salaries, there is no country in the world in which educators are earning more than a middle-class income, and there are many where salaries do not support a middle-class lifestyle. They also point out a major discrepancy between the salaries of professors compared to other highly educated professionals in the same countries. Second, it is recommended that further research explores the relationship between faith/religious belief and expatriate adjustment. Studies to date have focused mainly on missionary/clergy expatriates, with almost no research across other mobility communities. As the case study here illustrates, faith may be an effective coping mechanism for expatriates which mainstream research has all but ignored and more research about its impact is needed (see Haslberger and Hippler, Chapter 3, this volume). Third, the motivations and consequences of entering expatriation as an educator with the mind-set that education is globally consistent, and/or that it is family friendly needs more study. The three case studies presented here demonstrate differing expectations and a differing amount of preparedness for the challenges each family would

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face. While we know that there are a number of push and pull factors that motivate self-initiated expatriates to relocate (Froese, 2012, as an example), it is of concern if the risks of relocating where those factors are not well understood are unlikely to be addressed.

CONCLUSION In this chapter, I have unpacked two of the major underlying assumptions about careers in education – first, that they are family-friendly, and second, that a career in education can take you anywhere in the world with ease, because education is globally consistent – and have explored why these assumptions may be detrimental to globally mobile families of educators. Various literatures indicate that expatriate educators, the spouses of expatriates, and students at international schools, all face a range of challenges when expatriating to a new country. Few studies, however, have explored the globally mobile family in education as a unit of analysis. The cases I have presented in this chapter illustrate that families who are prepared for difficulties and changes, and who persist in managing their identities in relation to each other and the new cultural environment, stand a better chance of overcoming challenges than those who buy into the assumptions that the sector peddles. Overall, the key takeaway of this study is that while there are many possible advantages and benefits of expatriation for all members of a family, these benefits are likely to be stripped away by the challenges if caution is not taken to prepare all members of the family carefully for the experience. In a sector that is globalising as rapidly as education, it befits all of us to do what we can to adequately prepare for future change in this profession.

NOTE 1. The term ‘expatriate academic’ has been previously defined as ‘a member of the higher education sector who has moved their dominant place of residence across national borders to take up legal, long-term, yet time-bound, employment in a teaching or research-related role within a university environment’ (Trembath 2016, p. 116).

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List, J. A. (2001), ‘Determinants of securing academic interviews after tenure denial: evidence from a zero-inflated Poisson model’, Applied Economics, 33 (11), 1423–31. Luef, E. M. (2020), ‘North American academics in East Asia: life in the English-speaking enclave’, Journal of Intercultural Communication, 53 (2), 56–71. McDonald, S. (2005), ‘Studying actions in context: a qualitative method for organizational research’, Qualitative Research, 5 (4), 455–73. McNulty, Y. (2012), ‘“Being dumped in to sink or swim”: an empirical study of organizational support for the trailing spouse’, Human Resource Development International, 15 (4), 417–34. McNulty, Y. (2015), ‘Till stress do us part: the causes and consequences of expatriate divorce’, Journal of Global Mobility, 3 (2), 106–36. McNulty, Y. and M. Carter (2018), ‘Do international school staff receive professional development training about third culture kids (TCKs)? Perspectives from faculty and parents’, in K. J. Kennedy and J.C.-K. Lee (eds), Routledge International Handbook of Schools and Schooling in Asia (pp. 280–92), Abingdon: Routledge. McNulty, Y. and M. Moeller (2018), ‘A typology of dual-career expatriate (trailing) spouses: the “R” profile’, in M. Dickmann, O. Wurtz and V. Suutari (eds), Managing Global Careers: Exploring the Rise of International Work (pp. 257–90), Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. McPhail, R., Y. McNulty and K. Hutchings (2016), ‘Lesbian and gay expatriation: opportunities, barriers and challenges for global mobility’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27 (3), 382–406. Meara, K. O. (2013), ‘Establishing the family-friendly campus: models for effective practice (review)’, The Review of Higher Education, 35 (2), 345–6. Oberholster, B. and C. Doss (2017), ‘Missionary (religious) expatriates’, in Y. McNulty and S. Selmer (eds), Research Handbook of Expatriates (pp. 316–34), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Öztabak, M. Ü. (2022), ‘International schools and educational programs: a critical analysis from a cultural perspective’, in B. Akgün and Y. Alpaydın (eds), Education Policies in the 21st Century: Comparative Perspectives (pp. 217–37): Singapore: Springer Nature. Parker, L. (2010), ‘Alcohol consumption behaviours and attitudes in Vietnam: an exploratory analysis’, in R. Russel-Bennet and S. Rundle-Thiele (eds), International Nonprofit and Social Marketing Conference (INSM) (pp. 143–7), Brisbane, Australia: QUT Faculty of Business. Philipsen, M., S. Case, A. Oetama-Paul and K. Sugiyama (2017), ‘Academic womanhood across career stages: a work-in-life perspective on what was, is, and could be’, Community, Work & Family, 20 (5), 623–44. Phinney, H. M. (2008), ‘“Rice is essential but tiresome; you should get some noodles”: Doi Moi and the political economy of men’s extramarital sexual relations and marital HIV risk in Hanoi, Vietnam’, American Journal of Public Health, 98 (4), 650–60. Putnam, C. W., J. DiMarco and C. B. Cairns (2018), ‘Recruitment of dual-career academic medicine couples’, Academic Medicine, 93 (11), 1604–6. Richardson, J. (2006), ‘Self-directed expatriation: family matters’, Personnel Review, 35 (4), 469–86. Richardson, J. and S. McKenna (2002), ‘Leaving and experiencing: why academics expatriate and how they experience expatriation’, Career Development International, 7 (2), 67–78. Richardson, J. and S. McKenna (2003), ‘International experience and academic careers: what do academics have to say?’, Personnel Review, 32 (6), 774–95. Schoepp, K. W. (2011), ‘The path to development: expatriate faculty retention in the UAE’, International Education, 40 (2), 58–91. Scholte, J. A. (2005), Globalization: A Critical Introduction, 2nd edn, London: Red Globe Press.

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11. Global families in sport: the case of the international yachting fraternity Joanne Mutter

In a world where professional athletes are increasingly globally mobile (Dolles and Egilsson, 2017), their families are invariably faced with two choices. They can, like Georgie Thomson, the English television presenter married to prominent sailor Ben Ainslie, trail their spouse to seemingly glamorous locations: In the past two years, we have moved country twice, but we’ve been in Bermuda for the past six months. Our daughter is a complete island baby – blue skies, beaches, sea. It’s been a great way to spend my maternity. I miss work, but I’m not sure how I will navigate back … Someone said: ‘You can have it all, but just not at the same time.’ (Conway, 2017)

Others, like the New Zealand television and radio personality Laura McGoldrick, and wife of international cricketer Martin Guptil, choose to stay behind: With him being away six to nine months a year, absence makes the heart grow fonder. It can be hard but that’s the reality of sport and he’s got to make the most of it while he can. (Hunkin, 2017)

There are family opportunities afforded by the sporting life style, but also potential challenges. Hoping to achieve a sustainable work–life balance between the two are an increasing number of families where one of the partners, and often one of the parents, is a globally mobile professional athlete. Why, though, do they have to be globally mobile? Why can they not pursue a sporting career within their own country? For some, such as in the case of cricketers, they are following the sporting seasons around the world (Walte and Sinith, 2017). For others, they must travel to compete in the transnational competitions that dominate the elite level of motor sport, golf, tennis, and yacht racing (Bruce and Wheaton, 2009; Fry and Bloyce, 2017). And then there are those whose mobility is tied to their athletic development, progress and sporting prowess; examples include athletes in both male (Egilsson and Dolles, 2017) and female (Agergaard and Ryba, 2014) football, ice hockey (Maguire, 2011), and rugby (Grainger, 2011). Irrespective of the particular sporting endeavour, or the underlying reason for the global mobility, one common reality for many athletes is the presence of family. Thus, the work and home life of their family is intrinsically linked to, and invariably impacted by, the global mobility of the professional athlete (Mutter, 2017). Given the acknowledged potential positive impact of familial support on athletic performance (Bonal, Jiménez and Lorenzo, 2020; Gmelch and San Antonio, 2001; Henriksen, 279

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Stambulova and Roessler, 2010), and the emergence of the holistic approach to understanding athletes’ career transitions (Debois, Ledon and Wylleman, 2015; Stambulova, Ryba and Henriksen, 2021), it is somewhat surprising that more attention has not be paid to the impact of global mobility on the sporting family. In this chapter, I begin by examining the limited literature available on the families of athletes to define both the global sporting career and the global sporting family, and to consider the impact of (primarily) national mobility on such families. I then introduce three different families, at three different life stages, from the international yachting fraternity to consider the degree to which a sustainable work–life balance between the challenges and opportunities of global mobility in sports is achievable. I conclude with suggestions for how best to support the global sporting family and a detailed future research agenda calling for more studies in this emerging area of expatriation.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT GLOBAL FAMILIES IN SPORTS Prior to considering global families in sports, it is necessary to define a global sporting career. Definitions There is growing recognition of the similarities between ‘athletic labour and highly skilled workers’ (Elliott and Maguire, 2011, p. 111) and the parallels between athletes and other globally mobile individuals (Agergaard, Botelho and Tiesler, 2014). Nonetheless, the sporting arena is a unique context in expatriation (Thibault, 2014), warranting a specific definition. Dolles and Egilsson (2017) propose that globally mobile athletes pursue temporary relocations primarily for sports-related achievement, as well as for financial compensation. Ryba and colleagues (2013) acknowledge the regularity with which athletes can cross borders for their athletic development. I therefore define a global sporting career as one when an athlete frequently and/or regularly1 crosses borders for the primary purpose of sports-related development and/or achievement, with a secondary purpose of pecuniary gain. There is no existing accepted definition of the global sporting family. As a starting point, Piotrkowski (1979) defines family as two or more interdependent individuals aiming to accomplish shared goals. Ortiz (2006), drawing on his long-term ethnographic research into sporting spouses whose partners travel extensively within the United States (i.e. domestically), defines the wives of professional athletes as those who ‘lead lives characterized by geographical mobility or instability and deal with their husband’s routines and extended absences from home because of work related travel’ (p. 528). By combining these definitions with the concept of global mobility, I take a more holistic approach to defining global families in sports by including (1) travel across national borders, (2) children of the athlete, and (3) male spouses. I argue that the modern family can be seen to take a multitude of legal and gendered

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forms, while still fundamentally adhering to Piotrkowski’s (1979) definition of family. For the purposes of this chapter, the global sporting family is defined as one where two or more interdependent individuals aim to accomplish their shared goals while managing the impact of sporting-related international mobility on their respective lives. Impact of Global Mobility on Sport Families In recent years, there has been a growing number of studies that consider the globally mobile athlete (see Dolles and Egilsson, 2017 for a review). Much of this research has primarily focused on institutional structures such as the relevant sporting federations that treat the athlete simply as a commodity (Carter, 2011). Within the little available research that does view the sportsperson as part of the globally mobile workforce, minimal consideration has been given to impact on their family. For example, Maguire and Falcous’ (2011) compilation of papers by leading sport scholars (providing a comprehensive study of the state of sporting migration from diverse perspectives) contains only two brief reflections on the potential familial impact. In both instances, one from the perspective of a Pacific Island rugby player (Grainger, 2011), and the other from an African female footballer (Agergaard and Botelho, 2011), the athlete’s only consideration was the potential financial impact their decisions could have on their families. There is, however, an emerging body of scholarship that considers the marriages of (primarily) American athletes, including the impact of their national mobility, and it is primarily this literature that I draw on. Decision-making to Go or Stay Behind A reoccurring consideration for sporting families is whether to trail the athlete or to stay behind. The family decision-making process that occurs around this choice may consider macro factors such as the expected level of safety for the family in the new location (Borges, Rosado, de Oloveira and Freitas, 2015), and micro factors including the impact on children, the existence of an empathic support network in the new location, and potential disruption to the trailing partner’s career (Mutter, 2017). It appears that, at least for those where the mobility is within a national border, while trailing has in the past been the default choice (Ortiz, 2006), athletes are increasingly considering (where feasible) a commuting type arrangement, where they establish a base from which to play and train and then travel home to spend time with their family on their days off (Roderick, 2012). Others still are choosing to live as split families for each annual sporting season (Onwumechili and Unwana, 2021). The reticence to relocate may be a reflection of one of the vagaries of professional sport; the uncertainties that can exist around the length and location of the athlete’s contract. For example, America’s Cups can be won and lost with unexpected changes in host cities; Volvo boats can sustain significant damage ending the campaigns; and sponsors of match-racing teams can decide to withdraw their funding. These external factors outside the control of the professional sailor are a nuance of the global

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sporting career that can impact the experiences of the global sporting family (Mutter, 2017). Similar examples of uncertainty as a result of sport-related decisions, such as the trading of players between teams, can be found across the broader sporting context (Gmelch and San Antonio, 2001; Roderick, 2012). Choosing to stay behind means the families can rely on their existing social support networks (Roderick, 2012) as opposed to establishing new friendships in each new location, a daunting proposition according to the regularly relocating wives of American baseball players (Gmelch and San Antonio, 2001). However, for the families of (nationally) mobile athletes at least, staying behind comes with its own set of challenges. During his research into English football players, Roderick (2012), through informal interactions with the players’ wives, noted that they often felt like they were single parents, a sentiment upheld by American wives of the baseball, American football, basketball and hockey players whose husbands routinely travel within the USA for training camps and sporting fixtures (Ortiz, 2006). The benefit to athletes is obvious: having a non-athlete partner who stays behind to create a stable home environment for their children allows them to concentrate on their sporting endeavours (Dixon, Bruening, Mazerolle, Davis, Crowder and Lorsbach, 2006). Career-dominated Marriages Whether trailing or staying behind, the (apparent) prioritization of the athlete’s career may be a reflection of the prevalence among athlete’s families of career-dominated marriages, where the spouse defers to the athletes ‘high-profile, high-status, high-income, and high-stress occupation’ (Ortiz, 2006, p. 528). While these criteria may not apply to every global sporting career, that they exist helps to explain why the experiences of global sporting families are unique from other families living with global mobility. There is an accepted norm that the athlete’s family will relinquish control over their own lives to focus on the athlete’s career, which has been highlighted in the context of national mobility (Roderick, 2012) and may well be amplified when the mobility is global. The impact of constantly prioritizing the sporting dream over quality family life can be seen in the divorce rates among professional athletes, which are considerably higher than the general population (Lariviere, 2003). It suggests that when the balance between family challenges and sporting opportunities is not sustainable, there can be significant consequences. On this basis, I propose the following research questions as the foundation for the remainder of this chapter: RQ: To what degree is it possible for families of athletes with global sporting careers to balance the family opportunities and challenges they face at home, and in the careers of non-athlete partners?

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As with any family, there are different stages which are more complicated than others. With this in mind, a related sub-question arises: RQa: To what extent does the life stage of the family determine whether a balance between the family opportunities and challenges created by global sporting careers is sustainable? The life stages of the families adopted in this chapter are aligned with the family life stages identified by Erickson and colleagues (2010), which are considered helpful in exploring the different experiences of work and family life across the life course. The nascent body of existing research into the global sporting family has yet to establish any consistently applied theoretical frames, therefore, the potential to develop theory by applying existing theoretical frames to the global sporting context is limited. I do, however, consider this important undertaking in the future research agenda.

METHOD As studies of the global sporting family are limited, I adopted a qualitative approach to address the research questions. Sample The 21 participants in the study were the non-athlete partners (hereafter ‘partners’) of international sailors. All the participants were female, of which two-thirds considered New Zealand their home-base, while the remaining third were evenly spread across North America and Europe. All the participants had children, the majority with either two (n=11) or three (n=8), spanning an age range of one to 23 years of age. In terms of their careers, those who worked outside the home (n=18) were fairly evenly split between those working full-time, those working part-time, and those engaged in their own entrepreneurial endeavours. The international yachting fraternity was targeted for three reasons. First, sailors’ elite sporting careers often span a variety of modes of mobility; sometimes it requires relocating internationally for extended periods of training and racing (such as with an America’s Cup campaign), while at other times it involves engaging in commuting type roles that require international travel to compete in regattas that also have scheduled ‘downtime’ between events, during which they can return home to their families’ base (such as with the various International Match Racing Circuits). These modes of mobility mean that partners interviewed in the study were able to reflect on the times they chose to trail and relocate internationally, and the times they chose to stay behind, thus providing a wide variety of mobility experiences to draw on. A second reason is that elite sailing is a sport which one can compete in for many years. For example, the 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race included a number of team members who were over 50 years of age. The temporal dimension thus provides the

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opportunity for the participants to draw on their experiences spanning a number of life stages. It is worth noting that, while the window for competing can be smaller in other sports, there are often opportunities as coaches, managers and administrators, with professional sport in general offering athletes the opportunity to transfer their skills as part of the boundaryless nature of professional sporting careers (Dolles and Egilsson, 2017). A third reason for engaging with the yachting fraternity is the biography of the author. I am the partner of a professional sailor, and over the last 18 years I have alternated between temporary international relocations with our children, and staying behind while my partner competed in various events. My status as a cultural insider (Ganga and Scott, 2006) positively enhanced my rapport with the participants. Exemplar of this was when some interviewees appeared reticent to share the more intimate details of their experiences, perhaps fearing judgement. When I offered vignettes from my own life to illustrate empathy and encourage rapport, they became significantly more effusive and willing to discuss not only the positives, but also the potential negatives. My approach is consistent with the approach taken in a recent study into divorce within the traditional expatriate community (McNulty, 2015). My insider status nonetheless necessitated diligent reflexivity (Rubin and Rubin, 2005), and ongoing awareness of the relationship between myself and the participants (Smith and Berg, 1988), given the potential for my insiderness to detract from my role as the researcher (Collins and McNulty, 2020). Data Collection The participants were identified through a snowballing process that was also (increasingly) purposive (Miles, Huberman and Saldana, 2014). The approach aimed to capture a heterogeneous group, whose differing demographics, geographic, and occupational experiences collectively offered the potential to provide diverse perspectives across a variety of experiences (trailing vs staying behind) and over different life stages. In the first instance, I contacted a number of the partners of international sailors whom my husband was currently sailing with. These people volunteered to be involved in the research and at the conclusion of each interview, I asked that they email me contacts in their own network that they considered might also contribute to the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted using an interview guide informed by existing scholarship, combined with my experiences as a sporting partner. The partner interviews took place via Skype or in person, and were on average just under an hour in length. Data was collected over a one-year period, from 2014 to 2015. Data Analysis The data analysis process followed Braun and Clarke’s (2006) prescribed six phases of thematic analysis, being to: familiarize yourself with the data; generate initial codes; search for themes; develop and refine themes; define and name themes; and

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produce an analysis in the form of an interpretable report. I utilized the data analysis tool NVivo Version (9) to facilitate the management and analysis of the data.

EXEMPLAR CASE STUDIES Each of the three cases below represents an exemplar of the 21 families from the international yachting fraternity who participated in the study. I use vignettes to explicate and examine their experiences. Three families have been chosen as they represent different life stages: a family with young pre-school children (Box 11.1), another with children in high school (Box 11.2), and a third family with young adult children (Box 11.3). It should be noted that, in an attempt to reduce any enduring impact of differences in parental responsibilities, each of the chosen families has three children.

BOX 11.1 STRICT ROUTINES AND EXTENDED FAMILY SUPPORT Anna and Ethan have three children aged one, four and seven. Anna met Ethan through her involvement in the sailing industry, and prior to having children they both travelled extensively for their careers, independently and together. When they were first married they lived in Spain during the build up to an America’s Cup. However, when they started their family, they chose to make New Zealand their base, close to Anna’s family, and Ethan now commutes regularly from New Zealand to participate in international regattas. The choice to live close to Anna’s family, in particular her mother, was deliberate. Without her mother’s support, Anna doubts she would be able to cope. As she explains it, Ethan and her mother have a running joke of ‘tag, you’re it’ each time he departs or returns. When Ethan is at home, the family spends many weekends and extended summer holidays away on their boat. In Anna’s words, they are now a ‘finely-tuned machine’, quickly settling into their at-home routines each time Ethan departs. It includes their eldest daughter helping dress and feed her youngest brother. Anna finds the most challenging time for the family to be when Ethan returns from overseas. Routines change quickly; what and when the youngest children eat, and how often and for how long they sleep, can change from week to week. It requires considerable adaptation for Ethan each time he comes home. One of the ways Anna keeps Ethan in the loop, and encourages the children’s relationship with their father, is by ensuring they talk daily. With the youngest two, both boys, she often sits them at the breakfast bar with some snacks, and perhaps some playdough, and Ethan tunes in via FaceTime on an iPad. She finds the boys happily eat, play and chat away with their dad. Their youngest son is not yet talking, but he points at Ethan and says ‘dada’. Anna and Ethan agreed when she became pregnant with their first child,

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a daughter, that Anna would be a stay-at-home mum. They felt it was important one of them was a stable figure in their children’s life. Anna does, however, draw on her previous experiences in the yachting industry to provide Ethan with administrative support. She also believes that her background provides a sounding board for Ethan, and that her support makes a valuable, albeit small, contribution to his sporting achievements. This family’s story highlights two key benefits stemming from Ethan’s sporting career. Having already travelled extensively in their younger years, Anna and Ethan appreciate that his time at home is spent cruising on their yacht as a family. Moreover, when Ethan is at home between regattas, he is not distracted by work obligations and able to fully dedicate his time and attention to his family. Anna also sees her eldest child taking on additional responsibilities as an added benefit. Having young children nonetheless influences how the day-to-day functioning of the family can be impacted by the repeated exits and entrances of a chronically absent parent; small changes in routine (e.g. meals and bedtime) can impact on the smooth running of a home. Regular family communication helps to prevent a backlog of ‘home news’ to catch up on each time Ethan returns from a regatta. Readily available support from extended family plays a critical role in helping the at-home partner to manage day-to-day parenting alone. Anna’s choice to forgo paid employment also helps their family to meet the additional demands of parenting during Ethan’s absences – a choice Anna seems content with as she believes the administrative and emotional support she provides Ethan is more valuable than if she worked outside the home.

BOX 11.2 A GUEST IN HIS OWN HOME Tracey and Dave have three children aged 11, 13 and 16. Tracey loves to travel. She left home at 18 to travel overseas and to this day is excited by the opportunity to travel to new places and experience new cultures. Dave’s sailing career has meant that Tracey has spent extended periods living in America and Spain to accompany him, even after their three boys were born. The long-term relocations occurred due to Dave’s involvement with America’s Cup campaigns, which facilitated him coming home each night after a day’s training or racing. Still, life has changed. Tracy has spent the past six years living in New Zealand with her children, while Dave now does more fly-in-fly-out sailing, often piggy-backing a number of regattas together with no time to get back to their home base. It means he can be away for up to three months at a time over the European match racing season. Last year, Tracey and the children decided to relocate to France for those three months. It meant again experiencing the adventure of living in a foreign city. It also meant that while Dave was travelling to regattas all over Europe, his ‘commute’ home was significantly shorter and as a result the family spent more

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time together. This year, life is different. The older children are at a point in their education where it is harder to take them out of school. Tracey also worries the children might become socially isolated from their peers if she and Dave keep moving them from place to place. As such, there are no immediate plans for further overseas travel or relocations. Unfortunately, neither Tracey nor Dave are particularly good at keeping the communication channels open when Dave is away. They often go for weeks without hearing from, or talking to, each other. It’s a similar situation between Dave and his children. When he does come home, life can be strained. Tracey is not only responsible for all the day-to-day domestic demands and parenting during Dave’s absences, but the lack of ongoing communication during his time away means that when he returns it is akin to being a ‘guest in his own home’, with Tracey continuing to shoulder the majority of the parenting load. The situation has also impacted Tracey’s career. Despite wanting to return to the paid workforce, she feels she is unable to do so and is resentful at what she sees as an ongoing prioritization of Dave’s sporting career over her own needs and desires. For Tracey and Dave, his sailing career has undoubtedly allowed Tracey to indulge in her love of travel. She, and then the children, have engaged in both the traditional trailing family life whilst also enjoying short-term relocations to exotic foreign locales. But, as the children enter high school, adventure has given way to social stability and scholastic goals. For Tracey, it means being overwhelmed by the demands of solo-parenting and, with no respite when Dave is home, she is unable to refill or recoup her resources before his next departure. The domestic role overload also spills over into Tracey’s work domain, limiting her capacity to work outside the home, and further perpetuating the prioritization of Dave’s sailing over Tracey’s career aspirations. The result, inevitably, is strained family relationships when Dave is home and resentment at lost opportunities on Tracey’s part.

BOX 11.3 THE RIGHT COMMUNICATION Lisa and Brian have three children aged 18, 21 and 23. Brian and Lisa met through her brother, who is also a professional sailor. Brian has been globally mobile for their entire relationship and the family has experienced a variety of global mobility arrangements. Before having children, Lisa initially stayed behind in their native New Zealand and focused on her own career as an emergency room nurse. She then spent one round-the-world race travelling with Brian, working for the race organizers selling t-shirts in the merchandising store. This was a particularly difficult race for Brian as he was involved with a team that was not performing, resulting in conflict among the crew. Having Lisa at each stop-over provided Brian with someone to whom he could vent his frustrations and she helped him deal with the disappointments of the campaign. Once Lisa and Brian had children, they

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oscillated between the family trailing Brian or staying behind, each decision being based on Brian’s particular work demands at the time, and also the children’s age. Having spent more than 25 years as the partner of a globally mobile athlete, Lisa has formed strong relationships with a number of other sailors’ wives, and these women are her greatest support. As Lisa puts it, they understand the perception that sporting families live a glamorous life, is not the reality on a day-to-day basis. Lisa and Brian recognize the importance of ongoing communication during Brian’s absences. However, some modes of communication are better than others. For example, Lisa feels that when Brian telephones home, there can often be so much to catch up on that they don’t know where to start, and so sometimes end up saying nothing. Calls often come just as she is rushing out the door, so email has become a good replacement. The children, being of the digital generation, SMS or WhatsApp Brian as and when they feel the need. Now that the children are older, Lisa has returned to nursing, but is employed through an agency, allowing her to manage when and how often she works. Lisa and Brian’s experience serves to emphasize four aspects impacting the work and home life of a global sporting family. First, it confirms the potentially performance-enhancing support role the non-athlete partner can play in the athlete’s career. Second, the decision to travel or stay behind changes through the various life stages. While childless, travel with the athlete was uncomplicated, but became more complex once children were involved. Decision-making then became a weighing up of the athlete’s availability, the children’s education, and the partner’s career aspirations. Third, the wifenet provides important support from people in similar situations who understand that weekends can be particularly lonely when the sailor is away, but when the sailor is at home, they understand the family wants to spend concentrated quality time together. Lastly, the importance of good communication is reinforced. Lisa appreciates that asynchronous email allows her to compose lengthy missives while avoiding any issues arising from living and working in different time-zones. Her young adult children appreciate the spontaneity afforded them through SMS and other messaging platforms. Lisa has also constructed a career where she uses contract and agency employment to build in a level of personalised flexibility that is needed to manage the demands of being a parent and wife of a partner who is chronically absent.

FAMILY OPPORTUNITIES VERSUS CHALLENGES There are many opportunities afforded to the global sporting family, with all family members’ lives being potentially enriched by the athlete’s professional sporting career.

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First, there is the opportunity for the family to experience foreign travel and adventure. While benefits for the family of living abroad have not previously been considered in a sporting context, the opportunity to broaden families’ life experiences has been identified as a driver for self-initiating academics (Richardson and Mallon, 2005). Second, there is potentially a positive impact on the athlete’s performance when accompanied by their family, as illustrated in the case of Lisa and Brian, which resonates with other findings that consider the relocation of sporting families within national borders (Dixon et al., 2006) and extends the previous findings around the importance of family support for younger athletes as they transition to a professional sporting career (Richardson, Littlewood, Nesti and Benstead, 2012). Third, children with parents who travel extensively for work have been shown to exhibit increasingly responsible and dependable behaviour (Andres and Moelker, 2011), something that Anna sees in her eldest daughter, as did more than half of the study participants. Lastly, two thirds of participants believe a key positive benefit is that the athlete has no other work commitments when they return home, and are thus able to spend quality, uninterrupted time with their families, a finding that is consistent with the benefits identified by the families of fly-in-fly-out personnel commuting to work in mines or on the rigs of the extractive resource sector (MacBeth, Kaczmarek and Sibbel, 2012; Nuttgens, Doyle and Chang, 2019). Benefits aside, while a sporting career can give rise to the opportunity for the family to relocate, there are also times when the family stays behind, which can be challenging. The first concern, identified by the majority of participants, is the trade-off between staying together as a family unit on the global sailing circuit versus a split-family arrangement that provides children with scholastic and social stability. For the two case study families with older children, educational requirements eventually outweighed the desire or feasibility to relocate, thus giving rise to a split-family arrangement, which is consistent with the approach taken by a growing number of corporate families (Dupuis, Haines and Saba, 2008; Riusala and Suutari, 2000; see Hutchings and Kallane, Chapter 13, this volume). Furthermore, Tracey’s concerns regarding the socialization of her children resonates with corporate families who are concerned their children may become isolated from their domestic peers or relatives (Banai and Harry, 2004). Just as for corporate expatriation, the expectation that sporting families will automatically trail the athlete appears to be weakening, at least in national contexts (Roderick, 2012). A second concern is that staying behind often means there will be additional demands placed on the non-athlete partner, which can lead to role overload. Consistent with sporting families in national contexts (Gmelch and San Antonio, 2001; Onwumechili and Unwana, 2021; Ortiz, 2006), all of the participants identified, to varying degrees, the negative impact of having sole responsibility for managing the day-to-day challenges of parenting when the athlete is away. Moreover, while it would seem logical that the return home of the athlete could alleviate role overload for the at-home partner, the repetitive reintegration of a chronically absent parent into the family can in itself be highly disruptive and stressful (Meredith, Rush and Robinson, 2014; Morrice, Taylor, Clark and McCann, 1985).

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The impact of the global athlete’s career on the non-athlete partner’s career, while challenging, does not appear insurmountable, at least for the partners of international sailors interviewed for this study. While Ortiz (2006) describes sporting marriages as dominated by the athletes’ career (a prioritization that resonates with Tracey’s situation), Anna views herself as part of a two-person career, similar to the unpaid spouses who support their rodeo riding partners (Forsyth and Thompson, 2007). Lisa meanwhile has managed to construct a personalized and flexible work arrangement, which allows her to accommodate her partner’s frequent exits and entrances, a strategy adopted by the majority of participants in paid employment outside the home.

SOURCES OF SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL SPORTING FAMILIES Whether relocating or staying behind, support is vital if the global sporting family is to achieve a sustainable work–life balance. For families that stay behind (for what can be months at a time) findings from this study elucidate three key personal resources that can be drawn upon to help meet the demands of the stay-behind situation. A split-family arrangement implies that extended family support of some kind appears to be essential, which was raised almost without exception by the study participants. Some lamented the absence of family support due to geographical distance from relatives, while others, like Anna, acknowledged the significant role their immediate family plays during the athlete’s absence. Previously, the wives of professional football players have expressed a reticence to relocate away from their relatives (Roderick, 2012), a reflection of their reliance on extended family for instrumental and emotional support. A second resource is the ‘wifenet’, a community of stay-behind partners who support and encourage one another. This is not dissimilar to the concept of an ‘expatriate bubble’ in which people retreat into a social cultural enclave to maintain a continual attachment to the familiarity of a shared experience (Levy, 2015). While social enclaves can sometimes have negative consequences because of their segregated natured (e.g. Walsh, 2007), they can also be helpful to the people within it because of its familiarity with their lifestyle and customs (Fechter, 2007). The partners of Cuban and American Baseball players have nonetheless found that any relationships formed with fellow baseball wives were seldom long-standing (Gmelch and San Antonio, 2001), suggesting that support from deep friendships is lacking. Where the sailing fraternity appears to be somewhat unique is that the majority of this study’s participants, such as Lisa, tend to form strong bonds with other partners in the stay-behind community. This may because of the small size of the elite sailing fraternity, which then helps to build intimacy and bonding, or because of the potential longevity of international sailing careers, meaning that stay-behind partners get to know each other very well over an extensive period of time. The point is that these networks of empathetic sailors’ partners regularly support each other during the athletes’ absences in similar ways to the support extended by relatives: babysitting,

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support during emergencies, and socialization. An additional form of support is the shared meaning and implicit understanding of their chosen lifestyle. A third important resource is the modern-day proliferation of reliable internet and communication platforms. Anna and Lisa use these platforms regularly to suit their, and their children’s, particular requirements, which helps to mitigate difficulties with their partners’ re-entry into the home after each race or regatta. The importance of effective communication for families separated by work has been raised by those where a parent is in the Armed Services (see Osofsky and Chartrand, 2013; Carter and Renshaw, 2015) and it would appear, given the issues experienced by Tracey and Dave, who are very infrequent communicators, that sporting partnerships also require regular communication if they are to successfully navigate frequent and recurring separations. Moving on from personal resources, and while not routinely provided, there is the potential for organizational support from sporting organizations to play an equally important support role for global sporting families. Purposefully onboarding the family members when the athlete joins a new team, ensuring they feel informed and valued from the very start of the relationship would be a good first step (Gazmin, McGuire, Benson and Martin, 2022). A cafeteria-type offering of a variety of potential benefits would seem the best overall approach, given the different permutations of support adopted by the case study families, depending on their life stage. For example, for those with younger children, a relocation budget and an ongoing accommodation allowance would allow them to relocate either to where the athlete is based, or to a central hub the athlete can easily commute to and from. For those with children who have reached the point where their educational demands require stability, a travel budget to visit the athlete during the school holidays, or even a budget to relocate to be near extended family or an empathetic support network would be of greater benefit to the family. There are certain cities globally, such as Auckland, New Zealand, and Newport in the United States, that are sailing hubs where many members of the sailing fraternity reside. Given the perception of glamour that can limit the empathy of those from outside the sporting community towards global sporting families, an organizationally sponsored relocation to one of these hubs could be of significant benefit for the entire family. Lastly, sporting organizations have the opportunity to facilitate the career of the non-athlete partner. Just as Lisa worked in merchandising during a particular sailing race, the multitude of staff required, both on the ground and in the engine room of large-scale sporting events, provides the opportunity of employment for athletes’ partners if they choose to trail with them. Alternatively, if the life stage of the family means relocation is not a viable option, then sporting organizations could offer instrumental support that allows the partner to maintain their careers during the intermittent absences of the athlete. For example, while child care may not be needed when the athlete returns home, assistance with child care is likely to be needed for those who choose to work outside the home. Having a pool of nannies available to call upon as and when needed would be helpful.

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These sources of support, real or potential, and personal or organizational, suggest that it may be possible for the global sporting family to achieve a sustainable work– life balance between the challenges generated by global sporting careers and the opportunities afforded by it.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY This study gives voice to the previously unheard global families in sport. However, there are limitations, including that all the partners interviewed were women, and they were all from the international yachting fraternity. The findings are thus limited by the perspectives of the participants in one sport and a single gender. Given the gendered nature of international yachting, the gendered nature of the study was an unavoidable limitation. However, a substantial effort was made to maximize the heterogeneity of the participants across age, family commitments, and career, so as to capture the widest range of experiences possible within a homogeneous sample. There is potentially an argument that an alternative sporting context could have been considered for comparative purposes, particularly one with male non-athlete partners, but with the benefits afforded to me as a cultural insider in the yachting fraternity, I believe the decision to focus only on one sport outweighed the potential limitations. It would be helpful for subsequent studies to be conducted where the athlete is female, and/ or competes in a different sporting arena.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH Our understanding of the impact of a global sporting career on the athlete’s family warrants further systematic empirical research if we are to understand both the challenges they face and how these can be overcome. The recognition of the parallels between athletes and other globally mobile individuals (Agergaard, Botelho and Tiesler, 2014) means findings within the context of global sport have the potential to inform and enhance the experiences of other families living similar, yet distinct, globally mobile lives. Indeed, broader synergies between international sport and management underpin additional potential for research within the sporting context to inform the domain of international business (Szymanski, Wolfe, Danis, Lee and Uy, 2021). Further research acknowledging this potential will be discussed prior to considering a number of existing theoretical foundations where theoretical development is the underlying impetus for future study. The vagaries of professional sporting contracts in terms of length, location and uncertainty (Gmelch and San Antonio, 2001; Roderick, 2012) mean that sporting families are repeatedly faced with the choice to trail the athlete or to stay behind (Mutter, 2017). Exemplar of this are the case families presented in this chapter, with each of the families having relocated and stayed behind at various points, and with these relocation decisions spanning (such as in the case of Lisa and Dave) more than

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25 years. With the increasing adoption of more flexible modes of international work across all global mobility communities (McNulty and Brewster, 2019), the choice to stay behind is increasingly becoming an option for global families. Therefore, further research drawing on the experiences of global sporting families has the potential to inform the wider global mobility community: RQ1: What are the modes of global mobility that global sporting families have found the (i) easiest and (ii) most difficult to sustain, and under what circumstances? (a) To what extent can the learning from global sporting families be applied to other globally mobile communities? The current study suggests the potential for theory development and extension. The work–family concepts of spillover–crossover (Westman, 2001) have unique application in the global sporting field. Spillover and crossover examine the impact of the work domain on the home domain. The considerable spillover of role demands placed on the stay-behind partner are beyond typical conceptions of spillover–crossover in extant literature in expatriation; the parental and domestic demands are extreme and borne from the nature of the global work arrangement itself rather than the presence of work-related emotions the ‘employee’ brings home with them every day (i.e. there are long periods of sole responsibility without the physical presence of a spouse). Crossover effects on the careers of stay-behind partners can be similarly extreme. In the expatriate adjustment literature, issues of family spillover–crossover have been examined with a strong focus on effects felt by the working partner in relation to job performance, willingness to stay, and retention (Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shaffer and Luk, 2005; Lazarova and Thomas, 2012; Lee and Kartika, 2014). Few studies have examined the opposite, where the work demands of the expatriate’s job spillover to such an extent that the spouse must take on the full domestic and parental load – alone. Studies on commuter relationships provide a good starting point (Baker and Ciuk, 2015; Van der Klis and Karsten, 2009), as do studies of military spouses (Andres, 2014; Crowley-Henry and Heaslip, 2014). This warrants further examination in the expatriate literature for stay-behind partners, split-expatriate families (see Hutchings and Kallane, Chapter 13, this volume) and stay-at-home partners: RQ2: How are family spillover and crossover experienced in the context of global sporting families for (i) the trailing spouse, (ii) the stay-behind spouse, and (iii) the globally mobile athlete? (a) To what extent does the non-athlete partner prioritize their home responsibilities over (i) a job, and (ii) a career? (b) What are the (i) short-term and (ii) long-term impacts of spillover and crossover on the stay-behind partner’s career? The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, whereby ‘job resources may buffer the impact of job demands’ (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007, p. 314), provides further possibilities for theory development and extension. Although the original theory was grounded solely in an organizational context, ensuing scholarship demonstrates

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the relevance of the model to the bi-directional work–family nexus (e.g. Bakker and Geurts, 2004; Minnotte, 2016; Schieman, Milkie and Glavin, 2009). Demerouti and colleagues (2005) use the JD-R model to examine the crossover of various phenomenon between dual-career couples. Their multi-participant study confirms the reciprocal relationship between one partner’s work and home experiences in terms of job strain and life satisfaction, and how the other partner experiences their work and home life. The additional (domestic) role demands placed upon the non-athlete partner during their spouse’s absence, and the ameliorative resources including their extended family and local community support they draw upon to buffer these demands, highlight the potential overarching applicability of the JD-R model to the global sporting family: RQ3: What are the sources of support that enable stay-behind spouses to effectively manage spillover–crossover of role demands in relation to a (i) job and (ii) career? (a) What is the impact of support from (i) extended family and (ii) the local community in buffering role strain for the stay-behind partner? What support is needed, and from whom? (b) What is the impact of support from the globally mobile athlete (i) while they are away and (ii) during periods of return in buffering role strain for the stay-behind partner? What support is needed? An important resource that has the potential to buffer role strain for stay-behind families is effective communication. This has been aided in the last decade by a proliferation of modern communication platforms, a development already considered in the context of military deployments (see Osofsky and Chartrand, 2013; Carter and Renshaw, 2015). Anna placing her young children in front of FaceTime to chat with their father while playing with playdough, and Tracey recognizing that asynchronous emails worked best for her while her children used various mobile phone applications to communicate with their father, combine to illustrate the flexibility and ease of communication devices available today. The significance of strong and appropriate communication strategies is apparent when considering the effects of poor communication; while Tracey prefers email during her husband’s absences, the outcome is that it does not sustain their relationship to the extent that he feels ‘at home’ when he returns to New Zealand. This is an important topic worthy of further examination: RQ4: To what extent does communication during a partner’s absence relieve role strain for the (i) stay-behind spouse, (ii) stay-behind children, and (iii) the globally mobile athlete? (a) Which communication platforms are better suited to the different ages of family members? A final avenue for future research and theoretical development centres on the careers of global sporting partners. Sullivan and Mainiero’s (2007) Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM) contends that throughout one’s career, at any point in time, a focus on balance, authenticity or challenge may prevail, while the other aspects recede

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into the background (see Mainiero and Sullivan, 2005). Recognizing that ‘turning’ the kaleidoscope is not always an unbounded choice, such as when the non-athlete partner needs to defer their career in favour of the global athlete’s career, does not invalidate the applicability of the KCM; rather, it serves to support the assertion that one of the strengths of the model is its capacity to incorporate the contextual factors that influence career decisions, potentially including limits on career options. KCM applies particularly to women who tend to follow a typical career pattern of initially prioritizing finding challenge in a career, to subsequently balancing key parameters (children, marriage, home responsibilities), and ultimately making another ‘turn’ of the kaleidoscope to focus on authenticity (what matters to them in the context of their ‘whole’ life). In the context of family life, KCM suggests that women typically follow a beta (secondary) career in order to respond effectively to their alpha (primary) home-designated responsibilities. Women thus delay authenticity in their career until other primary responsibilities (at home) are met or satisfied (e.g. raising children). The alpha career pattern is more typical of men, and subsequently follows a different path, moving from challenge to authenticity and eventually to balance (Sullivan and Mainiero, 2007). Men are typically afforded opportunities to pursue authenticity much earlier than women because their partner assumes the alpha role of meeting home responsibilities. In this study, the stay-behind partners were clearly adhering to a beta career path, while their partners pursued an alpha model. For the sailors, their authenticity was realized when they became ‘professionals’ in their sport such that they could combine employment with passion and thus derive enjoyment. Moving into coaching or training later in their career permits less travel and therefore more balance. Interestingly, for globally mobile athletes there is much less of a focus on family balance; as their family role is more typically as the breadwinner, balance is sought in their work rather than at home, with spillover–crossover effects to their home life a secondary benefit. There is much to learn here by understanding how family and career life-cycles among global sporting families, and others in similar global employment arrangements, combine in a KCM model to impact on career choices for family members. Balance, obviously, is a key outcome that ameliorates role strain for both partners, but at different times in their careers. Longitudinal research would be especially helpful: RQ5: What is the typical length of time taken to refocus on achieving balance for (i) alpha career paths versus (ii) beta career paths? (a) What is the impact of achieving balance for (i) stay-behind partners, (ii) stay-behind children and (iii) globally mobile athletes? (b) In role-reversal marriages where men would be expected to pursue beta careers and women alpha careers, does KCM still hold? In other words, are women inherently drawn to beta careers regardless of the context, or do contextual factors (such as breadwinner status) hold, regardless of gender?

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RQ6: To what extent is the capacity to ‘turn’ the kaleidoscope (i) hindered or (ii) helped by the context of global sporting family life? (a) Considering that there are degrees of role strain for the stay-behind partner dependent upon the type of global work arrangement the family is living with, what are the global work arrangements that support the possibility of careers for partners, and conversely make it impossible?

CONCLUSION The three case studies presented here, as exemplars from a larger study of 21 stay-behind global sporting families, suggest that finding a sustainable balance between the challenges of global sporting careers, and the family opportunities afforded by the international lifestyle, is possible. The opportunity for foreign travel and adventure, as well as quality time spent together when the athlete is at home, are some of the significant benefits available to athletes’ families. While the demands of parenting alone can be significant, and the recurring reintegration of the athlete into the family problematic, there are a variety of ameliorative resources families draw upon to redress the imbalance. While the life stage of the family does appear to impact how a sustainable balance is achieved, no particular stage excludes it from being attained. With regard to the career of the non-athlete partner, there does appear to be some career prioritization favouring the athletes’ career, but strategies constructed around two-person careers and flexible working arrangements do provide an opportunity for a sustainable career for both partners. Career satisfaction, when combined with other non-work-related life satisfaction, can be expected to lead to overall well-being (e.g. Demerouti, Bakker and Schaufeli, 2005). Therefore, the case studies presented in this chapter indicate that whilst divorce rates among professional athletes are considerably higher than the general population (Lariviere, 2014), there is much that can be done through career fulfilment for the stay-behind partner to ensure that global sporting families do not fall victim to a broken marriage.

NOTE 1.

For example, cricket players frequently travel for individual matches or regularly relocate to fulfil seasonal contracts with, for example, English county cricket clubs. Likewise, sailors frequently travel to complete on circuits such as the International Match Racing Circuit but may equally regularly relocate to train and compete in events that span a longer timeframe such as the America’s Cup.

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Crowley-Henry, M. and G. Heaslip (2014), ‘Short-term international assignments: military perspectives and implications for international human resource management’, European Management Journal, 32(5), 752–60. Debois, N., A. Ledon and P. Wylleman (2015), ‘A lifespan perspective on the dual career of elite male athletes’, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 21, 15–26. Demerouti, E., A. B. Bakker and W. Schaufeli (2005), ‘Spillover and crossover of exhaustion and life satisfaction among dual-earner parents’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 67(2), 266–89. Dixon, M. A., J. Bruening, S. Mazerolle, A. Davis, J. Crowder and M. Lorsbach (2006), ‘Career, family, or both? A case study of young professional baseball players’, Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, 14(2), 80–101. Dolles, H. and B. Egilsson (2017), ‘Sports expatriates’, in Yvonne McNulty and Jan Selmer (eds), Research Handbook of Expatriates, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 350–7. Dupuis, M.-J., V. Haines and T. Saba (2008), ‘Gender, family ties, and international mobility: cultural distance matters’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19(2), 274–95. Egilsson, B. and H. Dolles (2017), ‘“From Heroes to Zeroes” – self-initiated expatriation of talented young footballers’, Journal of Global Mobility, 5(2), 174–93. Elliott, R. and J. A. Maguire (2011), ‘Net-gains: informal recruiting, Canadian players and British professional ice hockey’, in Joseph A. Maguire and Mark Falcous (eds), Sport and Migration: Borders, Boundaries and Crossings, New York: Routledge, pp. 102–11. Erickson, J., G. Martinengo and J. Hill (2010), ‘Putting work and family experiences in context: differences by family life stage’, Human Relations, 63(7), 955–79. Fechter, A.-M. (2007), ‘Living in a bubble: expatriates’ transnational spaces’, in Vered Amit (ed.) Going First Class? New Approaches to Privileged Travel and Movement, New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 33–52. Forsyth, C. and C. Thompson (2007), ‘Helpmates of the rodeo: fans, wives, and groupies’, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 31(4), 394–416. Fry, J. and D. Bloyce (2017), ‘Life in the travelling circus: a study of loneliness, work stress, and money issues in touring professional golf’, Sociology of Sport Journal, 34(2), 148–59. Ganga, D. and S. Scott (2006), ‘“Cultural insiders” and the issue of positionality in qualitative migration research: Moving “across” and moving “along” researcher-participant divides’ Qualitative Social Research, 7(3), 1–12. Gazmin, S., C. S. McGuire, A. J. Benson and L. J Martin (2022), ‘What about the family? Onboarding athletes’ entourage into professional sport organizations’, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, https://​doi​.org/​10​.6084/​m9​.figshare​.19154446​.v1. Gmelch, G. and P. San Antonio (2001), ‘Baseball wives: gender and the work of baseball’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 30(3), 335–56. Grainger, Andrew (2011), ‘Migrants, mercenaries and over stayers: talent migration in Pacific Island rugby’, in Joseph A. Maguire and Mark Falcous (eds), Sport and Migration: Borders, Boundaries and Crossings, New York: Routledge, pp. 129–40. Henriksen, K., N. Stambulova and K. Roessler (2010), ‘Holistic approach to athletic talent development environments: a successful sailing milieu’, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 11(3), 212–22. Hunkin, J. (2017), ‘Twelve questions with New Zealand Herald focus presenter Laura McGoldrick’, available at http://​www​.nzherald​.co​.nz/​entertainment/​news/​article​.cfm​?c​_id​ =​1501119​&​objectid​=​11888540 (accessed 21 November 2017). Lariviere, D. (2014), ‘Divorce, not domestic violence, is the biggest issue at home for professional athletes’, available at https://​www​.forbes​.com/​forbes/​welcome/​?toURL​=​ https://​www​.forbes​.com/​sites/​davidlariviere/​2014/​08/​15/​divorce​-not​-domestic​-violence​-is​ -biggest​-issue​-at​-home​-for​-professional​-athletes (accessed 23 November 2017).

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Lazarova, M. and D. Thomas (2012), ‘Expatriate adjustment and performance revisited’, in Gunter K. Stahl and Ingmar Bjorkman (eds), Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management (2nd edn), Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 271–92. Lee, L. and N. Kartika (2014), ‘The influence of individual, family, and social capital factors on expatriate adjustment and performance: the moderating effect of psychology contract and organizational support’, Expert Systems with Applications, 41(11), 5483–94. Levy, A. (2015), Return to Casablanca: Jews, Muslims, and an Israeli Anthropologist, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. MacBeth, M., E. Kaczmarek and A. Sibbel (2012), ‘Fathers, adolescent sons and the fly-in/ fly-out lifestyle’, Australian Community Psychologist, 24(2), 98–114. Maguire, J. A. (2011), ‘Blade runners: Canadian migrants and European ice hockey’, in Joseph A. Maguire and Mark Falcous (eds), Sport and Migration: Borders, Boundaries and Crossings, New York: Routledge, pp. 102–11. Maguire, J. A. and M. Falcous (2011), Sport and Migration: Borders, Boundaries and Crossings, New York: Routledge. Mainiero, L. and S. Sullivan (2005), ‘Kaleidoscope careers: an alternate explanation for the “opt-out” revolution’, Academy of Management Perspectives, 19(1), 106–23. McNulty, Y. (2015), ‘Till stress do us part: the causes and consequences of expatriate divorce’, Journal of Global Mobility, 3(2), 106–36. McNulty, Y. and C. Brewster (2019), Working Internationally: Expatriation, Migration and Other Global Work, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Meredith, V., P. Rush and E. Robinson (2014) ‘Fly-in fly-out workforce practices in Australia: the effects on children and family relationships’, available at https://​aifs​.gov​.au/​resources/​ policy​-and​-practice​-papers/​fly​-fly​-out​-workforce​-practices​-australia​-effects​-children​-and. Miles, M., M. Huberman and J. Saldana (2014), Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook (3rd edn), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Minnotte, K. L. (2016), ‘Extending the job demands-resources model: predicting perceived parental success among dual-earners’, Journal of Family Issues, 37(3), 416–40. Morrice, J., R. Taylor, D. Clark and K. McCann (1985), ‘Oil wives and intermittent husbands’, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 147(5), 479–83. Mutter, J. (2017), ‘The global mobility decisions of professional sailors’ spouses’, Journal of Global Mobility, 5(2), 203–19. Nuttgens, S., E. Doyle and J. Chang (2019) ‘Work-related paternal absence among petroleum workers in Canada’, The Qualitative Report, 24(12), 3025–46. Onwumechili, C and A. Unwana (2021), ‘African footballers’ wives: “those paid dollars and pounds, their head is not five!”’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 56(5), 641–57. Ortiz, S. M. (2006), ‘Using power: an exploration of control work in the sport marriage’, Sociological Perspectives, 49(4), 527–57. Osofsky, J. and M. Chartrand (2013), ‘Military children from birth to five years’, Future of Children, 23(2), 61–77. Piotrkowski, C. S. (1979), Work and the Family System, New York: Collier Macmillan. Richardson, D., M. Littlewood, M. Nesti and L. Benstead (2012), ‘An examination of the migratory transition of elite young European soccer players to the English Premier League’, Journal of Sports Sciences, 30(15), 1605–18. Richardson, J. and M. Mallon (2005), ‘Career interrupted? The case of the self-directed expatriate’, Journal of World Business, 40(4), 409–20. Riusala, K. and V. Suutari (2000), ‘Expatriation and careers: perspectives of expatriates and spouses’, Career Development International, 5(2), 81–90. Roderick, M. (2012), ‘An unpaid labor of love: professional footballers, family life and the problem of job relocation’, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 36(3), 317–38. Rubin, H. and I. Rubin (2005), Qualitative Interviewing, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Ryba, T. V., N. B. Stambulova, G. Si and R. Schinke (2013), ‘ISSP position stand: culturally competent research and practice in sport and exercise psychology’, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 11(2), 123–42. Schieman, S., M. Milkie and P. Glavin (2009), ‘When work interferes with life: work-non work interference and the influence of work-related demands and resources’, American Sociological Review, 74(6), 966–88. Smith, K. and D. Berg (1988), ‘Introduction’, in David Berg and Kenwyn Smith (eds), The Self in Social Inquiry: Researching Methods, Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 9–17. Stambulova, N. B., T. V. Ryba and K. Henriksen (2021), ‘Career development and transitions of athletes: the international society of sport psychology position stand revisited’, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 19(4), 524–50. Sullivan, S., and L. A. Mainiero (2007), ‘The changing nature of gender roles, alpha/beta careers and work-life issues: theory-driven implications for human resource management’, Career Development International, 12(3), 238–63. Szymanski, M., R. Wolfe, W. Danis, F. Lee and M. A. Uy (2021), ‘Sport and international management: exploring research synergy’, Thunderbird International Business Review, 63(2), 253–66. Thibault, L. (2014), ‘Sport and management studies’, in Joseph Maguire (ed.), Social Sciences in Sport, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, pp. 305–40. Van der Klis, M. and L. Karsten (2009), ‘The commuter family as a geographical adaptive strategy for the work–family balance’, Community, Work & Family, 12(3), 339–54. Walsh, K. (2007), ‘“It got very debauched, very Dubai!” Heterosexual intimacy amongst single British expatriates’, Social and Cultural Geography, 8(4), 507–33. Walte, C. and D. Sinith (2017), ‘Temporary skilled international migration of young professional cricketers: “Going Down-Under” to move-up the career path’, Geoforum, 84, 70–76. Westman, M. (2001), ‘Stress and strain crossover’, Human Relations, 54(6), 717–51.

PART IV EMERGING FORMS OF GLOBAL FAMILY MOBILITY

12. Global rainbow families Varina Michaels and Georg Tamm

INTRODUCTION The clear link between economic development and the inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Ace (LGBTQ+) individuals was recently demonstrated in a global economic study of 132 countries (Badgett et al., 2019). Further, the persisting trend of global talent shortages has forced many international businesses to re-evaluate how they grow and cultivate their global talent pool (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021). Non-traditional expatriates such as those who identify as gender and sexual minorities are increasingly being highlighted, with LGBTQ+ expatriates identified as an under-utilised resource by both academic (e.g. McPhail, 2017) and industry publications (e.g. Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021). Despite the demand for LGBTQ+ individuals to consider expatriate positions, there is limited research on the experiences, challenges and unique success factors of these individuals and their rainbow families in the global environment. There is even less theoretical and practical clarity regarding organisations’ social responsibilities towards global rainbow families and how organisations can attract and support them in their global careers. There is lack of comprehensive and publicly available data on LGBTQ+ individuals. Estimates are that LGBTQ+ individuals make up to 10 per cent of the population (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2014). In the United States of America (US) the number of individuals identifying as LGBTQ+ is approaching 11 million, with this population growing by 29 per cent between 2012 and 2017 (Newport, 2018). Interestingly, there has been a 49 per cent increase in age 19–24 who identify with the category of ‘not purely straight’ (Newport, 2018). This highlights the increasing prevalence and importance of the rainbow group, also referred to as LGBTQ+ in this chapter. The literature on rainbow families is not only an important theoretical gap to consider examining but is an increasingly important and relevant area to explore given the rising prevalence of such groups in the organisational context. It is estimated that the labour force participation rate of homosexual individuals is greater than that of heterosexual counterparts (Diversity Best Practice, 2015), which shows that rainbow families are likely to form a significant proportion of the talent pool. Further, many individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ are already highly mobile (Altman, 1997; Collins, 2009) so the importance of organisations and managers having an understanding of the experiences, value, and needs of these individuals and their families is clear. The focus on global rainbow families has also emerged as a reaction to the growing recognition of human rights issues, such as the right to legal recognition of LGBTQ+ 302

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identities and relationships (Byington et al., 2021). The recognition and legalisation of gay marriage in many Western countries, as well as anti-discrimination movements such as those seen in India (T, 2018; Wildman, 2020), have increased the visibility and relevance of global rainbow families and individuals within organisations. In India alone, the decriminalisation of homosexuality has affected 130 million people. This means that there are unprecedented levels of visibility of global rainbow families and, although social change has reduced discrimination, global rainbow families still face additional challenges and stigmas in many workplaces around the world today, which are yet to be explored and understood by society and in academic literature. There is a vibrant stream of research on individuals that identify across a range of genders and sexual orientations; however, research on these identities in a global context is still emerging. This can be seen in the limited but growing stream of research on how LGBTQ+ identities influence expatriates who relocate, and then must make decisions about whether their family will follow and how they will present themselves in their new environment (for reviews, see Hutchings, 2021; McNulty and Hutchings, 2016). Unsurprisingly, research on LGBTQ+ identities in a global context has largely focused on the expatriate themselves. For organisations this seems logical as the expatriate is the individual who has been sent on the international assignment. However, broader expatriate research shows that the adjustment, performance and success of expatriates is highly dependent on the adjustment of their family, particularly the family that relocate with them such as their partner or children (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005; Haslberger and Brewster, 2008). This is especially important when considering local laws regarding adoption, marriage, and recognition of the importance of assigning your own identities, as demonstrated by the increasing use of preferred pronouns in society and the workplace (Human Rights Campaign Foundation, 2022). Many heterosexual expatriates may need to consider the challenges global rainbow families face given that they may have family members that identify as LGBTQ+. For example, a heterosexual male may not wish to consider appointments in countries that do not recognise his transgender child’s identity or treatments. This is important for organisations to consider, particularly in the context of corporate social responsibility and the rising prevalence and visibility of sexual and gender diversity. Research on global rainbow families is inherently interdisciplinary and multilevel, and this complexity may be one of the key constraints for further research being conducted, despite the growing need to understand their experiences and theoretical contributions. This chapter aims to help address the gap in the literature on global rainbow families by providing an overview of current work, highlighting some useful theoretical perspectives, and generating more constructive dialogue about how this complex topic can be addressed by research. It also highlights the heteronormative assumptions about how a ‘family’ is conceptualised both in research and in practice, by using examples of different family structures and dynamics. In this chapter, we begin by defining some of the terminology used. We then provide a review of literature relating to global rainbow families, highlighting that

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this research in the international business literature is still in its infancy. This is a trend mirrored in the management literature more broadly (Byington et al., 2021). We then discuss how the lack of research on global rainbow families may be addressed, highlighting four key theoretical perspectives – stigma theory, work–family conflict, social capital theory and identity, and an intersectional lens – that have been used to examine global rainbow families. In doing so, we explore the unique challenges for research on global rainbow families and identify ways in which current research on expatriates could extend to family members that identify as LGBTQ+, and other types of global workers who lack the organisational support expatriates receive, such as self-initiated expatriates, migrants, and refugees. Finally, we offer four practical recommendations for organisations to better support the careers and lives of global rainbow families in order to attract and retain talent, reduce failure rates, and fulfil their duty of care – even when the LGBTQ+ identities may not be visible.

MISSING VOICES: TRANSGENDER GLOBAL FAMILY MEMBERS We would like to acknowledge that transgender voices have been missing in the international business and management literature. Although some researchers have considered transgender issues (e.g. Dray et al., 2020; McFadden, 2015; McPhail, 2017; Paisley and Tayar, 2016; Schwartz et al., 2017), they have had limited representation in the literature (see Table 12.1, which summarises the international business literature on LGBTQ+ expatriates). This is mirrored by the silencing that occurs in organisations due to the discrimination and violence that transgender individuals may experience, as well as lack of access to voice mechanisms and being subsumed by the larger LGBTQ+ community (Beauregard et al., 2018; Schwartz et al., 2017). We have included a section on transgender individuals and transgender family members with the aim of encouraging research on global rainbow families with transgender members and highlighted some research from related fields that can shed light on fruitful directions for future research.

DEFINITIONS Much research has used the term LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) as a catch-all for a diverse range of sexuality and gender diverse individuals, who in practice have very unique experiences (e.g. Gedro et al., 2013; King and Cortina, 2010; Priola et al., 2014). The acronym LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Ace) has been in use since the 1990s and has been adopted by many sexuality and gender identity-based community centres and media in the US and other English-speaking countries. However, terminology used to describe gender and sexuality diversity is evolving. For example, the term LGBTQIA+ has been used to be inclusive of other identity expressions in this group

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such as individuals who identify as intersex. Newer terms are starting to emerge such as SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) and DSGA (Diversity of Sex, Gender and Attraction). We use the terms LGBTQ+ and ‘rainbow’ interchangeably as overarching terms in this article, following the Rainbow Families not-for-profit organisation (Rainbow Families, 2022). When making reference to other terms we are citing the material as written, as we do not wish to decategorise populations or make assumptions about the identities of individuals studied. We use this terminology noting that identities are socio-culturally constructed by individuals, operate at multiple complex levels (Paisley and Tayar, 2016) and that terms may evolve. It has been suggested that acronyms should be carefully chosen to reflect the actual focus and sample of research (see McPhail, McNulty, and Hutchings, 2016). In particular, Hines (2006) suggests that transgender individuals should be studied individually because their identity relates to gender and not sexuality. Further, according to McPhail (2004) who uses queer theory, transgender people do not perceive themselves as fitting neatly into binary categorisation, which can make any interpretation parallel to ‘LGB’ experiences problematic. Some recent reviews have taken a similar approach by focusing on specific aspects of the group such as sexual orientation in order to avoid conflating the unique experiences of the various groups within the LGBTQ+ population (Byington et al., 2021). Despite the common usage of LGBTQ+ as an overarching term for gender and sexual minorities, we recognise that each of these categories have a distinct set of challenges and advantages that should be considered in order to avoid ignoring the very real and important experiences transgender people face, even if they only make up a smaller subset of the LGBTQ+ experience. Further, in line with the diversity literature, all identities operate on multiple, complex levels and everyone’s experience of their identities will be unique. It is useful, however, to use categories to draw out the similarities and differences experienced by LGBTQ+ individuals and for growing our understanding of their experiences. For the purposes of this chapter, we have included in Table 12.1 an overview of some of the key terminology that is used by researchers in this space, with definitions from Stonewall (2022).

CURRENT STATE OF RESEARCH Increasing social and media attention on LGBTQ+ individuals has revealed their complex, dynamic and vibrant lived realities. The factors influencing the experience of rainbow global families operate across global, regional, organisational, familial, interpersonal and intrapersonal levels. Given the increasing rates of identification with LGBTQ+ identities, there is a clear and pressing need for a better understanding of global rainbow families and how LGBTQ+ identities impact global mobility. Acknowledging the long history of research in gender and sexuality across several disciplines, research on global rainbow families emerged in the human resource management literature and has since expanded to management, and more recently, inter-

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Table 12.1

Key terminology to describe LGBTQ+

Term

Definition

Lesbian

Refers to a woman who has a romantic and/or sexual orientation towards women. Some non-binary people may also identify with this term.

Gay

Refers to a man who has a romantic and/or sexual orientation towards men. Also a generic term for lesbian and gay sexuality – some women define themselves as gay rather than lesbian. Some non-binary people may also identify with this term.

Bi/bisexual

Bi is an umbrella term used to describe a romantic and/or sexual orientation towards more than one gender. Bi people may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including, but not limited to, bisexual, pan, queer, and some other non-monosexual and non-monoromantic identities.

Trans/transgender

An umbrella term to describe people whose gender is not the same as, or does not sit comfortably with, the sex they were assigned at birth. Trans people may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including (but not limited to) transgender, transsexual, gender-queer (GQ), gender-fluid, non-binary, gender-variant, crossdresser, genderless, agender, nongender, third gender, bi-gender, trans man, trans woman, trans masculine, trans feminine and neutrois.

Queer

Queer is a term used by those wanting to reject specific labels of romantic orientation, sexual orientation and/or gender identity. It can also be a way of rejecting the perceived norms of the LGBT community (racism, sizeism, ableism, etc.). Although some LGBT people view the word as a slur, it was reclaimed in the late 80s by the queer community who have embraced it.

Questioning

The process of exploring your own sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Intersex

A term used to describe a person who may have the biological attributes of both sexes or whose biological attributes do not fit with societal assumptions about what constitutes male or female. Intersex people may identify as male, female or non-binary.

Ace

An umbrella term used specifically to describe a lack of, varying, or occasional experiences of sexual attraction. This encompasses asexual people as well as those who identify as demisexual and grey-sexual. Ace people who experience romantic attraction or occasional sexual attraction might also use terms such as gay, bi, lesbian, straight and queer in conjunction with asexual to describe the direction of their romantic or sexual attraction.

Gender

Often expressed in terms of masculinity and femininity, gender is largely culturally

Sexual orientation

A person’s sexual attraction to other people, or lack thereof. Along with romantic

determined and is assumed from the sex assigned at birth. orientation, this forms a person’s orientation identity.

national business. For example, in one of the seminal articles on expatriate LGBTQ+ identities, Gedro and colleagues (2013) used three of the authors’ autoethnographic stories to demonstrate the lived experiences of sexual minorities that relocate for their careers. Based on lesbian and gay expatriate stories, and subsequently applied to LGBT individuals more broadly, the authors advocate for human resource practitioners to consider the safety, well-being, inclusivity, and benefits offered to expatriates. These authors question the heteronormative view of the family and, instead, emphasise the importance of family (including spouse and children) in stabilising satisfac-

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tion, reducing loneliness and contributing to the overall success of expatriates. This article also suggests that LGBT expatriates create a ‘family plan’ (Gedro et al., 2013, p. 294) in cases where hostility is detected in the host country. There are few studies that examine the global rainbow families through an international business lens although this body of research and interest from industry is growing. Between 1995 and 2018, Byington, Tamm and Trau’s (2021) systematic review found that there were only 205 research articles published across the entire management field which focused on LGBTQ+ experiences. In the international context, a recent literature review revealed that just 19 articles (including this chapter) were published on LGBTQ+ expatriates between 2010 and 2023 (Table 12.2 for an overview). Research is sparse despite the importance of understanding global rainbow families; however, this presents an opportunity for researchers to draw from a range of theoretical perspectives to create new insights into the experiences of global rainbow families, theoretical contributions to international (and domestic) management and human resource management literature, and recommendations for organisations to better support global rainbow families.

KEY THEORIES In this section, we present an overview of four key theoretical perspectives which have been applied to study expatriates to date. These theoretical perspectives – stigma theory, work–family conflict, social capital theory and identity, and an intersectional lens – have been combined with traditional micro-level international business theories such as cross-cultural psychology and international human resource management to highlight the experience and unique considerations of global rainbow families. This does not present an exhaustive list of theories used or that could be useful in the future. Instead, it aims to highlight some of the important theoretical contributions made to research on rainbow global families so far and provide inspiration for future research. Stigma Theory: Disclosure, Passing and Concealment Stigma theory is one of the most commonly used theories when studying LGBTQ+ people in the management literature (Byington et al., 2021). Goffman (1963) defined stigma as an attribute or mark that has the ability to ‘deeply discredit’ an individual. Goffman (1963) makes a distinction that there are two forms of discreditable identities – the visible and the invisible – and that these ultimately shape the experiences of discreditation. Causes of stigmatisation may include visible characteristics (e.g. race or gender) and invisible characteristics (sexual orientation, religion, chronic illness, or organisational membership). In contrast to visible stigma like gender or race, invisible stigma can be concealed. This is consistent with theorisations of LGBTQ+ identities requiring some form of disclosure as membership is not always easily discerned. Goffman (1963) described concealable stigma as discreditable traits

Mizzi

Stigma theory

Fisher

cross-cultural psychology

research

McNulty

Global talent management McPhail and

(acculturation)

McPhail and

Social capital theory,

(acculturation)

Cross-cultural psychology McNulty

Mizzi

2015

2015

2015

2015

2014

2014

Status-reversal, single parent,

LGBT expatriates

Lesbian expatriates

Primary subject/participants

Management

of International

European Journal

Intercultural Relations

International Journal of

Intercultural Relations

International Journal of

Administration and Policy

40

30

50

9

Canadian Journal of Educational

Gay expatriates

Development in Practice

Lesbian and gay expatriates

Lesbian and gay expatriates

adopted children

expatriates with overseas

and lesbian expatriates, and

Single parent, split family,

Gay expatriates

expatriates 30

Management

split family, and lesbian

34

66

93

citations

Scholar

Google

Women in International

Research Handbook on

International

McNulty

Loo

Human Resource

Development Review

Human Resource

Publication

Development

2013

2010

publication

Year of

Rocco and Van

Stigma theory

stigma

Work–family conflict,

Queer theory, HRM

Gedro, Mizzi,

Gedro

Intersectional perspective

of HRM, careers

Author/s

Cross-sectional

Qualitative +

Cross-sectional

Qualitative +

Cross-sectional

Qualitative +

Cross-sectional

interview questions)

surveys (using the same

4 interviews, 9 online

21 interviews

4 interviews

project two – 5 interviews

Project one – 8 interviews;

documentary analysis Qualitative +

8 interviews and Cross-sectional

4 interviews

3 auto-ethnographic stories

Qualitative +

Cross-sectional

Qualitative +

Longitudinal

Qualitative +

N/A

(empirical papers only)

Conceptual

Data collected

Methodological approach

Overview of studies of global rainbow families in the international business field 2010–23

Theory/lenses

Table 12.2

308  Research handbook of global families

Management

Inversi, Dundon

intersectionality

3

Lesbian and gay expatriates

Migration Studies

Journal of Ethnic and

2021

Suen

Framing in social

movements,

expatriates

Lesbian, gay and bi-sexual

Management Reviews

Maley

9

LGBT expatriates

Moeller and

International Journal of

39

legitimacy theory

2018

International Journal

Stigma, organisational

and Nechanska

of Human Resource

McPhail,

2018

McNulty,

Expatriates

employee voice

Longitudinal

Qualitative +

Conceptual

Cross-sectional

Qualitative +

Literature review

LGBTI expatriates

Research Handbook of 7

Cross-sectional

Qualitative +

Cross-sectional

Qualitative +

review

Innovation

Lesbian and gay expatriates

Human Capital and 6

expatriates

Lesbian and gay self-initiated

families and blended families Mobility

11

children, and multi-generational

gifted children, overseas adopted

family, LGBT, special needs/

Management

Journal of Global

Qualitative + Cross-sectional

26 interviews (13 couples)

N/A

20 interviews

N/A

a questionnaire)

4 interviews (preceded by

a questionnaire)

4 interviews (preceded by

N/A

20 interviews

N/A

(empirical papers only)

Conceptual

Data collected

Methodological approach

Non-traditional expatriates based Critical literature

Lesbian and gay expatriates

LGBT expatriates

Primary subject/participants

on gender, single parent, split

72

96

60

citations

Scholar

Google

of Human Resource

International Journal

Stereotype threat theory,

2017

2017b

2017a

2016

McPhail

Glinow

Kim and Von

Glinow

Kim and Von

Hutchings

McNulty and

N/A

Social identity theory

Social identity theory

International Journal

Management

of Human Resource

International Journal

Management

2016

2016

Hutchings

McPhail,

Social capital theory

N/A

Tayar

intersectionality

Publication

of Human Resource

Paisley and

Social identity,

publication

Year of

McNulty and

Author/s

Theory/lenses

Global rainbow families  309

Hutchings

Michaels and

N/A

N/A

Source: Adapted from Hutchings (2021).

Tamm

Author/s

Theory/lenses

2023

2021

publication

Year of

This volume

Global Families

3

citations

Scholar

Google

Research Handbook of

Mobility

Journal of Global

Publication

(empirical papers only)

review

queer, questioning and ace

gay, bisexual, transgender,

review

Global rainbow families: lesbian, Critical literature

single-parent)

overseas adopted children,

blended, multi-generational,

orientation or family status (e.g.

gender, religious belief, sexual

on age, disability and illness,

N/A

N/A

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Methodological approach

Non-traditional expatriates based Critical literature

Primary subject/participants

310  Research handbook of global families

Global rainbow families  311

which allowed an individual to strategically distort perceiver evaluations of the trait. Other scholars have described invisible stigma as an attribute, trait or demographic characteristic that can be kept hidden or strategically managed to mitigate social devaluation (Quinn and Chaudoir, 2009; Quinn and Earnshaw, 2013). Global rainbow families are a good example of invisible stigmatised groups. They may represent a hidden segment of the workforce as they may not disclose their sexual identity or may even re-closet themselves to avoid bias through a range of strategies such as restricting their verbal and non-verbal behaviours that they perceive to be typical of LGBTQ+ persons (Chrobot-Mason et al., 2001; Madera, 2010). In addition, it is unlikely that managers are able to assign group membership through physical appearance or human resource records (as is possible with race or gender). This places global rainbow families in unique situations that may allow them to strategically manage disclosure of their sexual orientation or gender identities. For example, choosing different levels of disclosure, passing and concealment in different contexts (Figure 12.1).

Source: Adapted from Paisley and Tayar (2016) and Sawyer, Thoroughgood and Ladge (2017).

Figure 12.1

The disclosure continuum for global rainbow families

Disclosing sexual identity and coming out is a complex process that is never fully complete and is often driven by workplace safety and acceptance (Hill, 2009; Ragins, 2008; Ragins and Cornwall, 2001). For global rainbow families, this complexity is increased by operating across socio-cultural, political and legal spheres. For example, Mizzi (2014) found that gay aid workers in Kosovo were able to relocate and engage with the local gay subculture despite widespread discrimination in mainstream society. Further, individuals may choose to disclose differently depending on the person’s role and how close their relationship is. For example, they may be out to coworkers and not customers or, conversely, they may feel less constricted and disclose their LGBTQ+ identity to individuals with whom they have shorter interactions (Sawyer et al., 2017). The decisions of disclosure are incredibly complex and can lead to unpredictable outcomes. For example, prior studies among police workers have shown that police

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officers who found out their work partners lied about their sexuality were seen as untrustworthy (Rumens and Broomfield, 2012). This has the potential to undermine an individual’s working relationships in high pressure environments –­ an outcome undesirable in potentially dangerous occupations. There is some evidence to show that the stigma associated with LGBTQ+ identities may be mitigated on expatriate assignments because the status of being a foreigner may overshadow sexual orientation and gender diversity, even in dangerous locations (McPhail and McNulty, 2015). However, this status may not extend to their families or other types of global workers and is likely to differ greatly across contexts. Expressing ones true identity and disclosure is important for relationship building, managerial effectiveness and for personal reasons such as self-esteem (Pringle, 2008). For example, Driscoll, Kelley and Fassinger (1996) found that women who disclose their lesbian identity had higher levels of job satisfaction. This is consistent with findings that non-disclosure of an LGBTQ+ identity may lead to disengagement, decreased psychological resources, ego depletion and cognitive dissonance (DeJordy, 2008). Similarly, Sawyer et al. (2017) found that for individuals with LGBTQ+ family members, identity management practices led to strains unique to rainbow families including depersonalisation, denial of family dignity, a fragmented family identity and hypervigilance, which can have lasting effects on performance and job satisfaction. Button (2004) used confirmatory factor analysis to find that disclosure practices involve multiple identity management practices being used in combination, demonstrating the complexity of disclosure and highlighting why, in some cases, it may be useful for individuals to choose not to disclose their LGBTQ+ identity, such as in locations where LGBTQ+ identities are not accepted. Disclosure is made even more complex because those who disclose their LGBTQ+ identity ‘must be constantly on guard for troubling encounters, or continually adopt activist orientations despite the consequences’ (Mizzi, 2018, p. 41). Global rainbow families with LGBTQ+ members may also use identity management practices to disclose or conceal the sexuality or gender of these individuals. In some cases, this may manifest in decisions not to access work and non-work resources such as partner benefits or childcare or to restrict displays of affection to shield their children from discrimination (Sawyer et al., 2017). Kaplan (2014) used career typologies to explain how the disclosure and visibility of an individual’s sexuality influences the stigma and discrimination that they encounter, which in turn, influences their career choices. He argued that individuals who don’t disclose their identity are more likely to develop an autonomy and independence career anchor due to the psychological stress caused by closeting their identity. They are also likely to favour boundaryless or global careers and are very conscious of the potential for discrimination and harassment against them, which may reinforce the decision to remain closeted. Individuals who do disclose their sexuality are more likely to favour stable careers because they are forced to make disclosure decisions over and over again, however this can help them build larger,

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stronger networks with others. This underscores that many globally mobile individuals may have an LGBTQ+ identity that they choose not to disclose. Disclosure ultimately influences career paths of LGBTQ+ individuals as they make career choices, with many choosing to remain closeted to avoid rejection, harassment, discrimination and even violence (Caron and Ulin, 1997; Gedro, Cervero, and Johnson-Bailey, 2004). They may do this for themselves or for family members. This presents additional stressors to the work and family life of LGBTQ+ individuals beyond what those in the heteronormative definition of family would experience (Sawyer et al., 2017). Despite these studies of identity management in organisations, little empirical work has been conducted on global rainbow families and further research is urgently needed. Work–family Conflict The interface of work and family is highly prescient for global rainbow families, who must consider a range of personal factors in combination with their work. This can lead to conflict between work and family domains. An example of this can be found in Wicks (2017), who showed that LGBTQ+ workers in inclusive organisations experienced heteronormative views from colleagues such as being seen as childless and able to perform overtime. Within the Research Handbook on Women in International Management, McNulty (2014) raised important questions based on the work–family interface and the counterproductive norms and assumptions in global mobility research. She presented short vignettes and discussed the experiences of four non-traditional female-led families, comprising a single parent, a lesbian partnership, a split family, and an expatriate who completed an overseas adoption (McNulty, 2014). Elaborating on these four interviews, McNulty (2015) highlighted the concerns that may arise in relocating family members to different socio-cultural contexts and posited that females may be better at dealing with work–life conflicts due to their ongoing experience in balancing these two domains and the pressures associated with traditional female roles. Further, this research highlighted that rainbow families’ considerations of safety, legalities such as visas and the benefits and entitlements offered to individuals also flow to the family unit. Inherent tensions between work and family feature in every article on global rainbow families. Few have focused solely on the work–family interface, which makes this a potentially fruitful area for future research to explore. Work–family conflict is a theory that has been used extensively in organisational psychology research and has only recently been applied to challenge the heteronormative assumptions of family and to examine the experiences of rainbow families in organisations (Sawyer et al., 2017). Based on a qualitative study of 53 employees in same-sex relationships, Sawyer and colleagues (2017), found that LGB individuals experienced unique stigma-based work–family conflict that led to added psychological strain and identity management practices at the level of the individual and the family unit. Some of the signals that made individuals feel that their LGB family was stigmatised at work included a lack of a formal invitation to partners for work events, a lack of same-sex

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partner benefits and heterosexist pressure to suppress family-related information at work. This provides an excellent platform for future research on global rainbow families, with the authors calling for more research into international contexts. Work–family conflict may also draw from social learning theory to determine the influence of family members on the working individual, through an understanding of how families may influence each other in terms of adjustment, emotions, stress and shared resources (Haslberger and Brewster, 2008). Westman (2001) used social learning theory to explain how crossover may occur via conscious processing of information such as trying to empathise with their partners. Leinonen, Solantaus and Punamäki (2003) show how anxiety, stress and other emotions pass from parents to children but are mediated by the quality of their interactions. Expatriate research suggests that this could be multi-directional, with the adjustment of children and partners as a major predictor of the adjustment of the expatriate themselves (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005). Children can also play an essential role in access to resources for globally mobile families. For example, Glanz, Williams and Hoeksema (2001) found that in immigrant families, children may literally translate for their parents as they are often quicker to pick up a new language and socio-cultural norms. This socio-cultural bridging role gives the family access to other resources such as relationships with host nationals or connecting with other cultural coaches. Social learning theory can be used to explain how individuals learn about and connect to a new context, and then pass this knowledge onto other family members. As Richardson states in their grounded exploration of the family’s role in the decision to expatriate, ‘rather than problematising it as an encumbrance to be managed, families are allies who stand to gain as much from expatriation as the candidate to whom the position is offered’ (Richardson, 2006, p. 469). Social Capital Theory Social capital theory explains how individuals draw from the available resources derived from their network of relationships. Applying this to gay and lesbian expatriates, research has found that structural social capital such as rainbow networks were useful to determine the suitability of the host country, relational capital was used to assess perceived organisational support and cognitive social capital was used to assess a sense of belonging that facilitated decision making (McPhail et al., 2016; McPhail and Fisher, 2015). These authors found that a sense of belonging was illustrated through shared codes, such as narratives and symbols, and extended the decision-making process beyond the individual expatriate to their entire family. This is particularly useful in understanding how global rainbow families perceive and shape the context around them and has implications for how organisations can better support global rainbow families. Social capital theory can be used to identify how different forms of social support can be accessed across different mediums, and the influence of this on global rainbow families. McPhail and Fisher (2015) interviewed 21 lesbian and gay expatriates to

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understand how they used social media to aid their acculturation. They found that social media was one way that Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) could connect rainbow workers across borders and assist with information transfer and social support. Social media was also highlighted as a mechanism to connect with family that did not relocate with the expatriate, also acting as a source of support. Nearly 80 per cent of married expatriates are accompanied by their partner and nearly 60 per cent of expatriates had children accompanying them on assignment (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021). Traditionally, expatriates were heterosexual males with female trailing spouses; however, this is changing. Female accompanying partners have a different set of expectations and needs which means they require different forms of support (Elron and Kark, 2000; Moore, 2002). For same sex partners, these problems may be exacerbated. Other research has found that lesbian and gay partnerships may facilitate global careers, as their legal and financial independence provides them with more opportunities to independently be mobile to the same location in cases where they have relocated previously and had to seek host-country employment and visa status separately (McPhail et al., 2016). Global rainbow families may also have unique access to resource to facilitate their expatriation. For example, all rainbow expatriates in McPhail and colleagues’ (2016) study expressed that the networks and support offered to them from LGBT community was significant to their adjustment and feeling welcomed in their host location. Therefore, the ways in which global rainbow family members are incorporated into different social networks is important for the success of the global rainbow families, and social capital theory can illuminate these complex dynamics. Identity and an Intersectional Lens Intersectionality is a theory that demonstrates the simultaneous and interacting effects when an individual holds two or more culturally and socially constructed identities (Zander et al., 2010). Intersectionality is a lens used to view individuals as a whole, including their work and family roles, and how they combine with other identities that are important to that individual such as class, gender, culture and sexuality. The lens of intersectionality facilitates a better understanding of how LGBTQ+ identities intersect with other aspects of diversity, embedded in context (Paisley and Tayar, 2016). At the intersection of gender and sexuality, Gedro (2010) used a careers lens to look at the impact of the lavender ceiling on lesbian expatriates who faced discrimination leading to a lack of career progression compounded by being both a woman and a sexual minority. In her article, Gedro (2010) presented a literature review of the research on expatriate women and lesbians in management and applied an intersectional lens in order to highlight lesbian expatriates as an invisible ‘minority within a minority’ (p. 399). Situated within the career development literature, the author provides recommendations for human resource practitioners and instrumental reasons for supporting the careers of lesbian expatriates. In this work, family issues

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are limited to a discussion of trailing spouses and the legal and financial support that could be offered to them. Paisley and Tayar (2016) introduced the social constructivist theory of intersectionality to study of LGBT expatriates in order to explain how sexual and gender identities, and the expression of these identities, interacts with other key identities that the individual holds across national, organisational and expatriate sub-cultural environments. Based on the theory of intersectionality, Paisley and Tayar (2016) proposed a new understanding of the ways that an individual’s LGBT identities may be experienced in a global context and offered suggestions for organisations to better support them. This included building an inclusive organisational culture and considering how the multiple layers of legal, social, and cultural context may influence global rainbow expatriates. Intersectionality also highlights that any important identity, such as family roles, will qualitatively influence the way an individual thinks, feels and acts in a particular context. Thus, global rainbow families are critical to the experience and outcomes of any expatriate who identifies as LGBTQ+ or has family members that do. Critical perspectives of intersectionality, although rare in international business literature, consider how an individual’s multiple identities compound their experiences of power and privilege. This includes an acknowledgement of the heterosexist norms in organisations – even those in LGBTQ+ friendly locations (Johnson, 2013). With similar underlying assumptions as stigma theory, critical intersectionality could be used to demonstrate that rainbow expatriates may simultaneously occupy spaces of discrimination and privilege. For example, many expatriates are sheltered by their organisation from the local context by being provided with accommodation similar to their home country and staff that interact with locals on their behalf (McPhail and McNulty, 2015). Other global workers, such as migrants and refugees are unlikely to have the same experiences of power and oppression, which critical perspectives of intersectionality could explore. Suen’s (2021) research also highlighted the privilege and agency of gay and lesbian expatriates. Based on a five-year ethnographic study of a legal case (QT v Director of Immigration) brought by a same-sex couple to challenge the restriction of visas in Hong Kong, Suen (2021) questioned the view that sexual minority migrants are only constrained by hostile locations and, instead, examined the agency that they have to actively change these contexts. In this case, the couple successfully argued that they had the same economic value as heterosexual couples and were granted a visa. Despite the positive outcome as a change agent, Suen (2021) aptly analysed the process of achieving this goal and the implications that being denied partner visas had for many same-sex couples, including the detrimental impact on their relationship and the lack of productivity at work.

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FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS The future of research on global rainbow families is promising given the attention and work in this area so far, however there is still much more that we need to understand. Due to the plethora of directions for future research, in this section we aim to highlight some of the areas that we consider to be most critical. This includes further research on the effects of different types of discrimination on members of global rainbow families, children in global rainbow families including cases where one or more of the children identify as LGBTQ+ or are going through the process of questioning whether they identify as LGBTQ+, and a specific focus on transgender, intersex or questioning family members. From the perspective of international (and local) organisations, more research is needed on the influence of the workplace on global rainbow families and appropriate support strategies that organisations can use. Further, with increasing levels and visibility of global rainbow families, the blurring of the boundaries between work and home and the understanding that people work best when they can bring their whole self to work (Greenhaus and Allen, 2011), we also need to understand the influence of organisational policies and practices on those who may not identify as LGBTQ+ but have family members who do. This is particularly the case when over half of expatriates are accompanied by their family (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2021) and, in the case of self-initiated expatriation or migration, family migration is the single largest component of total migration flows in OECD countries (Chaloff, 2013). Discrimination Discrimination can be both covert and overt. Research on LGBTQ+ discrimination has found that sexism and heterosexism influences workplace relationships and hostile workplace environments may culminate in harassment (House, 2004), lower pay rates (Shore et al., 2009), exclusion from employment, promotion and may even lead to termination (McFadden, 2015). Indirect discrimination can also result in the creation of hostile work environments where the discrimination does not just affect individuals who are discriminated against, but also the co-workers that witness this discrimination (Willis, 2012). This may mean that individuals who don’t identify as LGBTQ+ may be negatively influenced by hostile work environments, and this is likely to be heightened when they have a family member who identifies as LGBTQ+. An important area for research to consider is the impact of different types of discrimination, not just on LGBTQ+ employees, but on their co-workers and families as well. Children in Rainbow Global Families Research has largely centred on the experience of LGBTQ+ individuals, and to a lesser extent, the practicalities of relocating a partner. The experience of children in rainbow global families requires further attention. We have a limited understanding of how children within rainbow global families adjust or cope with the additional

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strain of uncertainty, discrimination or stigma. For example, do they understand what to say and what not to say? Do disclosure decisions put children under significant strain or risk? Rarely has research demonstrated what considerations globally mobile rainbow parents need to consider, in addition to navigating their own personal situation. For example, in some countries both parents of a child in a same-sex partnership may not be legally recognised and the safety of their children could be at risk. In other situations small details can escalate into crises and life-threatening situations as it did with one case, Yvette, who relocated to Malawi, Cameroon and Philippines (McPhail and McNulty, 2015). Yvette, a lesbian mother, had to consider the ability to see her family, such as with temporary tourist visas, and to evacuate her family unit in case of an emergency, before accepting her assignment. When considering the social connectedness and influence of children on the adjustment of their global family, there are also positive roles that children can play. For example, in some places younger generations are more accepting of LGBTQ+ individuals and this could be a source of strength or connectedness for expatriates. Another much needed area for future research is children in global families that identify as LGBTQ+. Research is needed to understand how global rainbow children navigate the process of coming to terms with their identity and making decisions about disclosure. For example, do LGBTQ+ children use the same strategies to manage their identities as adult LGBTQ+ individuals? Do children, especially young children, understand the repercussions of disclosure when they move to or from dangerous locations? For organisations, these issues are critical to unpack in order to understand how to enact their duty of care to support rainbow global families, where the expatriate, spouse or children may identify as LGBTQ+ and how to offer support even when these identities may be hidden. Beyond Expatriates: Other Types of Global Workers There are many reasons why global rainbow families may relocate to another place or country. In this chapter, we have focused on expatriates who are sent by their organisation to work in a new location. Expatriates are unique because they enjoy organisational support during their move, such as relocation assistance and administrative help with accessing visas. This is significantly different from other types of global workers who may only move temporarily, such as international business travellers, or those who move without organisational support, such as self-initiated expatriates. Research has demonstrated that for some global workers, personal and familial reasons to relocate outweigh career considerations. For example, sexual migration is a stream of research that focuses on relocation that is directly or indirectly motivated by the sexual or gender identity of the individual (e.g. Yue, 2013). Several scholars have studied LGBTQ+ mobility in areas such as the sexual discovery of gay expatriates in the Philippines (Collins, 2005, 2009) and mobility based on tourism (e.g. Hughes, 1997; Murray, 2007; Puar, 2002).

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There are also global rainbow families that may be forced to relocate due to social and political turmoil such as refugees fleeing persecution or war (also termed forced migrants). For example, there has been an increase in gender or sexual orientation bases for refugee claims and limited research on the issues surrounding the process of forced migration, including coming out before you are ready, and the impacts of forced migration on mental health, well-being and adjustment (Kahn and Alessi, 2018). These impacts are highly relevant for organisations who hire refugees, which has recently been highlighted with the war in the Ukraine (Lee et al., 2021). This makes the topic of rainbow global families extremely fragmented and diverse. Transgender and Queer Family Members Transgender people are those who move away from the gender they were assigned at birth, ‘people who cross over (trans‑) the boundaries constructed by their culture to define and contain that’ (Stryker, 2009, p. 1). Gender is a culture-bound phenomenon and so a transgender individual relocating to another legal or socio-cultural context may face a new construction of what gender is and how it is enacted. Therefore, when transgender individuals move into new contexts, they may need to re-evaluate what their identities mean and how to present their visual manifestation of these gender identities in a way that seems consistent with how they see themselves. Many interpretations of transgender experience emphasise conflicts between an individual’s psychological gender and their biological sex; however, some transgender experiences may involve a multiplicity of identities at any one time and a fluidity of changing gender and sexual identities over time (Diamond and Butterworth, 2008). If a transgender worker decides to transition to a different sex, concealment strategies may not be an option unless the worker leaves their employer (Barclay and Scott, 2006). Other barriers may include passports not matching the employee’s current gender identity, being refused access to bathrooms, and being subject to discrimination known as transphobia (Johnson, 2013). To explain these dynamics and the changing constructions of gender across cultures, holistic and multidimensional theories such as intersectionality may prove useful (Paisley and Tayar, 2016). Research has largely focused on lesbian and gay members of rainbow global families. This may be due to the sampling issues such as the number and relative access to this group of individuals. Transgender individuals face unique challenges because they often represent a more visible segment of LGBTQ+ population, particularly during the transition process. More research needs to be conducted to explore the ways in which transgender individuals access global mobility and work in different contexts, including the possible advantages of transgender individuals being globally mobile. For example, does global mobility represent an opportunity for transgender individuals to transition then enter a new environment where they may be able to enact their new authentic identity and better access their talent? While transgender individuals may be more visible, intersex and questioning global family members may be more difficult to identify and represent a truly hidden component of the workforce. Applying identity theory in an international context

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could help uncover how intersex individuals shape their gender identities in contexts with different social norms surrounding gender and how their family may react to this process. The complexity of the global context also gives rise to interesting research questions such as whether individuals that identify as non-binary (i.e. neither male nor female) can have global mobility and retain their identity, particularly navigating administrative tasks such as obtaining a driver’s licence, and in countries where the language forces gender assumptions to be made (e.g. Spanish-speaking countries where all objects are identified as male or female). For questioning individuals, research should investigate how global family members experience the process of a member questioning their gender and/or sexuality and what factors make them more likely to feel safe to embrace their identity.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Increasingly, the organisation’s role in society is to create safe places where individuals can bring their whole self to work. This has advantages to organisations such as greater workplace satisfaction, lower rates of turnover and can lead to higher rates of productivity. However, in a global context this role can be very complex. How can organisations create safe and accepting workplaces in cultural contexts where values clash? Should a multinational organisation have different policies and practices in different locations or make exceptions for international talent in more hostile countries? A challenge for many international organisations is managing global, home country and local tensions. For example, should an international organisation support the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals over the rights to an individual’s religious freedom, which in some places actively discriminates against the LGBTQ+ community? What about encouraging LGBTQ+ individuals to take up positions in countries where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death? What is the organisation’s duty of care to global rainbow families, both morally as well as legally? These issues are compounded when the LGBTQ+ identities are hidden. Simple solutions can be difficult to find. In most organisations, expatriates’ same-sex parents and partners are not addressed in pre-departure training and are excluded from access to other resources (Mizzi, 2014). Therefore, international businesses, and increasingly local businesses who have international employees, need to have a better understanding of global rainbow families, and actively address them within their policies, procedures and training. In this section, we offer four specific recommendations to practitioners and elaborate on how these recommendations could be implemented. The recommendations are to (1) build inclusive environments within your organization, (2) evaluate the risks across multiple levels, (3) consider benefits and support that extend beyond the expatriate to their families, (4) develop human resource policies to be responsive to the unique circumstances of rainbow families and the context in which they are entering.

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Inclusive workplaces that acknowledge different types of diversity are an important first step. Diversity in employment has been linked to the creation of high-performance workplaces and competitive advantages for organisations (Lansing and Cruser, 2009). Sawyer and colleagues (2017) found that access to same-sex family benefits and formal invitations to same-sex partners to work events signalled how inclusive and accepting the workplace really was. They also found that, even in inclusive environments where the individual was comfortable disclosing their LGBTQ+ identity, individuals still felt strain when they perceived that their organisation had a heteronormative view of the family. Managers need to be aware of the heteronormative assumptions that exist in organisations and actively combat these through implementing inclusive policies, language and symbols. This should also flow through to informalities within the organisation such as inclusivity in social events. The use of ERGs could be one way to signal inclusiveness and to provide both support networks and voice to global rainbow families (McNulty et al., 2018). International businesses may also have the option of creating foreigner sub-cultural groups or ally networks that operate independently from the organisational culture and provide support to LGBTQ+ global families. Finally, there are a range of independent groups and social communities (e.g. InterNations, social media groups) that the organisation can encourage their global workers to connect with that can offer support, without requiring the individual to actively disclose their identity or, in cases where the identity has been disclosed but there aren’t individuals within the organisation who have similar identities and/or experiences who can act as mentors or support networks. This would also be helpful for global rainbow family members, who can choose to disclose in safe spaces without having the added strain of being required to disclose to the organisation in order to access this support. There are a range of practical issues that organisations with employees who are members of global rainbow families can assist with. Organisations could, for example, offer same-sex partners employment in the same location as their partner so that the couple can stay together in countries where a same-sex spouse can not apply for a visa. Alternatively, the employer could assist with locating a job with another employer (Gedro et al., 2013). Organisations can also help family members who are relocating with the employee gain access to health care, education, and training. Before relocating, organisations could help global rainbow families create family plans (Gedro et al., 2013), and in dangerous locations these plans could include potential responses and how to access support in the event of a crisis (McPhail and McNulty, 2015). At an individual level, there are different levels of support that the individual may need. McPhail and McNulty (2015) found that in dangerous locations, organisational support before and during an assignment, as well as the degree of insight into likely levels of the real and perceived threat before expatriating is essential in moderating the negative experience that LGBTQ+ expatriates face. For other types of global families, such as self-initiated expatriates or migrants, organisational support prior to moving may not be possible, however individuals should do some research before

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leaving (where possible) and evaluate the potential risks. Ongoing support upon arrival is also very important for organisations (and for governments in the case of migrants) who employ members of global families. Therefore, organisations should discuss career plans which include identifying potential risks in relocating, strategies to facilitate adjustment and advice on how to access resources and support. Importantly, organisations should recognise that everyone’s experience is unique and take care not to over-generalise. Allow the individual to make decisions regarding disclosure practices, and instead the organisation’s focus should be on providing them with information and options to consider so that they have a realistic idea of what to expect in their destination, including discussing identity shifts that are common with people who relocate globally and strategies for understanding and managing difference in the new context. Organisations could also highlight the advantages and disadvantages of different disclosure practices for LGBTQ+ employees that are relocating, and the potential dangers associated with disclosure in unwelcoming countries.

CONCLUSION Rainbow families are a significant part of the global talent pool and will become increasingly more significant as social change continues. Organisations need to understand these issues, as research has shown that organisations can have a large effect beyond the individual employee, to their family and vice versa. Therefore, researchers and practitioners need to be more aware of the experiences, challenges, unique success factors and needs of global rainbow families. A combination of theoretical and methodological approaches may be needed to address these complex research areas. The interdisciplinary nature of international business lends itself to research of this nature, and as such, we call for the field to have a more human-centred approach and to recognise that the individuals that are critical to the success of international businesses are more than just resources.

REFERENCES Altman, D. (1997), ‘Global gaze/global gays’, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 3(4), 417–36. Australian Human Rights Commission (2014), ‘Face the facts: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex People’, available at https://​humanrights​.gov​.au/​our​-work/​education/​face​-facts​ -lesbian​-gay​-bisexual​-trans​-and​-intersex​-people. Badgett, M. V. L., K. Waaldijk and Y. van der Meulen Rodgers (2019), ‘The relationship between LGBT inclusion and economic development: macro-level evidence’, World Development, 120, 1–14. Barclay, J. M. and L. J. Scott (2006), ‘Transsexuals and workplace diversity’, Personnel Review, 35(4), 487–502.

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Beauregard, A. T., L. Arevshatian, J. E. Booth and S. Whittle (2018), ‘Listen carefully: transgender voices in the workplace’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(5), 857–84. Bhaskar-Shrinivas, P., D. A. Harrison, M. A. Shaffer and D. M. Luk (2005), ‘Input-based and time-based models of international adjustment: meta-analytic evidence and theoretical extensions’, Academy of Management Journal, 48(2), 257–81. Brookfield Global Relocation Services (2021), Talent Mobility Trends Survey, Woodridge, IL: Brookfield Global Relocation Services. Button, S. B. (2004), ‘Identity management strategies utilized by lesbian and gay employees: a quantitative investigation’, Group & Organization Management, 29(4), 470–94. Byington, E. K., G. F. B. Tamm and R. N. C. Trau (2021), ‘Mapping sexual orientation research in management: a review and research agenda’, Human Resource Management, 60(1), 31–53. Caron, S. L. and M. Ulin (1997), ‘Closeting and the quality of lesbian relationships’, Families in Society, 78(4), 413–19. Chaloff, J. (2013), Global Trends in Family Migration in the OECD, available at https://​www​ .oecd​.org/​els/​mig/​Chaloff​.pdf (accessed 18 November 2022). Chrobot-Mason, D., S. B. Button and J. D. DiClementi (2001), ‘Sexual identity management strategies: an exploration of antecedents and consequences’, Sex Roles, 45(5–6), 321–36. Collins, D. (2005). ‘Identity, mobility, and urban place-making: exploring gay life in Manila’, Gender and Society, 19, 180–198. Collins, D. (2009), ‘“We’re there and queer”: homonormative mobility and lived experience among gay expatriates in Manila’, Gender and Society, 23(4), 465–93. DeJordy, R. (2008), ‘Just passing through: stigma, passing, and identity decoupling in the work place’, Group & Organization Management, 33(5), 504–31. Diamond, L. M. and M. Butterworth (2008), ‘Questioning gender and sexual identity: dynamic links over time’, Sex Roles, 59(5–6), 365–76. Diversity Best Practice (2015), ‘Research report: Best practices for multinationals in collecting workforce demographic data’, available at http://​www​.di​versitybes​tpractices​.com/​tags/​ research. Dray, K. K., V. R. E. Smith, T. P. Kostecki, I. E. Sabat and C. R Thomson (2020), ‘Moving beyond the gender binary: examining workplace perceptions of nonbinary and transgender employees’, Gender, Work & Organization, 27(6), 1181–91. Driscoll, J. M., F. A. Kelley and R. E. Fassinger (1996), ‘Lesbian identity and disclosure in the workplace: relation to occupational stress and satisfaction’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 48(2), 229–42. Elron, E. and R. Kark (2000), ‘Women managers and international assignments: some recommendations for bridging the gap’, in M. Mendenhall and G. Oddou (eds), Reading Cases in International Human Resource Management, South-West College Publishing, pp. 144–54. Gedro, J. (2010), ‘The lavender ceiling atop the global closet: human resource development and lesbian expatriate’, Human Resource Development Review, 9, 385–404. Gedro, J. A., Cervero, R. M. and J. Johnson-Bailey (2004), ‘How lesbians learn to negotiate the heterosexism of corporate America’, Human Resource Development International, 7(2), 181–95. Gedro, J., R. C. Mizzi, T. S. Rocco and J. van Loo (2013), ‘Going global: professional mobility and concerns for LGBT workers’, Human Resource Development International, 16(3), 282–97. Glanz, L., R. Williams and L. Hoeksema (2001), ‘Sensemaking in expatriation—a theoretical basis’, Thunderbird International Business Review, 43(1), 101–20. Goffman, I. (1963), Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, Hoboken, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

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Greenhaus, J. H. and T. D. Allen (2011), ‘Work–family balance: a review and extension of the literature’, in J. C. Quick and L. E. Tetrick (eds), Handbook of Occupational Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, pp. 165–83. Haslberger, A. and C. Brewster (2008), ‘The expatriate family: an international perspective’, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(3), 324–46. Hill, R. (2009), ‘Incorporating queers: blowback, backlash, and other forms of resistance to workplace diversity initiatives that support sexual minorities’, Advances in Developing Human Resources, 11, 37–53. Hines, S. (2006), ‘What’s the difference? Bringing particularity to queer studies of transgender’, Journal of Gender Studies, 15(1), 49–66. House, C. J. C. (2004), ‘Integrating barriers to Caucasian lesbians’ career development and super’s life-span, life-space approach’, The Career Development Quarterly, 52(3), 246–55. Hughes, H. (1997), ‘Holidays and homosexual identity’, Tourism Management, 18(1), 3–7. Human Rights Campaign Foundation (2022), Talking About Pronouns in the Workplace, HRC Foundation, available at https://​www​.thehrcfoundation​.org/​professional​-resources/​talking​ -about​-pronouns​-in​-the​-workplace. Hutchings, K. (2021), ‘Why we need to know more about diversity among the globally mobile: a systematic literature review of non-traditional expatriate research and future research agenda for minority expatriates’, Journal of Global Mobility, 10(1), 127–61. Johnson, J. R. (2013), ‘Cisgender privilege, intersectionality, and the criminalization of CeCe McDonald: why intercultural communication needs transgender studies’, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 6(2), 135–44. Kahn, S. and E. J. Alessi (2018), ‘Coming out under the gun: exploring the psychological dimensions of seeking refugee status for LGBT claimants in Canada’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 31(1), 22–41. Kaplan, D. M. (2014), ‘Career anchors and paths: the case of gay, lesbian, & bisexual workers’, Human Resource Management Review, 24(2), 119–30. Kim, K. and M. A. Von Glinow (2017a), ‘Contextual determinants in disclosing one’s stigmatized identity during expatriation: the case of lesbian and gay self-intiated expatriates’, Journal of Global Mobility, 5(3), 317–38. Kim, K. and M.A. Von Glinow (2017b), ‘Managing non-traditional human capital in international assignments: a qualitative analysis of the talent and innovation gaps’, in S. Kundu and S. Munjal (eds), Human Capital and Innovation: Examining the Role of Globalization, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 91–129. King, E. B. and J. M Cortina (2010), ‘The social and economic imperative of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered supportive organizational policies’, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 3(1), 69–78. Lansing, P. and C. Cruser (2009), ‘The moral responsibility of business to protect homosexuals from discrimination in the workplace’, Employee Relations Law Journal, 35(1), 43–66. Lee, E. S., P. A. Roy and B. Szkudlarek (2021), ‘Integrating refugees into the workplace – a collaborative approach’, in M. Chavan and L. Taksa (eds), Intercultural Management in Practice, Bingley: Emerald Publishing, pp. 121–9. Leinonen, J. A., T. S. Solantaus and R.-L. Punamäki (2003), ‘Parental mental health and children’s adjustment: the quality of marital interaction and parenting as mediating factors’, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 44(2), 227–41. Madera, J. (2010), ‘The cognitive effects of hiding one’s homosexuality in the workplace’, Industrial and Organisational Psychology, 3(1), 86–9. McFadden, C. (2015), ‘Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender careers and human resource development: a systematic literature review’, Human Resource Development Review, 14(2), 125–62. McNulty, Y. (2014), ‘Women as female breadwinners in non-traditional expatriate families: status-reversal marriages, single parents, split families, and lesbian partnerships’, in K.

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Hutchings and S. Michailova (eds), Research Handbook on Women in International Management, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 332–66. McNulty, Y. (2015), ‘Acculturating non-traditional expatriates: a case study of single parent, overseas adoption, split family, and lesbian assignees’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 49, 278–93. McNulty, Y. and K. Hutchings (2016), ‘Looking for global talent in all the right places: a critical literature review of non-traditional expatriates’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(7), 699–728. McNulty, Y., R. McPhail, C. Inversi, T. Dundon and E. Nechanska (2018), ‘Employee voice mechanisms for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender expatriation: the role of Employee-Resource Groups (ERGs) and allies’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(5), 829–56. McPhail, B. A. (2004), ‘Questioning gender and sexuality binaries: what queer theorists, transgendered individuals, and sex researchers can teach social work’, Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 17(1), 3–21. McPhail, R. (2017), ‘Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) expatriates’, in Y. McNulty and J. Selmer (eds), Research Handbook of Expatriates, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 202–16. McPhail, R. and R. Fisher (2015), Lesbian and gay expatriates use of social media to aid acculturation’, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 49, 294–307. McPhail, R. and Y. McNulty (2015), ‘“Oh, the places you won’t go as an LGBT expat!” A study of HRM’s duty of care to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender expatriates in dangerous locations’, European Journal of International Management, 9(6), 737–65. McPhail, R., Y. McNulty and K. Hutchings (2016), ‘Lesbian and gay expatriation: opportunities, barriers and challenges for global mobility’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27, 382–406. Mizzi, R. (2015), ‘Sexualities on the move: a comparison of the work experiences of gay male educators teaching overseas’, Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 173, 73–92. Mizzi, R. C. (2014), ‘Troubling preparedness: investigating the (in)visibility of LGBT concerns within pre-departure orientations’, Development in Practice, 24(2), 286–97. Mizzi, R. C. (2018), ‘Troubling hetero/cisnormative educational practices in international development’, in C. Mason (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Queer Development Studies (1st edn), London: Routledge, pp. 31–43. Moeller, M. and J. F. Maley (2018), ‘MNC considerations in identifying and managing LGB expatriate stigmatization’, International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(2), 325–42. Moore, M. J. (2002), ‘Same ticket, different trip: supporting dual-career couples on global assignments’, Women in Management Review, 17(2), 61–7. Murray, D. (2007), ‘The civilized homosexual: travel talk and the project of gay identity’, Sexualities, 10, 49–60. Newport, F. (2018), ‘U.S., estimate of LGBT population rises to 4.5%’, available at https://​ news​.gallup​.com/​poll/​234863/​estimate​-lgbt​-population​-rises​.aspx (accessed May 22, 2022). Paisley, V. and M. Tayar (2016), ‘Lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) expatriates: an intersectionality perspective’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(7), 766–80. Pringle, J. K. (2008), ‘Gender in management: theorizing gender as heterogender’, British Journal of Management, 19, 110–19. Priola, V., D. Lasio, S. De Simone and F. Serri (2014), ‘The sound of silence: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender discrimination in “inclusive organizations”’, British Journal of Management, 25(3), 488–502.

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Puar, J. (2002), Queer Tourism: Geographies of Globalization, Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Quinn, D. M. and S. R. Chaudoir (2009), ‘Living with a concealable stigmatized identity: the impact of anticipated stigma, centrality, salience, and cultural stigma on psychological distress and health’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(4), 634–51. Quinn, D. M. and V. A. Earnshaw (2013), ‘Concealable stigmatized identities and psychological well-being: concealable stigmatized identities’, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(1), 40–51. Ragins, B. R. (2008), ‘Disclosure disconnects: antecedents and consequences of disclosing invisible stigmas across life domains’, Academy of Management Review, 33(1), 194–215. Ragins, B. R. and J. M. Cornwall (2001), ‘Pink triangles: antecedents and consequences of perceived workplace discrimination against gay and lesbian employees’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 124–6. Rainbow Families (2022), ‘Who we are’, Rainbow Families, available at https://​ www​ .rainbowfamilies​.com​.au/​history​_mission​_vision​_values. Richardson, J. (2006), ‘Self-directed expatriation: family matters’, Personnel Review, 35(4), 469–86. Rumens, N. and J. Broomfield (2012), ‘Gay men in the police: identity disclosure and management issues’, Human Resource Management Journal, 22(3), 283–98. Sawyer, K., C. Thoroughgood and J. Ladge (2017), ‘Invisible families, invisible conflicts: examining the added layer of work-family conflict for employees with LGB families’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 103 (Part A), 23–39. Schwartz, H. M., C. Van Esch and D. Bilimoria (2017), ‘Bringing transgender issues into management education: a call to action’, Academy of Management Learning & Education, 16(2), 300–313. Shore, L. M., B. G. Chung-Herrera, M. A. Dean, K. H. Ehrhart, D. I. Jung, A. E. Randel and G. Singh (2009), ‘Diversity in organizations: where are we now and where are we going?’, Human Resource Management Review, 19(2), 117–33. Stonewall (2022), ‘List of LGBTQ+ terms’, available at https://​www​.stonewall​.org​.uk/​help​ -advice/​faqs​-and​-glossary/​list​-lgbtq​-terms. Stryker, S. (2009), Transgender History, New York: Seal Press. Suen, Y. T. (2021), ‘Sexual minority expatriates as agent of change? How foreign same-sex couples won the recognition of same-sex relationship for immigration purposes in Hong Kong’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(13), 2961–78. T, A. (2018), ‘How India decriminalised homosexuality’, The Economist, available at https://​www​.economist​.com/​the​-economist​-explains/​2018/​09/​12/​how​-india​-decriminalised​ -homosexuality. Westman, M. (2001), ‘Stress and strain crossover’, Human Relations, 54(6), 717–51. Wicks, D. (2017), ‘The consequences of outness: gay men’s workplace experiences’, Management Decision, 55(9), 1868–87. Wildman, S. (2020), ‘Inside the battle to decriminalize homosexuality in India [Broadcast]’, First Person, available at https://​foreignpolicy​.com/​2019/​02/​22/​inside​-the​-battle​-to​ -decriminalize​-homosexuality​-in​-india/​. Willis, P. (2012), ‘Witnesses on the periphery: young lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer employees witnessing homophobic exchanges in Australian workplaces’, Human Relations, 65(12), 1589–610. Yue, A. (2013), ‘Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) migration’, in The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Zander, U., L. Zander, S. Gaffney and J. Olsson (2010), ‘Intersectionality as a new perspective in international business research’, Scandinavian Journal of Management, 26(4), 457–66.

13. Split family expatriation: perspectives from expatriates and their career spouses Kate Hutchings and Yvonne Kallane

INTRODUCTION In 2012, the authors of this chapter first discussed the need for there to be more consideration within the expatriate literature of people who either organisationally-assigned or self-initiated expatriation but did not fit the mould of the traditional expatriate family situation of a heterosexual man with a trailing woman spouse/partner and children, or a heterosexual dual career couple (with or without children). From these initial discussions, we guest edited a special issue of The International Journal of Human Resource Management on non-traditional expatriates. In the call for papers and the editorial introduction to the special issue we highlighted that the area we argued warranted further attention focused on distinguishing non-traditional expatriates from non-traditional expatriation, or the individual and the uniqueness of the non-traditional nature of their family situation, not their assignment type (e.g. self-initiated expatriation, short-term assignments, fly in/fly out (FIFO) project work) (McNulty and Hutchings, 2016). In the published special issue, the included papers focused on multigenerational families; women in frequent traveller roles with primary responsibility for family caring; and LGBT expatriates. As sole authors (or in collaboration with others), we have also published several other papers which addressed varying types of non-traditional expatriates including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) expatriates (McPhail and McNulty, 2015; McPhail, McNulty and Hutchings, 2016), single parent expatriates, status reversal expatriates (female breadwinners), overseas adoption families (McNulty, 2014; McNulty, 2015) and older academic international business traveller expatriates (Hutchings, Wilkinson and Brewster, 2022). We have continued to highlight the need for further consideration of non-traditional expatriates of varying types (Hutchings and Michailova, 2014; Hutchings and Michailova, 2016). Other researchers have also explored some types of non-traditional expatriates and family situations including LGBT expatriates (Collins, 2009; Gedro, 2010; Paisley and Tayar, 2016) and mobility with special needs children (Carlton and Perelstein, 2013). More recent research has suggested these non-traditional expatriates should be referred to as minority expatriates. Given they are a minority among the expatriate community and can be contrasted against the people that comprise the majority expatriates, such terminology also allows for examination of minority expatriates’ experiences in reference to the experience of minorities explored in general human resource management literature (Hutchings, 2022). While the previous dearth of literature has been somewhat addressed in recent 327

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years, we note that there is still very limited reference to the experiences of another type of non-traditional (or minority) expatriate which is becoming more prevalent, namely, split family expatriates (exceptions include Merignac and Roger, 2005, 2006; Merignac and Grillat, 2012; McNulty, 2014, 2016). The literature that has explored expatriates in non-traditional family situations has consistently highlighted that there is need for organisations to provide support to accommodate employees with a wider range of global family responsibilities and commitments and those living in differing family arrangements, than has occurred in the past, if they are to attract and retain a broader spectrum of talent and maximise the diversity of their workforce. While there are sectors and industries in which it has always been common for employees to expatriate or undertake FIFO work while family remains at home, such as in the resources sector (mining, oil and gas; Brook and Ditchburn, Chapter 14, this volume; Peetz and Murray, 2011; Ranford, Willcocks and Anderson, 2012) and the military (de Burgh, White, Fear and Iversen, 2011), increasing political unrest internationally has meant that greater numbers of people are working away from families in non-government organisations (NGOs) and humanitarian relief/aid agencies (Curling and Simmons, 2010; Fee and Gray, 2011) and as development volunteers (Fee and Gray, 2022), and entering split family arrangements (see Starr and Currie, 2009; Sullivan, Aldred and Taylor, 2013). We thus suggest that split families are an important part of the expatriate population (e.g. Stewart and Donald, 2006; Whalen and Schmidt, 2016), and across many sectors (e.g. Carter and Renshaw, 2015; Faber, Willerton, Clymer, MacDermid and Weiss, 2008), which warrants further consideration. Though the COVID-19 pandemic forced many expatriates to remain separated from family for longer than had originally been intended, people in a split family expatriation arrangement willingly enter into such a situation for many reasons. The reasons include (albeit not limited to): maintaining dual careers, financial advantages (which may be associated with a partner continuing their career at home), providing stability for children in schooling and in relationships with friends and other family members, and limiting risk exposure of the family in locations which may be politically unstable, dangerous or provide a reduced standard of living (Brookfield Global Relocation Services, 2014, 2016; Mercer, 2017; Sullivan, Aldred and Taylor, 2013). Notwithstanding such rationales and possible benefits, there can also be significant stressors associated with split family expatriation. It has been suggested that frequent international work travel has significant impacts on family (Espino, Sundstrom, Frick, Jacobs and Peters, 2002; Welch, Welch and Worm, 2007), offers poor work–life balance particularly for mothers (Shortland, 2015), places greater household and caring responsibilities on the partner at home (Copeland, 2009; Hutchings, Lirio and Metcalfe, 2012) and/or requires considerable pre-organisation/management of caring responsibilities when a mother is the frequent traveller (Fischlmayr and Puchmueller, 2016). Research examining frequent flyer work specifically in a domestic context has suggested that while it can pose significant difficulties for some families (Lindemann, 2019), other families show no psychosocial problems (see Kaczmarek and Sibbel, 2008) and

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some thrive with high family functioning strongly associated with family cohesion and flexibility (Taylor and Simmonds, 2009). For those who expatriate, either on short- or long-term assignments, research has consistently shown that family and spouse/partner concerns are a significant stressor (Brown, 2008; Mäkelä, Särenpää and McNulty, 2017; Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012; Rosenbusch, Cerney and Earnest, 2015). In addition to perceived/expected impacts on spouse/partner and children, one reason why university graduates showed reluctance to expatriate was due to leaving elderly family at home (Hurn, 2014); suggesting that family is a significant factor in deliberations about international relocation for employment. Non-adjustment of spouse/partner and/or children can contribute to expatriate failure (Cole, 2011) but even though family support can in some instances aid expatriate adjustment (see Takeuchi, 2010) this does not apply universally and, it has been found that, in a dangerous context of terrorist-exposure, family tension negatively impacts on expatriate work performance (Bader, Berg and Holtbrugge, 2015). Despite such noted stressors for families, it has been suggested that organisational support for expatriate families continues to focus solely on cultural and career needs and neglects marital support (McNulty, 2015). We concur that there is little evidence available about the impact of alternative forms of international assignments for family and employees’ work–life balance (Collings, Dowling and Scullion, 2009; Mäkelä et al., 2017). Similarly, there has been limited research on non-traditional families in alternative assignment arrangements and expatriation in NGOs and the not-for-profit sector (see Hutchings and Michailova, 2016) and it has been argued that the literature on expatriation rarely differentiates family structures (Goede and Holtbrügge, 2021). We would expect that in split family situations, the expatriate is impacted by having limited familial support, and for the spouse/partner at home there would be a higher level of responsibility not just to care for children and other family members but also to manage all other daily household and financial matters. Across the literature on traditional expatriate assignments, new forms of international assignments, and non-traditional expatriate family situations there has been limited research which draws solely from the perspective of spouse/partner or children (exceptions include Cole, 2012; De Cieri, Dowling and Taylor, 1991; de Sivatte et al., 2019; McNulty, 2012; Mutter, 2017; Van Der Zee, Ali and Haaksma, 2007; Weeks, Weeks and Willis-Mueller, 2010; and several South Korean studies about missionary kids – see Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 9, this volume). In this chapter, we seek to extend the literature on non-traditional expatriates, specifically split family expatriates, by elucidating the perspective of the spouse/partner who remains at home about the impacts of such arrangements for them and their family situation. Such understanding also provides insights into implications for the expatriate and his/her organisation. This chapter provides an exploratory scoping study, positioned in family systems theory and stress theory, which draws on four in-depth interviews with expatriates

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who live in one country while their spouse (and children) lives in another. The key research question examined is: RQ1: Do split family expatriate arrangements work, and if so, for whom? An associated sub-question is: RQ1a: Do split family expatriate arrangements achieve their aims and if so, the aims of whom? We present the research findings in a narrative, vignette approach which examines the split family expatriate experience of two couples to provide ‘voice’ to the participants and fully elucidate their split family journey and possible stressors. For the purposes of this chapter, we define expatriates as people undertaking work away from their country of residence for a temporary period, being either self-initiated or organisationally-assigned, and involving relocation on a short-, medium- or long-term basis for a fixed or open-ended period (McNulty and Brewster, 2017). We define expatriate split families as incorporating a spectrum of arrangements in which the expatriate lives separately from their spouse/partner (and/or children of the relationship, where applicable). Split family arrangements have been defined as: the family staying in the home location while the expatriate lives abroad and returns home frequently; and where the expatriate and family relocate abroad to a particular country but the expatriate commutes to another country or city location/s and returns to the family on weekends (see Sullivan, Aldred and Taylor, 2013). In our research, we draw a distinction from what has already received some attention in the literature, namely, commuter expatriates (Mäkelä et al., 2017; McGavin, Jones and Imbun, 2001; Ralph, 2015; Van der Klis and Karsten, 2009) as involving frequent return trips, to the home country/city such as occurs in Euro commuting (see Linehan, Morley and Scullion, 2003), in which distances in Europe mean that it is feasible for someone to live and work in one country during the week and return to their family and home country on weekends. Thus, we refer to only Sullivan, Aldred and Taylor’s (2013) first type (the family staying in the home location while the expatriate lives abroad and returns home frequently) and discuss situations involving arrangements/assignments of one year duration or longer and in which the expatriate meets face-to-face with the spouse/partner (and children if applicable) either in the expatriate location or home country in which the family reside no more frequently than once per month. Our rationale for limiting our study in such a way is to examine the extent of the stressors for the spouse/partner at home when they live separated for much of the year (without the regular contact and household involvement which occurs with commuters) and the implications this has for them and their relationship (and by consequence possible impacts on the expatriate’s intention to complete an assignment).

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LITERATURE REVIEW We begin our literature review by discussing family systems theory, developments in the field as well as critiques, from which we elaborate on how it has been used in previous studies in expatriation. We then discuss stress in expatriation with specific reference to stressors, strains and daily hassles for expatriate families. Family Systems Theory Following on from the use of family systems theory (FST) in expatriation research to examine cross-cultural adjustment of families when expatriating (Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012) and the relationship between family adjustment and work adjustment (Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998), we apply FST in this study because it seems particularly appropriate for also examining the impact of international work context for family interactions when a family is involved in a split family expatriate arrangement. We concur with Rosenbusch and Cseh (2012) that organisations need to fully understand the effect that family has on the experience of the expatriate’s international work assignment and we extend this in using FST to explore the impacts on family dynamics which result from split family expatriation in which a spouse/ partner is ‘left at home’. We further explore the implications this has for his/her relationship with the expatriate, interaction with other family members, and ultimately for the expatriate’s work outcomes. In addition to FST, we also situate our study in the context of stress to elucidate the stressors, strains and daily hassles for the spouse/partner at home and impacts of such for family dynamics and the split family assignment outcomes. Origins of, and developments within, family systems theory FST grew out of general systems theory (GST), which Kast and Rosenzweig (1972) note has roots which go back to the German philosopher Hegel in the early 1800s and which were elaborated in organisation and management theory by Chester Bernard. Bernard notes ‘a cooperative system is a complex of physical, personal and social components which are in a specific systematic relationship by reason of the cooperation of two or more persons for at least one definite end … one of the systems comprised within a cooperative system, the one which is implicit in the phrase “cooperation of two or more persons” is called an “organization”’ (cited in Kast and Rosenzweig, 1972, p. 448). Like GST, FST also refers to a system; in this case emphasising viewing the family holistically and the individuals within the family as being influenced by the other family members and their internal relationship interactions as well as the external environment. In this sense, FST sees the family as an interconnected system which is quite distinct from an ‘aggregation of individual identities, attitudes or roles’ (Bavelas and Segal, 1982, p. 107). Drawing on psychiatry and psychotherapy for use in clinical practice, FST had its origins in family therapy in the 1950s in which psychoanalysis, as an established mode of treatment, prescribed therapist engage-

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ment with the family members of patients (Bavelas and Segal, 1982). Rosenbusch and Cseh (2012) noted that FST provides a framework for understanding the social dynamics that emerge in a family and the interdependence of such means that ‘each individual member is strongly influenced by the structure, organization, and transactional patterns of the family system’ (Miller et al., 1985; cited in Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012, p. 64). FST suggests operation in a circular pattern in which effects of the individual on the family create a cycle of interaction (Minunchin, 1985; cited in Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012) and in which behaviours lead to other behaviours that lead back to the individual (Bavelas and Segal, 1982). In FST it has been suggested that every behaviour has an element of communication – ‘to the sender, the receiver or both … all communication conveys not only content but also conveys information about the relationship between the participants’ (Bavelas and Segal, 1982, p. 106). Minunchin (1974, p. 51; cited in Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998) conceptualised that families have three components, namely: ‘First, the structure of the family is an open sociocultural system in transformation. Second, the family undergoes development, moving through several stages that require restructuring. Third, the family adapts to changes in circumstances so as to maintain continuity and enhance the psychosocial growth of each member.’ While some researchers (e.g. Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998; Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012) draw on the work of Minuchin to conceptualise individuals within the family as operating as an open cultural system that goes through developmental stages, other research in FST has referred to the thinking of Bowen. Murray Bowen (1913–1990) was one of the first to focus on treating the whole family and their emotional system rather than just an individual, and examined three-person relationship structures (triangles) and transgenerational patterns in understanding the importance of past and present in breaking cycles (Ruiz, 2015). Bowen focused on understanding patterns within families which may defuse anxiety and suggested that a key factor in anxiety in families is too much closeness or too much distance in relationships (in our study, for example, this could arise from geographical distance leading to emotional distance). Anxiety in a family is also affected by levels of external stress (e.g. close family support from immediate family for at-home spouses versus no support) and sensitivities to themes transmitted through generations. Thus, emphasis is placed on the workings of the system so that individuals can forge a different role within the system or action of the ‘self in the system’ (see Brown, 1999). In our study, we liken this to changes in the role for the at-home spouse who does more parenting, caregiving and household management, while the expatriate steps back from these roles. Notably, there can be challenges around re-entry when spouses temporarily renegotiate the at-home role, leading to the suggestion that it may be easier for spouses to reunite temporarily in a holiday destination (i.e. no one’s territory) than to be at home and disrupt the at-home spouse’s role. Like Bowenian transgenerational therapy, Salvador Minunchin (1921–2017) also considered the person within the family and the importance of the past but mainly the present in respect to the family’s role in solving a problem. As a structural family therapist, Minuchin highlighted the sub-systems within families (extended family

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support, community resources) which may be based on generation, gender and function (Ruiz, 2015). Within Minuchin’s structural model there are three elements – the family structure, the family subsystems, and family boundaries with the latter referring to visible perimeters regulating contact with other members in the family (e.g. geographical barriers, time zone differences; Nichols, 2009; cited in Ruiz, 2015). For a discussion of key differences in the thinking of Bowen and Minuchin, see Ruiz (2015). The circumplex model of marital and family systems developed by Olson and his colleagues was designed to bring together FST and family development theory and examined family processes in respect to three dimensions of family behaviour, including cohesion, communication, and adaptability (the latter re-termed ‘flexibility’ in the 1990s; Olson, Russell and Sprenkle, 1983; Olson, 1993). Family cohesion refers to the degree of separation of connection of an individual to his/her family system, while family communication is considered a facilitating dimension that moderates interaction between family members (Olson, Russell and Sprenkle, 1983). Family flexibility considers changes in family leadership, role relationships and relationship rules, which would be considered significant in the split family expatriate context (Olson, 2000; cited in Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012) and incorporates assertiveness, leadership, discipline, negotiation, roles and rules (Olson et al., 1992; cited in Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012). Focusing on the dimensions of cohesion and adaptability, Olson, Russell and Sprenkle (1983) identified sixteen distinct marital and family systems. Critique of family systems theory There has been some critique of limitations of FST. Yerby (1995) highlighted that much critique came from feminist authors, narrative family therapists, and family systems theorists who favour a constructionist view. She suggests that these criticisms focused on limited recognition of the family as constantly changing; dichotomising between individual and family systems perspectives; gender bias potential; the challenge of social inequities and cultural diversity; and scepticism about defining problems in the family exclusively from the privileged position of the researcher. While feminist researchers highlighted the need to recognise gender bias which may guide thinking in family therapy, Knudson-Martin (1994) noted that Bowen’s FST, designed to guide therapeutic interventions, has been suggested to lend itself well to feminist practice and has been critiqued for overemphasising stereotypically male traits. Others have suggested that it, too, has received feminist critique for focusing too much on the mother’s role in symptom developments in children with limited questioning of societal norms (Brown, 1999). For its part, structural family therapy, emphasised by Minuchin, has been critiqued for being an aggressive, confrontational and overly directive approach (Hammond and Nichols, 2008; cited in Ruiz, 2015). Recent studies in family systems theory The psychology and health research which has used FST as a lens for analysis has examined a very wide range of aspects of family relationships including, amongst

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others, recent research on adoptive families (Weir et al., 2013); development of empathy in children (Jamshidi, 2015); disordered eating behaviours in adolescents (Berge et al., 2014); family structure and adolescent well-being (Harcourt et al., 2013); marital satisfaction and parenting practices (Pedro, Ribeiro, and Shelton, 2012); school counselling curriculum (Gold, 2014); veterans’ experiences living with parents post-military (Worthen, Moos and Ahem, 2013) and veterans’ post-traumatic stress disorder (Ohye et al., 2015). Family systems theory and expatriation Having developed from psychotherapy and designed to be used in therapeutic application, FST has received scant reference and use within management and organisational studies. Specifically, in relation to expatriation we find eight main studies (Caligiuri, Hyland and Joshi, 1998; Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998; Creed, 2006; Konopaske, Robie and Ivancevich, 2009; McNulty, 2012; Rosenbusch, Cerny and Earnest 2015; Rosenbuch and Cseh, 2012; Van Der Zee, Ali and Haaksma, 2007), which are discussed herein. Rosenbusch and Cseh (2012) highlighted that despite the commonly noted importance of family in cross-cultural adjustment, FST has received little attention in the expatriate adjustment literature and was limited to two studies beyond their own (although we found five other studies including one published after their research). Rosenbusch and Cseh (2012) referred to Creed (2006) who examined the predictive value of family cohesion, flexibility, communication, type and satisfaction on the cross-cultural adjustment of family sojourners, and Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross (1998) who considered the relationship between family characteristics and expatriate adjustment. Konopaske, Robie and Ivancevich (2009) proposed a multi-factor model and proposed that individual, family, and organisational variables influenced managers’ willingness to accept both traditional (long-term) and non-traditional short-term/ travelling/commuter assignments. Variables include adventurousness of the individual, proposed destination country, and compensatory rewards and benefits to their career. Of particular importance within their study is a focus on family systems theory, wherein family factors were found to influence family relocation decisions in relation to family responsibilities including children living at home, ties to their local community, eldercare, and willingness of the spouse to relocate. Caligiuri, Hyland and Joshi (1998) argued that, in thinking in FST terms, an international assignment is a change that requires adaption wherein adequate adaption can facilitate cross-cultural adjustment – although as each family member’s actions affect other family members within the family system, one individual member can disrupt the balance for all. As pressures from within the family as well as outside the family can disturb equilibrium of the family (Brett and Stroh, 1995) it has been suggested that the demands of the foreign environment are part of the extramarital demands to which the family must transform and adapt (Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998). We suggest that the demands of both the foreign environment for the

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expatriate and the demands of the home environment for the spouse/partner would also pose challenges for the family system in split family arrangements. Using double ABCX theory and finding consistency with such, Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross (1998, p. 609) noted that ‘a combination of (A) the stressor of the global environment, (B) the family characteristics (e.g. support, communication) and (C) the family’s perceptions of relocating internationally all relate to a family’s cross-cultural adjustment’. McNulty (2012), emphasising the developmental stages which occur for families while also trying to maintain equilibrium during international assignments, argued that the value of a FST approach is the potential to recognise a range of internal and external factors that affect spousal adjustment, thereby providing a potential link between the provision of organisational support and perceived adjustment. Recognition of the dynamic nature of family systems means seeing the value of adjusting support accordingly. Her findings proffered that marital stress is poorly addressed by expatriates’ organisations and that organisations provide inadequate support to cope with stressors, strains and daily hassles encountered by trailing spouses during expatriation (McNulty, 2012); a finding which we would also expect to apply for those in split family arrangements. In their study of cross-cultural adjustment of families, Rosenbusch and Cseh (2012) utilised the Cerny Smith Adjustment Index (CSAI) to examine flexibility in family systems and considered five dimensions (relational, psychological, cultural, personal, and organisational) and ten stressors (cultural, occupational, spiritual, relational, historical, support, physical, psychological, organisational, and crisis). They found that expatriates who perceived higher family flexibility adjusted more easily, cultural stress had the most impact on families, and components of family flexibility facilitated cross-cultural adjustment. Rosenbusch, Cerny and Earnest (2015) noted that cultural adjustment can reduce cultural stress in individuals but can increase stress for, and lead to conflicts within, families in instances where some members assimilate better than others. We might expect then that, for the expatriate spouse/partner and family left at home, it will be difficult for them to understand the cultural and occupational stressors experienced by the expatriate and challenges in cross-cultural adjustment but similarly the expatriate is likely to have difficulties fully appreciating the other stressors, strains and daily hassles for the spouse/partner left at home. Van Der Zee, Ali and Haaksma (2007) specifically examined the cultural transition coping of expatriates’ children and adolescents. The authors’ noted that in ‘departing from family system theory, the present study focused on three family characteristics that may contribute to adjustment among expatriate children, namely adaptability, cohesion, and communication’ (p. 27). Consequently, their study examined the influence of family and parental work factors, personality, and attachment for expatriates’ children’s intercultural adjustment. Most significantly, they found that expatriate children from families which were highly cohesive were observed to experience a high level of intercultural adjustment.

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Stress in Expatriation: Stressors, Strains and Daily Hassles A significant body of literature across a range of disciplines, encompassing psychology and organisational/business studies, has examined impacts of stress on individuals and families, but there have been relatively few studies of stress in relation to expatriate families. Stress has been explained as tension experienced by individuals when they are facing ‘considerable physical and psychological demands’; although it has been noted that it may be positive or negative with the former being used to achieve goals and the latter adversely affecting well-being (Hartel and Fujimoto, 2010, p. 166). Oberg (1960) discussed the relationship between stress and culture shock which may occur when people move to live and/or work in other countries. The extent to which people move on from culture shock to achieve varying degrees of cultural adjustment and the factors which facilitate this have been consistently examined from the employee’s perspective in the expatriate literature, and it has been suggested that coping with stressors and the unknown is integral to successful transition (Forster, 1997; Jordan and Cartwright, 1997; cited in Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012). Though few studies have examined the dominant stressors that affect cross-cultural adjustment, it has been asserted that relational stress and work/family interactions have the most impact on expatriate performance, and that expatriate spouses also are affected by psychological stressors (Rosenbusch, Cerny and Earnest, 2015). Stress in expatriation may take the form of work stress and stress in the non-work context for both the expatriate and working/non-working spouse/partner, and children. Overload of work and the challenges of cultural change/adaptation and underload of work/career hiatus can create stress, while crossover can occur in which individuals may imagine and empathise with how they would feel in their partner’s place or that they automatically have emotional contagion (Haslberger and Brewster, 2008; see also Takeuchi, Yun and Teslak, 2002 for a discussion of crossover effects). Haslberger and Brewster (2008) note stressors, strains and daily hassles for families involved in international assignments include, albeit are not limited to: stressors of giving up a job, children going to a new school, new housing, changing family routines, cultural differences between and differing gender roles in home and host country, and financial changes; strains of unresolved stressor events including culture shock or work performance (the reaction to which may manifest over time); and daily hassles of family-related obligations and concerns, and work-related responsibilities and concerns. Other research has also reinforced belief in family characteristics as impacting on expatriates’ psychological workplace strain (Takeuchi, Wang and Marinova, 2005) and the existence of stressors, strains and daily hassles across differing forms of expatriation and international work (see James, Hunsley, Navara and Alles, 2004; McNulty, 2015; Westman, Etzion and Chen, 2009). Haslberger and Brewster (2008) referred to family capabilities to deal with stressors in the form of resources and coping behaviours. McNulty (2012) noted that capabilities for addressing stressors, strains and daily hassles include coping behaviours that draw on resources – emotional (e.g. friendships, clubs/associations, online

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forums), informational (e.g. organisationally-provided spouse job search assistance), and instrumental (e.g. relocation allowances, residency permits). Importantly, it has been emphasised that anxiety and depression (which may result from stressors and strains) impact other family members and are related to partner interaction and parenting style (Leinonen et al., 2003; cited in Haslberger and Brewster, 2008) while strains may occur in response to a family’s unsuccessful attempts at adjustment/ adaptation (Haslberger and Brewster, 2008). We suggest that FST, with its emphasis on understanding the interactions within families, is particularly apt for examining the impact of stressors, strains and daily hassles which may present in a split family expatriate arrangement. While the spouse/partner left at home does not experience the work and cultural challenges of the expatriate, s/he may have their own work challenges (which may be exacerbated by performing the roles and responsibilities of both parents; Mutter, 2017), and thus will encounter stress in adjusting to changing family relations including geographic distance from the expatriate, as well as crossover effects.

METHODS To gain access to potential interviewees, the second author contacted several consulting companies and asked that they distribute, to their senior managers, a request (providing details of the research project) to participate in an interview. Individuals were asked to contact the researchers directly if they were interested and available to participate in the study. When interviews were conducted with expatriates, the researchers then asked if the interviewee would provide details of the project to their spouse/partner and ask that s/he contact the researchers directly if they also agreed to participate. The researchers experienced considerable difficulties in gaining access to matched samples of expatriates and spouses, which we speculate reflects that either or one member of the split family were not satisfied with the arrangement (see Dillman, Smyth and Christian, 2014, for a critique). In one case, an expatriate contacted the researchers and participated in an interview and said that the spouse would also be willing to be involved, but despite several efforts to make contact over many months through varying approaches the spouse did not respond to requests to be interviewed. Given these difficulties, and consistent with Rossman and Rallis’ (2003) approach, the researchers then decided to expand their approach to data gathering by drawing directly on contacts they had within the expatriate community. These approaches to data collection proved to be highly effective in maintaining response quality and reducing response effects (Fontana and Frey, 2005). The result of the above is that some interviews we conducted could not be presented in this chapter (as they provided the perspective of only one partner), given our dyadic approach involving matched interviews with expatriate and spouse (see Denzin and Lincoln, 2005). Responses are provided in which the researchers could obtain interviews with both an expatriate and his/her spouse/partner so that perspectives of each person in the partnership could be provided.

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The research was conducted in accordance with ethics requirements of the university at which the lead author is employed. In the email request for participation, potential interviewees were provided with an information sheet describing the research project and its purpose and the way the research was to be conducted. All interviewees were also provided with a consent form which needed to be signed and returned prior to the interview commencing. All participants were assured that their participation was voluntary, that their responses would be confidential, and that in any publications/report/presentations that their real names or the names of their organisations would not be used. Within this paper, pseudonyms are provided for each interviewee and their family members. Each of the participants was interviewed separate to their spouse (on different occasions), with each spouse being interviewed in the country in which they lived at the time. The interviews were conducted by the researchers on audio Skype at a time convenient to the interviewees, ranging in duration from 45 minutes to two hours (see Dillman et al., 2014). All interviews were audio recorded with the consent of the interviewees. The interviews were fully transcribed and the audio recording erased after the transcription was completed. All interviews were conducted in English. The researchers wrote vignettes from the recordings/transcriptions which provided responses to the interview questions (for a list of all questions asked in the interviews, see Appendix A). The vignettes are first presented with the ‘story’ of the split family expatriation experience from the perspective of the individual in the partnership who relocated away from their spouse, and then from the perspective of the spouse who remained ‘at home’ in the country in which the family had previously been located. Both couples whose story is presented herein are in inter-cultural partnerships and have children who have some competencies in a second language (albeit not necessarily that of their parents). In the case of Cheryl and Liam, they were both living as expatriates in China prior to the split family arrangement and Cheryl then returned to their home country, Australia, for family responsibilities. In the case of Jacqueline and Simon, both were working as expatriates in Hong Kong when Jacqueline returned to the UK, which was Simon’s home country and, although Jacqueline was born in Eastern Europe, she had previously lived in the UK for many years.

CASE STUDIES The vignettes of the two families provide quite distinct impressions of living in a split family expatriate arrangement. In the first vignette (Boxes 13.1a, 13.1b), we see the story of Cheryl and Liam for whom the split family experience has been remarkably positive. Cheryl and Liam: A Growth Experience

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BOX 13.1A CHERYL A proud mother of teenagers, Cheryl has spent the past 10 years living and working in a special administrative region (SAR) of China, where her husband Liam flourished in his career in the casino industry. Australian by birth, Cheryl enjoyed living abroad as it gave her the time to complete her PhD and to return to fulltime academia. As expatriates, the couple could afford home-help and their children attended a local English medium school. Cheryl enjoyed the opportunity to travel and to explore other cultures with her children and to expose them to an international community of educators, diplomats and business people. About five years after relocating to the China region, Liam left his corporate role and started his own company advising casino operators about IT infrastructure. The change in employment status, while lucrative, also increased Liam’s time away from home on business travel. As the children grew older, Cheryl struggled with the demands of raising them as a single working parent during his absences. By now a long-term expatriate resident of her new home, she was also tiring of having to navigate a red-tape-laden bureaucracy to get even the smallest things done, such as obtaining driver’s licences or renewing residency permits. She contemplated a move back to Australia – with the whole family – but her husband’s advancing career made it an impossible option. It was now that her widowed and elderly mother in Australia became ill, which led to Cheryl temporarily relocating there, alone, to care for her. As the weeks turned into months and her mother’s recovery became prolonged, Cheryl made the decision to permanently relocate back to Australia and to enrol the children in a high school that would enable them to matriculate to university – a five-year plan. While it has required that her husband remain in China, Cheryl views the arrangement as positive: her children are living in a multigenerational household and re-connecting with relatives and Australian values; Cheryl has returned to work locally and is continuing her career, albeit in a less senior role than she had in China; and extended family are on hand to assist with the children. Cheryl has also found the time apart from Liam helpful as she rediscovers herself amidst a busy life of parenting and daughterly duties. While finding time for herself has been challenging given the responsibilities she has agreed to take on, she’s happier in Australia than she’s been in a long time.

BOX 13.1B LIAM Malaysian by birth, Liam loves his family and is passionate about his career. The casino industry in China is booming and in the mid-2000s he found himself in exactly the right place at the right time to leverage the professional success he had been chasing since his university training. Liam enjoyed having his family live in China, and while he misses them, he fully supports Cheryl’s decision

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to relocate back to Australia. The family had always intended that the children would return to Australia at some point during their high school years, but with his mother-in-law’s failing health their plan to do so was brought forward by a few years to accommodate Cheryl’s wish to care for her. The hardest thing about living apart from his family is, undoubtedly, being an absent father in the children’s lives. Thankfully, being self-employed has enabled Liam to take time off and to visit his family in Australia for as long as he needs. Low-cost resources such as Skype and WhatsApp have played a significant part in enabling Liam and his children to connect on a daily basis. The case of Cheryl and Liam highlights the value of having very regular trips (five times per year) back to the home country (Australia) for Liam and regular trips to the overseas location, China, for the children (three times per year), with Cheryl being able to travel to China as often as family commitments allow. Moreover, modern technologies, such as Skype, have allowed the family to stay in frequent contact to reduce the geographical and emotional distance between them. Additionally, the geographical distance between the family members is only about a 10-hour plane flight with only a couple of hours of time zone difference, which has further assisted the family to re-connect and to allow for more regular contact than would likely occur if the family were significantly geographically separated. That Liam and Cheryl have their own family business has facilitated regular visits and allowed them to manage their relationship and work in a way that may not be possible for organisationally assigned expatriates. Both Cheryl and Liam highlighted some challenges in being separated as a nuclear family and that the arrangement had not been without its sacrifices (e.g. the couple not seeing each other as often as they may like; Cheryl effectively performing the role of single mother and elder carer and not having the domestic help available in Asia; the children and Liam not living in the same house; and Cheryl and the children needing to make new friends). Overall it has provided a range of benefits for the family and they both view it as a positive opportunity. Cheryl has been able to focus on her own identity/independence away from the large expatriate community in China, and Liam has been able to focus intently on his work. Most importantly, the split family arrangement has allowed Cheryl to spend time with her elderly, ailing parent as well as support her children while they finish school in Australia. An important aspect of Cheryl and Liam’s story is that it extends aspects of family systems theory not previously studied in terms of defining what constitutes a family system. The couple are coping well living apart, which does not necessarily imply that their family system has become weaker but only that they are less reliant on needing to be in each other’s presence. To a large extent, Cheryl and the children have created a new system with Cheryl’s parent and other extended family members in Australia. Tellingly, they have found techniques to replace the family ties that bound the system together when they co-habited in China, with new types of ties that are binding them equally as effectively, but differently, in Australia.

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In the second vignette (Boxes 13.2a, 13.2b), we see the story of Jacqueline and Simon for whom the split family experience has not been so positive. Jacqueline and Simon: A Difficult Exercise

BOX 13.2A JACQUELINE Originally from Central Eastern Europe but having moved to the United Kingdom (UK) in her 20s, Jacqueline, and her UK-born husband, Simon, spent several years working in Dubai and then Hong Kong. They have two children, Michael (aged 4) and Katerina (aged 5); the older of whom learnt to speak other languages while at school in Asia and from contact with nannies. Noting that career is very important for both, when Jacqueline was offered a position with a new company in London, she knew the job would offer a step up in her career and stimulating work as well as being financially attractive for the family. The couple discussed the offer, considered the pros and cons and felt that in the long run there were mostly benefits which, in addition to her career, also included growing roots in one place, buying a family home which was more affordable than in Hong Kong, and building bonds with their extended family. They mutually decided that though Jacqueline should accept the offer, it would not be fair for Simon to have to relocate back to the UK and forego his career. So Jacqueline moved to the UK with the children while Simon stayed in Hong Kong. After packing up their household goods into a shipping container destined for the UK as well as other boxes for relocating Simon within Hong Kong to a smaller apartment, Simon was then offered a better position in Malaysia, which the couple decided he should accept. Simon’s company provides him with a yearly flight allowance which he can use to travel to see the family or to bring them to Malaysia, while Jacqueline says her company was extremely good about allowing her to work at home when needed and to take time off to sort out issues in the early days of the relocation. When Jacqueline arrived back in the UK it was too early for the children to enrol for the new school year so they spent several months living weekdays with their paternal grandparents and weekends with their mother. Jacqueline recalled that, in comparison to Asia, it was very difficult to access child care in the UK. Thus, her only option was to take her children on the one-hour drive to their grandparents on a Sunday night and then on a Friday night, after a one-hour commute from work to home, to again drive the two-hour round trip to her in-laws to collect the children and bring them home for the weekend. Jacqueline also recalled that when the container of 130 boxes of household goods arrived, she would unpack them evenings after work, which took her around four weeks to complete. By the time the children started the new school year, Jacqueline had been able to find a live-in nanny to assist with caring for the children but, as these things go, it did not work out and they are now on their third nanny in six months. Michael and Katerina still

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go to their grandparents every third weekend and Jacqueline’s in-laws also mind the children when she needs to be away from home for business trips. Jacqueline says that the split family arrangement continues to be challenging. She finds that she has little time to herself, must make all the arrangements for the children and household matters, and she misses the companionship of her husband and quality time together. She says that the children miss their father terribly and took some time to settle after the move. On reflection, she suggests that there are no benefits for the family of living separately, that it can a very fragile time for a relationship, and that the sooner the family is back together the better. She says they only planned to be in this arrangement for eight months and she hopes that Simon will move to the UK in the next three months (which would mean leaving his current position and organisation); if not, she and the children will move to Malaysia. Jacqueline admits that while some people do split family arrangements for many years – with the ability to do so being influenced by the age of the children and whether both partners work – she would avoid such an arrangement in the future, as it has been a difficult undertaking.

BOX 13.2B SIMON Simon says that it was Jacqueline’s career that took them from Dubai to Hong Kong and concurs that the driver for the split family arrangement had been her career progression and their finances (her position had been made redundant in Hong Kong and she had needed to consider other opportunities). Simon also notes that though they never intended to be in a split family situation, he thinks that mobility as expatriates generally is okay when children are small. Additionally, he and his wife had agreed that they were willing to move around until their elder child reached high school at which point they aimed to have more stability and to be in one location together. Simon affirms that it has also been very tough for him living apart from his wife (for the first time) and that the children, particularly his son, have found it difficult. Although it was unsettling having three nannies, they now have some attachment to the current nanny and the arrangement seems to be stable. Simon feels frustrated that he is not with his family to help resolve issues that arise. While he says that it is nice to catch up with his wife when she travels to Asia for work, and that he tries to go to the UK every five to six weeks, it is not an ideal situation and that the only real benefit of the arrangement has been money saved to buy an investment property. While his company has been excellent in facilitating visits and each time he goes to the UK he is given a week’s leave (in addition to formal annual leave which he uses to make each trip a two-week visit) and that he does try to keep busy with friends, he is working longer hours and much harder than if the family were with him. Simon’s biggest fear is losing the connection with his kids and he regrets that he sometimes misses birthdays and

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events at school. He also has concerns about the potential of changing dynamics in the relationship with his wife and he misses time with her. The couple have constant conversations about setting a deadline for ending the split family arrangement and while Jacqueline initially was not considering staying in Asia, she has lately changed her mind about returning there so the family can be together. In contrast to Jacqueline, Simon would consider a split family arrangement again, albeit not for as long. He stresses the importance of having a fixed deadline in mind, clear arrangements about visits, good daily communication, and planning to provide support for the separation and the partner with the children. The case of Jacqueline and Simon (in which the wife and children relocated back to the UK and away from where the family had been living in Asia for some years) underscores the challenges associated with balancing career and family responsibilities while living separate from a spouse in another country (see Mutter, 2017). While Jacqueline highlighted the invaluable support she received from her extended family and the excellent understanding and flexibility provided by her organisation (and Simon also praised fantastic support by his organisation), both she and Simon stressed that the distance between the couple (and for Simon from his children) was extremely difficult and that the arrangement had continued longer than intended. Apart from being able to advance Jacqueline’s career and financial rewards, neither could see any benefits to the family for being in the split family arrangement. Though Jacqueline was definitive that she would not consider such an arrangement in the future, Simon was open to the possibility but on the proviso that it had a fixed time frame and that plans for support were in place.

DISCUSSION The two case studies suggest quite distinct views about whether split family arrangements work, with one family arguing that it had been a very positive experience that had provided opportunities to balance family commitments and allow growth of individuals within the partnership, while the other family found it a generally negative experience and that it had been very difficult. Such an observation probably does need to be qualified by noting that the family for whom it was a positive experience were located much more geographically close and in a relatively close time zone (compared to the other family) and thus were able to have much more regular in-person contact and connect through virtual means more easily. In respect to the research question of whether split family expatriate arrangements work, we need to say that it depends on the specifics of the situation and the family involved. In regard to whether the aims of the arrangement had been met, even though for one family it had been a negative experience, it could be suggested that both families had achieved their aims, which for one was primarily career interest/advancement and financial rewards while for the other it was maintaining commitments to family, edu-

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cational advancement for the children, and personal growth for one of the partners. Interestingly, though the couples were interviewed separately on different dates and each in the location in which they were based, their responses to our questions were remarkably similar. While we might have expected that the spouse/partner ‘at home’ may have had a different view of the experience than the spouse/partner who had relocated for the job, their views and perceptions of each other’s assessment of the arrangement were very aligned suggesting that each couple/family were very much in synergy about their expectations of being in the split family arrangements as well as the challenges and opportunities it presented for them. This may reflect that both couples had been married for a substantive period and agreed about goals for their children’s upbringing. We now consider some specifics of these two split family arrangements in respect to family systems theory and stressors. Minunchin (1974, p. 51; cited in Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross, 1998) suggested that the family is a system in transformation, involving stages of restructuring and psychosocial growth. Our research found that for the case study families there has been a need to transform in order to respond to their changing circumstances. In the case of Cheryl and Liam, this has meant building in quality time in the form of frequent trips between Australia and China to maintain contact. Also, each partner has needed to take on differing responsibilities, with Liam managing a house on his own although he noted the benefits of not having to deal with conflicting schedules. Cheryl has extended caring responsibilities and has faced challenges in not having the household help which is inexpensive and readily available in China, although Cheryl suggested that she thinks they may continue to have some degree of split family arrangement for the remainder of their working lives and she particularly sees it as valuable for her own independence. For Jacqueline and Simon, a major restructuring has resulted from them having less home support than was available in Asia; meaning that they have needed to rely more on extended family for child care and that their family dynamics have altered with Jacqueline taking sole responsibility for managing the children and daily household affairs. This situation has resulted in Simon feeling frustrated that he is geographically distant and not available to help. Our two case studies suggest that how families choose to distribute their systems geographically may impact on the strength of their family ties, both in the host and home locations. Generally, during split family relocation, partners need to find ways to replace the ties that bind them. For Jacqueline and Simon this was achieved through an agreed deadline as to when the arrangement would end. We suggest that this strategy is used by design to bind them temporally, if not physically, noting that given how often Jacqueline and Simon seemed to discuss and renegotiate it, this particular strategy may have resulted in weaker ties than they had hoped for, which may be one of the reasons why they struggled – their ties were somewhat loose. Brown (1999) examined action of the self in the system. Changes in family leadership, role relationships and relationship rules, were considered by other researchers (Olson, 2000; cited in Rosenbusch and Cseh, 2012) and examination was given to how the action of one family member affects others in the family system (Caligiuri,

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Hyland and Joshi, 1998). The changes in the roles and leadership played within the case study families (including the mothers’ having responsibility for management of all children’s activities and guidance and daily discipline of children), as well as the impact of one family member being separate from the others, meant potential stress on the relationship for both couples. This stress could lead to negative or positive psychosocial growth occurring – positive in needing to be more resilient and self-reliant (as experienced by Cheryl), and negative in respect to emotional strains on the relationship from distance between members of the family. Cheryl indicated separation gave her and Liam strength and that their long-term marriage needed it, while Liam said many stressors (like dealing with conflicting schedules) were gone and as a couple they benefitted from being flexible and realistic. Jacqueline and Simon said they missed the companionship and did not want the situation to continue much longer. Both couples referred to their situation as being difficult for the children to be away from their father. For the parent who has the children, there is less time for themselves, while the parent who is away from the children feels distanced from involvement in their children’s lives and decision-making. In respect to Rosenbusch et al.’s (2015) argument that relational stress and work/ family interactions have the most impact on expatriate performance, and that expatriate spouses also are affected by psychological stressors, there was no evidence from our research that the expatriate who relocated for work or other reasons (or the expatriate still working overseas) had been affected in their work performance, although Cheryl’s story did suggest that she was less professionally (work) satisfied. For both Liam and Simon there was the opportunity to focus for intense periods on work, and though Cheryl and Jacqueline were juggling children and work, Jacqueline had received support from her organisation and she benefitted from the assistance of extended family. Several researchers note the existence of stressors, strains and daily hassles across differing forms of expatriation and international work (see James, Hunsley, Navara and Alles, 2004; McNulty, 2015; Westman, Etzion and Chen, 2009) and Haslberger and Brewster (2008) note stressors, strains and daily hassles for families involved in international assignments include work and non-work stressors. We suggest that these stressors apply similarly when one partner (and/or children) is in another country – and indeed this may create greater stress than situations in which all family members relocate together to one country. Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi and Bross (1998) referred to extramarital demands in coping with the foreign environment for expatriates. Additional demands for the expatriate might be expected if s/he is also separated from family. Our case study families certainly do highlight that in split family arrangements there is non-work stress associated with such issues as changing housing; children going to a new school and making new friends; and changing family routines. There is evidence from our interviews that Jacqueline and Simon have experienced the psychological stress placed on families when living separately (and this also applied to some extent for Cheryl and Liam) and the pressure placed on the spouse with children who has potentially more responsibilities (see Copeland, 2009). Though the spouse who is living away from the children has more time to

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devote to work, they may be working harder as was noted by Simon and suggested by Cheryl about Liam (perhaps to fill in the time and void from being distant from their wives and children). Issues of potential burnout could then adversely affect performance. Nichols (2009; cited in Ruiz, 2015) highlighted that family boundaries can occur and our case study families show varying degrees of this. Certainly geography (coupled with differing time zones) creates boundaries and limits contact of the ‘away’ expatriate with spouse and children and extended family. People in such arrangements experience less daily support in non-work domains and van der Laken et al. (2019) question whether virtual means of communication between family members are viable substitutes, and suggests there could be a higher need for informational, emotional and instrumental resources during such work. While Cheryl and Liam are in close time zones and could connect through technology during daylight hours, the time difference of half a day made regular contact outside work hours more challenging for Jacqueline and Simon. That Jacqueline sometimes needed to do business travel meant time away from her children but it did facilitate more opportunities to meet with Simon. For Cheryl and Liam, the close proximity between the countries in which they work/live has meant that their family has not experienced challenging boundaries. Yet, such boundaries have occurred for Jacqueline and Simon; notable by Jacqueline’s comment that the sooner they are together again as a family the better – confirmed by Simon who remarked that they had regularly discussed a deadline for the arrangement.

ORGANISATIONAL IMPLICATIONS McNulty (2012) highlighted that understanding the family as part of a system means that organisations need to adjust support for expatriates. For those in split family expatriate situations, where spouse and children are living separate from the expatriate, organisations do not have the cost of providing family housing or schooling for children. We suggest that organisations could provide funding for other expenses which would support the expatriate to deal with isolation from family and changing family pressures/responsibilities. For instance, our interviews highlight that there is a need for organisational support in respect to providing for regular contact between spouses/family members (e.g. travel allowances to go to the other family members’ location or funded holidays for the family to meet up between locations). The interviewees also suggest the need for organisational support for child care/ other household help in respect to gaining access to such and funding it. The costs of child care are much higher in the developed world so organisationally-provided or partially funded child care and/or nannies would make it more appealing for potential talent to take job roles requiring a split family situation. While the interviewees highlighted support provided by extended family members, grandparents may be elderly and not able to look after small children but might need care provided for them; thus, elderly care might also be provided by organisations. Further there is need for greater

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organisational recognition of the strain placed on families due to geographical and time zone distances as well as the demands of physical relocation. Hence, providing flexible work hours to facilitate Skype/telephone contact during work days and allowing intense periods of work followed by more holiday/extended leave to have family contact, would be desirable.

IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIVIDUALS Prior to entering a split family arrangement, it is important for couples to undertake a careful assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of living apart. In addition to a cost-benefit analysis, it is recommended that individuals consider how far apart they think it is feasible to live, that is, for some, being in different countries in Asia-Pacific may be enough whereas others may be able to sustain one partner living in (for example) Australia and the remainder of the family living in Europe. The couples in this study suggest the importance of families setting a time limit on how long they are prepared to stay in a split family arrangement, which may consider factors such as the age of children, health of elderly parents, or length of a job contract (e.g. a decision to live separately until children finish primary or secondary school). Further, individuals and families would be advised to think very carefully about what is most important in their lives and what they expect to achieve from a split family expatriate arrangement i.e. is it a long-term option that allows both partners to maintain commitment to their own careers? Does it allow one partner to advance their career while the other chooses to stay home in a location which might be more desirable and/or safe for the children? Are members of the family very independent and satisfied to live separately indefinitely and only see each other periodically? Is it just a short-term arrangement for good monetary rewards to establish a solid financial future for the family? Moreover, we suggest that for split family expatriates it is important to draw on non-organisational resources to supplement (or substitute in the absence of) organisational support. Where extended family support may not be available expatriates might seek out support from other expatriates or business associations or take up hobbies and interests to make new friends and hence reduce isolation of living away from their partner (and/or children).

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH While our study provides important initial insights into an under-researched group of expatriates and provides rich data, a limitation of this study is the sample size. It was very difficult to gain access to a matched sample of interviewees living in a split family arrangement. Despite having strong contacts with consulting organisations and within expatriate communities, and several attempts to contact interviewees, we

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found it difficult to find matched samples of couples. The people that were likely participants for the study we expect to be in relatively senior positions (which may involve local and international business travel), and this coupled with the challenges of maintaining a split family arrangement, meant that their availability to participate in an interview was limited. While we did say that we were flexible to undertake interviews at night or on weekends and in their time zone, and indeed two of the interviews were conducted on a weekend, it was still difficult to schedule interviews with people leading very busy lives. Additionally, we undertook several interviews on good faith with expatriates who felt sure their partner would also want to be interviewed, only to be informed by the expatriate post-interview that their partner had changed their mind. We subsequently needed to find other participants to achieve our aim of being able to provide perspectives from both partners. Had we included the perspectives of individual expatriates without their partner’s participation, the sample would have been significantly higher. However, for reasons explained earlier, we deliberately retained the matched sample approach to ensure reliability of the findings. A further limitation was that we only studied dual career, heterosexual couples with children, and people who were mid-career or in the C-Suite, and somewhat affluent relative to others that often engage in such arrangements (see Kallane, Mutter and Collins, Chapter 1, this volume). We suggest that it is important to understand people in varying split family situations and thus future research might consider other family situations including spouses and children remaining in the home country (see Mutter, Chapter 11, this volume); lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) couples (see Michaels and Tamm, Chapter 12, this volume); families with older children; children living separate from both parents in boarding school (see e.g. Doss and Oberholster, Chapter 8, this volume) and migrant families (see Kallane et al., Chapter 1, this volume). Moreover, we only studied the views of the parents. While in our study the children were young, it would be interesting to have children’s perspectives of being in a split family arrangement (e.g. what have been family changes in respect to roles which they have noticed? What is the impact on them of relocating and being away from one or both parents?). Notwithstanding the ethical constraints in gaining access to participants under the age of 18, it would be valuable for future researchers to endeavor to consider the perspectives of teenage offspring. Lastly, we examined the families’ situation through the lens of family systems theory and in the context of reflections on how families’ systems may have changed from when they had not been in a split family expatriate arrangement. We note, however, that as it was a cross-sectional study there may have been memory bias as to these changes. Thus, future research might examine families before, during, and after the split family arrangement so as to interrogate more whether the family system has weakened, strengthened, or remained constant and if they have made new family and/or different ties. Further in respect to theory, while we explored our phenomenon through the lens of family systems theory, there could be other theories that offer

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different perspectives; for example, social network theory could be a useful way to reframe systems as a ‘network’.

CONCLUSION In this chapter, we have presented an exploratory scoping study positioned in family systems theory and stress theory to examine the challenges and opportunities for families in which an expatriate works and lives in one country and their spouse (and sometimes also children) live and work in another country. Our narrative findings illustrate that entering into a split family arrangement requires considerable planning and a deep level of shared commitment to the arrangement by both spouses, and to some extent ongoing renegotiation of arrangements to ensure that they retain binding ties within the family. We contribute to the literature about expatriation more broadly by suggesting that split family expatriate arrangements can be successful, and do achieve their aims. Additionally, possible stressors have been noted, along with the unique journeys of each family exemplified in the vignettes. Notably, changes in family dynamics can lead to an unexpected and unplanned restructuring of family life at home, and we argue that, for some split family arrangements, arising out of forced circumstances rather than choice, this could potentially stress the marriage relationship and/or require the partner at home to be more resilient and confident. Quality of communication with the spouse and children appears to be critical to ensure family relationships remain intact and strong, with deep concerns about children’s psychosocial growth arising for the absent parent. Further, the quality of life for the expatriate on-site (away) is a rarely discussed issue but requires considerable attention on the basis that they often become workaholics due to boredom, an abundance of free time, and limited family contact. Overall, the major take-away from our small n-study is that having an agreed deadline in place and plans for managing the arrangement is crucial to ensure that the needs of all family members are met.

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Merignac, O. and M.-L. Grillat (2012), ‘La constitution et la structuration des réseaux sociaux: un facteur clé de succès de l’expatriation’ [written in French with English abstract], Revue Management International, 17(1), 117–32. Merignac, O. and A. Roger (2005), ‘The impact of spouse and family on expatriate adjustment’, Revue de Gestion des Ressources Humaine, 58, 2–13. Merignac, O. and A. Roger (2006), ‘Mobilité internationale: Le cas de l’expatriation en célibataire géographique’ [‘International mobility: the case of unaccompanied expatriation’], Revue Sciences de Gestion, 52, 63–79. Mutter, J. (2017), ‘The global mobility decisions of professional sailors’ spouses’, Journal of Global Mobility, 5(2), 203–19. Oberg, K. (1960), ‘Culture shock: adjustment to new cultural environment’, Practical Anthropologist, 7(1), 177–82. Ohye, B. Y., R. W. Brendel, S. J. Fredman, E. Bui, P. K. Rauch, M. D. Allard, K. Z. Pentel and N. M. Simon (2015), ‘Three-generation model: a family systems framework for the assessment and treatment of veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder and related conditions’, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 46(2), 97–106. Olson, D. H. (1993), ‘Circumplex model of marital and family systems’, in F. Wals (ed.), Normal Family Processes (2nd edn), New York: Guilford Press, pp. 514–48. Olson, D. H., C. S. Russell and D. H. Sprenkle (1983), ‘Circumplex model of marital and family systems: VI. Theoretical update’, Family Processes, 22(1), 69–83. Paisley, V. and M. Tayar (2016), ‘Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) expatriates: an intersectionality perspective’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(7), 766–80. Pedro, M. F., T. Ribeiro and K. H. Shelton (2012), ‘Marital satisfaction and partners’ parenting practices: the mediating role of coparenting behaviour’, Journal of Family Psychology, 26(4), 509–22. Peetz, D. and G. Murray (2011), ‘“You get really old, really quick”: involuntary long hours in the mining industry’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 53(1), 13–29. Ralph, D. (2015), ‘Always on the move, but going nowhere fast: motivations for “Euro-commuting” between the Republic of Ireland and other EU states’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41(2), 176–95. Ranford, A., A. Willcocks and L. Anderson (2012), Mining Families Rock: Your Complete Guide to Healthy Relationships, Happy Kids and a Household That Works, South Australia: Mining FM Pty Ltd. Rosenbusch, K., L. J. Cerny II and D. R. Earnest (2015), ‘The impact of stressors during international assignments’, Cross Cultural Management, 22(3), 405–30. Rosenbusch, K. and M. Cseh (2012), ‘The cross-cultural adjustment process of expatriate families in a multinational organization: a family system theory perspective’, Human Resource Development International, 15(1), 61–77. Rossman, G. and S. Rallis (2003), Learning in the Field: An Introduction to Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Ruiz, M. A. (2015), ‘Transgenerational and structural family therapy: an analysis of both schools’, available at http://​www​.miguelangelruiz​.webs​.com/​transgenerational​%20and​ %20structural​%20family​%20therapy​.pdf (accessed 13 October 2015). Shortland, S. (2015), ‘The “expat factor”: the influence of working time on women’s decisions to undertake international assignments in the oil and gas industry’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(11), 1452–73. Starr, T. L. and G. Currie (2009), ‘“Out of sight but still in the picture”: short-term international assignments and the influential role of family’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 20(6), 1421–38. Stewart, M. and F. M. Donald (2006), ‘Spouses’ experiences of their partners’ absences due to frequent business travel’, South African Journal of Psychology, 36(1), 103–25.

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Sullivan, S., G. Aldred and J. Taylor (2013), ‘The link between expatriate family issues and a shrinking – and changing – talent pool: what we know and where we need more research’, Academy of Management Conference Proceedings, August, Orlando, USA. Takeuchi, R. (2010), ‘A critical review of expatriate adjustment research through a multiple stakeholder view: progress, emerging trends, and prospects’, Journal of Management, 36(4), 1040–64. Takeuchi, R., M. Wang and S. V. Marinova (2005), ‘Antecedents and consequences of psychological workplace strain during expatriation: a cross-sectional and longitudinal investigation’, Personnel Psychology, 58(4), 925–48. Takeuchi, R., S. Yun and P. E. Tesluk (2002), ‘An examination of crossover and spillover effects of spousal and expatriate cross-cultural adjustment on expatriate outcomes’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 655–66. Taylor, J. C. and J. G. Simmonds (2009), ‘Family stress and coping in the fly-in fly-out workforce’, The Australian Community Psychologist, 21(2), 23–36. Van der Klis, M. and L. Karsten (2009), ‘Commuting partners, dual residences and the meaning of home’, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 29(2), 235–45. van der Laken, P. A., M. L. van Engen, M. J. P. M. van Veldhoven and J. Paauwe (2019), ‘Fostering expatriate success: a meta-analysis of the differential benefits of social support’, Human Resource Management Review, 29(4), https://​doi​.org/​10​.1016/​j​.hrmr​.2018​.12​.003. Van Der Zee, K. I., A. J. Ali and I. Haaksma (2007), ‘Determinants of effective coping with cultural transition among expatriate children and adolescents’, Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 20(1), 25–45. Weeks, K. P., M. Weeks and K. Willis-Mueller (2010), ‘The adjustment of expatriate teenagers’, Personnel Review, 39(1), 24–43. Weir, K. N., S. Lee, P. Canosa, N. Rodrigues, M. McWilliams and L. Parker (2013), ‘Work family theraplay: integrating family systems theory and theraplay to treat adoptive families’, Adoption Quarterly, 16(3–4), 175–200. Welch, D. E., L. Welch and L. Worm (2007), ‘The international business traveller: a neglected but strategic human resource’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(2), 173–83. Westman, M., D. Etzion and S. Chen (2009), ‘The impact of international business trips on the travellers and spouses’, in A. M. Rossi, J. C. Quick and P. L. Perrewe (eds), Stress and Quality of Working Life, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 19–39. Whalen, H. and G. Schmidt (2016), ‘The women who remain behind: challenges in the LDC lifestyle’, Rural Society, 25(1), 1–14. Worthen, M., R. Moos and J. Ahem (2012), ‘Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ experiences living with their parents after separation from the military’, Contemporary Family Therapy, 34(3), 362–75. Yerby, J. (1995), ‘Family systems theory reconsidered: integrating social construction theory and dialectical process’, Communication Theory, 5(4), 339–65.

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APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 1. Can you tell me about how your family came to be living in a split family situation? 2. What was the major factor in you deciding to live in a split family situation? 3. Were there other contributing factors? 4. What involvement did you have in the decision about living in a split family situation? 5. What did you and your spouse/partner expect to achieve/aim for with the split family situation? 6. Do you intend to stay in a split family situation [for the duration of the assignment]? 7. Have there been any benefits to living in a split family situation? 8. Have there been challenges for you in living in a split family situation? 9. Do you think you and your spouse/partner have differing views on the split family situation? If yes, could you please elaborate on what are some of these differing views? Could you provide some specific examples? 10. (If the interviewee has children) Have there been any impacts on your children of living in a split family situation? 11. Do you think you have achieved the aims that you and your spouse/partner had for the split family arrangement? If yes, can you elaborate on this? If not, can you explain how and why you think the planned aims were not realised? 12. Does your organisation or your spouse/partner’s organisation provide any support to assist you in living in a split family situation? If yes, what does it involve? 13. What type of organisational support do you think you need? What would you have liked (in the absence of, or in addition to, provided support)? 14. [Excluding your or your partner’s organisation] are there any other support mechanisms which you have accessed which have assisted you to live in a split family situation? 15. In hindsight, would you consider a split family arrangement in future? 16. What advice would you give to other families considering a split family arrangement?

14. Long-distance commuting ‘FIFO’ families: the work–family interface Libby Brook and Graeme Ditchburn

INTRODUCTION The globalisation of industries means that international ‘fly in/fly out’ (FIFO) is increasingly seen as a viable option across sectors including education, oil and gas, and construction for both white- and blue-collar roles. With flights between increasingly distant destinations such as Sydney, Australia to New York, USA; Perth, Western Australia to London, UK, and Singapore to Newark, USA consideration of the implications for international and global commuting is prescient. FIFO is defined as a specific type of long-distance commuting (LDC), where there is a significant distance travelled to a workplace, so long in fact that accommodation and facilities are provided for the entire work cycle, before the long commute home for a period between rosters (Storey 2016). Organisations are increasingly looking beyond more traditional intra- and inter-regional FIFO arrangements to meet project resourcing demands. Furthermore, organisations are looking to FIFO as an alternative to expatriation in an increasingly competitive global market (Mäkelä, Särenpää and McNulty 2017; Welch et al. 2007), where employees tend to favour a compromise that allows the life and the job they desire (Van der Klis and Mulder 2008). This has led to a proliferation in the diversity of possible FIFO arrangements such as UK mining personnel operating long distance to Australia while their family remains based in the UK; Japanese car manufacturing experts operating in France and vice versa; to Australians moving their whole family units to Bali and beyond (Hoath and Davies 2016; Rainnie et al. 2014; Sanders et al. 2016). Even within expatriate appointments, significant travel is sometimes required (McNulty and Hutchings 2016; see also Hutchings and Kallane Chapter 13, this volume), as found in a study of Dutch expatriates in China (Tung and Worm 2001). This is evidence of globalisation in the extreme whereby organisations and employees are adapting home and work environments through advancements in technology and transportation to facilitate both respectively. This chapter explores the likely impact of international FIFO working arrangements on perceived work–family conflict (WFC) for the workers and their families. Our review draws on research grounded in both national and international FIFO mobility, and although most of the research has been conducted at a national level, we argue that this is useful when determining the impact on global FIFO families. This can be justified because the long distances sometimes required by LDC within a country can be akin to international travel. For example, the distance from one side 356

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of Australia to the other spans three time zones and is equivalent to the distance to travel from England, across six countries, to Turkey. Hence it seems appropriate to consider both national and offshore FIFO research, as the challenges faced by families are likely to be similar, whereby: the worker is at a distance where they are unable to return home quickly; the infrastructure in remote locations may not enable sufficient communication with families; and time zone differences may further exacerbate challenges with communication (Albrecht and Anglim 2018; Gramling and Brabant 1986). We start by defining FIFO as outlined in the literature, and how it influences perceived WFC in workers, their partners, their relationship together, parenting and their children, as well as the use of communication to facilitate the familial relationship and mediate WFC. We establish a theoretical foundation for looking at WFC before presenting the findings of a study of largely Australian FIFO workers, FIFO partners, and non-FIFO stakeholders. Here, we surveyed (predominantly) Australian participants who either worked FIFO or had a partner working FIFO, alongside those who were not involved in FIFO work. FIFO partners reported their partner’s days off and perceived help with parenting were significantly and negatively related to perceived WFC. FIFO roster choice was also perceived to help reduce WFC. Varying family structures, roles and needs lead to a complex work-family interface. However, FIFO is not consistently negative, with some positive spillover into non-work life. Long-term studies looking at factors that influence and support positive spillover could pave the way towards a family friendly FIFO future, which we discuss in the conclusion of our chapter. Drawing on theory, we analyse from our study the resulting impact of WFC on all these groups, with suggestions for future research.

DEFINING FLY IN/FLY OUT MOBILITY Periodically travelling a long distance to work has been known by many different terms in the literature (Table 14.1). Perceptions of long distances, however, vary across the world (O’Kelly and Niedzielski 2009; Vincent-Geslin and Ravalet 2016). Some studies consider longer commutes to be those that incur more than one-hour total travel per day, while others consider the definition in terms of distances greater than 100km (e.g. Axisa et al. 2012; Lorenz 2018). While these LDCs would not require employees to be accommodated at the other end, LDC can also refer to contexts where employees stay in accommodation for the working week and return home at weekends (Green and Canny 2003). As such, FIFO represents a specific type of LDC, where there is a long distance travelled to a workplace, so long in fact that accommodation and facilities are provided for the entire work cycle, before the long commute home for a period between rosters (Storey 2016). This group of work shifts followed by days off is often referred to as a ‘swing’ (Funston 2012). For some, this is a regular and predictable pattern, but for others, such as contractors, it can be less stable.

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Table 14.1

Definitions of long-distance job mobility

Concept

Definition

Source

Other sources

FIFO

Fly in/fly out

House of Representatives

Perry and Rowe (2015); Storey (2010);

Standing Committee on

Torkington et al. (2011)

Regional Australia (2013);

Di Milia and Bowden (2007); Mabbott et

Meredith et al. (2014)

al. (2005)

DIDO

Drive in/drive out

BIBO

Bus in/bus out

SISO

Ship in/ship out

LDC

Long-distance commuting

Gillies et al. (1997) Aroca and Atienza (2011) Hogan and Berry (2000);

Houghton (1993)

Jacks (2016); Vincent-Geslin and Ravalet (2016) SC

Super-commuting

Moss and Qing (2012)

Vincent-Geslin and Ravalet (2016) define mega-commuters, super-commuters or extreme commuters

WB

Weekly boarding

Jacks (2016)

 

MD

Military deployments

Faber et al. (2008);

Gambardella (2008); Segal et al. (2015);

Kaczmarek et al. (2003)

Tollefson (2008); Kaczmarek et al. (2003)

FIFO work enables employees to work internationally, but still retain their home base in their country of choice (Blackman et al. 2014; Sanders et al. 2016). There is, therefore, the intimation that FIFO workers would get the best of both worlds. However, the FIFO lifestyle is fraught with difficulties, particularly as work and life place competing demands on employees (Meyskens et al. 2009), and there is a growing body of evidence suggesting the impact on the individual and their families may be detrimental (Dittman 2018; Kaczmarek and Sibbel 2008; Torkington et al. 2011).

FIFO WORKING ARRANGEMENTS Different industries that employ FIFO employees require different rosters because of the nature of the work, industry pressures, and the logistics and safety associated with travel to and from work sites. For example, offshore workers generally complete longer swings because of the risks associated with travelling by helicopter, as identified in the Norwegian offshore oil and gas industry (Vinnem 2013). This longer time away from home means that they spend a considerable amount of time away from their families (Pocock et al. 2001). Rosters can range from a few days to several months away, with days or weeks off in between. A recent survey of 1,056 FIFO workers in mining found that the greatest preference was for an eight-days on, six-days off roster (30.21 per cent), followed by two-weeks on, one-week off (25.85 per cent) and 12-days on, 9-days off (20.74 per cent) (Mining People International 2017). These shorter rosters, while preferable to the employees, may not however be economically viable for international work. Shorter rosters that strike a balance between time at work and time on leave have less of a negative impact on FIFO workers and their families (Clifford 2009;

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Gallegos 2006; Gent 2004; Hoath and Haslam McKenzie 2013; Sibbel 2010; Watts 2004). For example, longer roster cycles with work-to-leave ratios greater than two weeks seem particularly challenging (Clifford 2009), perhaps because of the longer time apart but also because families may feel that they are trying to achieve as much as they can whilst the FIFO employee is home (Gallegos 2006). This may account for the evidence that departure to, and return from, work are particularly stressful, as couples and families prepare for separation and adapt to reconnecting (see Fresle 2010; Gallegos 2006; Henry et al. 2013; see Mutter, Chapter 11, this volume, for an exposé of a similar challenge among elite sporting athletes and their families). Much of the recent research in this area has been conducted with FIFO populations who commute up to 1,500km to the Western Australian coast, highlighting the need for a broader understanding of international travel over such distances (e.g. Sibbel 2010).

WORKING FIFO: THE REALITIES The motives for entering FIFO are multi-various. These include higher incomes, greater career advancement and training opportunities (Sibbel et al. 2006), the intrinsic value of the work itself (Clifford 2009; Gallegos 2006), and the opportunity to spend longer stretches of time at home (Gallegos 2006). However, the impact on lifestyle and relationships of FIFO work have been identified across diverse occupational groups, including the medical profession in Europe (Kuhlmann et al. 2016; Leone et al. 2013), teachers in the United States of America (Goldhaber et al. 2015), and Vakhtovy Metod workers in Russia (Saxinger 2016). Overall, compared to non-FIFO employees, FIFO workers’ perceive their WFC as significantly greater (Dittman et al. 2016). There is a long list of the potential negative health related effects of FIFO work on employees including exhaustion, fatigue, loneliness, homesickness, isolation, sadness, and suicide risk (MacBeth et al. 2012; Peetz and Murray 2011). Research suggests that employees who commute long distances and are regularly away for extended periods can suffer from depression, anxiety or stress (Miller et al. 2019; Vojnovic and Bahn 2015). Researchers have also shown similar patterns of mental health concerns amongst workers in the North Sea (Parkes 1992), as well as in the German offshore wind industry (Mette et al. 2018). Such health problems have been associated with obesity and poor diet, alcohol and other substance abuse (Lenney 2010; Newhook et al. 2011). Researchers have, however, questioned the direction and causality of these associations and whether these findings do in fact reflect the generally higher risks of mental health issues among those in this type of work arrangement (Barclay et al. 2013; Bowers et al. 2018). Over and above the physical and mental health risks, there is a general perception that FIFO work interferes with home and family life (Dittman et al. 2016). It is clear that different life stages, characterised by differences in family size and composition, play a critical role in the decision to adopt a FIFO lifestyle, the subsequent challenges faced by FIFO families, and their ability to adapt. The number, age, and age distri-

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bution of children (Gent 2004) impact on financial, educational, time and emotional demands and requirements, with some age groups presenting more challenges than others (Henry et al. 2013; Voysey 2012). National FIFO workers report that their FIFO role interfered with their family life and ability to complete tasks at home (Barclay et al. 2014; Gardner et al. 2018). Similarly, international FIFO academics found that travel was disruptive to family roles and increased stress (Jais et al. 2015). Family demands are also likely to inhibit or delay travel recovery, while the ability to parent children and run a household is compromised by distance (Lester et al. 2015). Relationship quality can also suffer, and the worker can be left feeling helpless and powerless to assist their partner, which in turn can then affect their work performance (Gramling 1989; Miller et al. 2019; Vojnovic et al. 2014). The longer the time away from home, the less time there is to spend with one’s family, leading to a reduction in quality time available to perform family roles (Blackman et al. 2014; Pocock et al. 2001; Welters et al. 2013; Wilson et al. 2007) and less time to participate in leisure activities (Urhonen et al. 2016). Particularly noteworthy is the issue that longer absences impact on family birthdays, school drop-offs and pick-ups, sharing family meals and other routine activities (Lau et al. 2012; Schultheiss 2006). Each of these factors can lead to a sense of loneliness and missing out for the worker, and to perceived WFC. It is feasible that WFC may be exacerbated when FIFO work is international. Challenges that may be amplified include accessibility and cost of communication, climate and cultural adaptation, and time differences that influence fatigue, adjustment, and communication (Behr 2012). Given the relatively scarce research into the impact of FIFO work, specifically in regard to how this type of LDC interacts with family life, this chapter seeks to explore this matter further.

FIFO AND THE AT-HOME PARENT/PARTNER While FIFO work can be lonely for the workers, similar emotional effects are evident in the experiences of the stay-at-home partner, such as loneliness and social isolation (Fresle 2010; Hoath and Haslam McKenzie 2013). Australian FIFO partners have been found to have higher levels of psychological distress, depression and anxiety compared to population norms, although their overall psychological well-being was considered to be within a normally healthy range (Sibbel 2010). Early research of offshore workers in the North Sea looking at partners’ well-being identified a triad of anxiety, depression, and sexual difficulties referred to as ‘intermittent husband syndrome’ (coined in an article named after the syndrome, by Morrice and Taylor 1978), although later research in this same industry found a largely positive group of partners (Parkes et al. 2005). The at home parent becomes solely responsible for daily parenting, childcare and household tasks (Dittman and Rathbone 2022) and resentment frequently occurs at having to balance the demands of regular ‘single’ parenthood and managing

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household chores on their own while their partner is away (Pocock et al. 2001), and then adapting to the downtime (leave) needs of their partners and sharing parental and household responsibilities on their return (Gallegos 2005; Gent 2004; Haslam McKenzie and Hoath 2014). The experience is not, however, consistently negative; some partners and workers report that LDC works well for them (Weeramanthri and Jancey 2013). This may be a reflection of a shared consensus of the wife as independent, practical and stoic. For experienced Australian FIFO partners, this means interpreting transitory feelings of sadness as ‘trivial’ and needing to be ‘dealt with’ (Pini and Mayes 2012, p. 78). Similarly, partners of international travellers voiced their stoic endurance of the lifestyle (Espino et al. 2002). In terms of their careers, for some FIFO partners the ability to work may be compromised by the worker’s roster. Issues around flexible work hours, the types of roles that can be considered, the potential for promotion, and acceptance by colleagues may be multiplied when home roles are more demanding, such as for those with children. Those who don’t adapt or adjust to their partner’s FIFO roster by taking more flexible employment are more likely to report increased stress and strain (Pocock et al. 2001).

FIFO AND COUPLE RELATIONSHIPS The empirical findings are mixed with regard to the impact of FIFO work on couple relationships. For example, some studies report relationship satisfaction to be in line with norms for married couples (Bradbury 2011; Sibbel 2010), and relationship quality similar to that of daily commuters (Clifford 2009). In contrast, others such as Gent (2004) and Voysey (2012) identify significantly poorer relationship satisfaction. However, even within Gent’s study, FIFO workers scored significantly higher on affectional expression, and similar to non-FIFO workers on relationship cohesion. The lack of consistent findings may suggest that where relationship or personal problems are already evident, or likely to arise, FIFO may exacerbate the situation and emotional response (Hoath and Haslam McKenzie 2013; Pocock et al. 2001). One fact that must be appreciated is that there are a range of individual differences operating where, for some couples, time apart may in fact strengthen the relationship, while in others, it negatively impacts intimacy upon their return (Pocock et al. 2001). It is perhaps reassuring to observe that in Australia there is no evidence from the ABS Census and local government area data that populations with a high FIFO workforce have higher separation or divorce rates (Greer and Stokes 2011). This may be as a result of FIFO families having a stable, equitable and egalitarian relationship (Van der Klis and Mulder 2008) with flexible family roles, open communication, and a focus on the value of family and family well-being (Glotzer and Federlein 2007).

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FIFO AND PARENTING The transition from co-parenting to single-parenting and vice versa appears to be one of the greatest challenges associated with FIFO work. Canadian LDC partners found that ambiguity around parenting responsibilities existed when the worker was away and when they returned home (Whalen and Schmidt 2016). In Australia, similar confusion was found regarding decision-making and parental roles (Gent 2004; Sibbel 2010). Being away from home for long periods of time can make it difficult for the FIFO worker to develop and maintain relationships with their children. FIFO has also been linked to parental inconsistency in rules, expectations, and discipline between parents with the FIFO parent typically being more lenient (Dittman 2018; Dittman and Rathbone 2022). These challenges and disconnections may account for why FIFO parents have been found to rate parenting less rewarding and more challenging (Henry et al. 2013). Context or conditions play a role, where variables such as increased time away from home, or having younger children under five years of age, impacts the perceived negative parenting effects of FIFO work arrangements (Gent 2004; Watts 2004). In one study, more than 50 per cent of FIFO mothers and fathers reported high levels of parenting conflict associated with child-rearing (Bradbury 2011). FIFO-associated mothers have reported dysfunctionality in emotional involvement, communication and behaviour control towards other family members, compared to matched community samples of (non-FIFO) mothers (Kaczmarek and Sibbel 2008). From the paternal perspective, male FIFO workers have struggled with a sense of missing out on important events in the lives of their children and have reported a sense of loss regarding time they will never get back (Pocock et al. 2001; Torkington et al. 2011). However, having more days off during school time means that parents could attend some school events that perhaps non-FIFO workers may not be able to attend. While sharing important events is intended to improve the FIFO worker’s relationship with their children, the reaction from the children can vary (Pocock et al. (2001).

FIFO EFFECTS ON CHILDREN A lack of daily interaction with their FIFO parent can lead to difficulties maintaining the child/parent bond (Bradbury 2011). Children may experience negative emotions associated with the absence of a parent including perceptions of loss and an increase in behavioural problems when the parent is away for longer periods (Meredith et al. 2014). Younger children may seek more attention, and older children may distance themselves from the FIFO parent (Pocock et al. 2001). In terms of children’s education, they may be under pressure to succeed academically while being more susceptible to bullying (Meredith et al. 2014). The longer rosters associated with international FIFO arrangements may compound the effect, being akin to longer naval rosters where antisocial behaviours,

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academic challenges, and mood disorders have been found (Crumley and Blumenthal 1973; Mitchum 1991). For example, a study with Iranian offshore workers’ children reported a higher incidence of anxiety than residential workers’ children (Zargham-Boroujeni et al. 2015). Commentators assert that consideration should be given to providing sufficient support and counselling where appropriate (Mitchum 1991). Parents indicate that, overall, children cope well with the FIFO lifestyle describing their children as resilient and adaptable (Dittman and Rathbone 2022) and despite the challenges associated with FIFO, no significant differences have been found between FIFO children, military children and children from a matched community (non-FIFO) sample in areas of depression, anxiety and perception of family functioning (Kaczmarek and Sibbel 2008). One possible explanation is that FIFO enables the parent to spend blocks of extended periods of time at home and have greater availability during the day to spend quality time with children, enabling greater involvement (see Bradbury 2011; Gallegos 2006; Pini and Mayes 2012; Torkington et al. 2011). This aligns with American research suggesting that while adults may seek communication with their children while away, children tend to focus on other activities, as well as the reunion with the parent (Yarosh and Abowd 2011). It may be that they look forward to the extended time home, which helps children to cope. Research into North Sea offshore workers’ children suggests that encouraging children to participate in the decision-making process around adopting the FIFO lifestyle may also be beneficial in helping them cope (Mauthner et al. 2000).

FIFO AND COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION A substantial body of research illustrates that effective communication is essential to FIFO family’s relationship satisfaction throughout the home and away cycle (Fresle 2010; Gallegos 2006; Henry et al. 2013; Pini and Mayes 2012; Sibbel et al. 2006). FIFO workers and their families report using a variety of communication methods to help them stay actively involved with their families (Henry et al. 2013) and to provide and receive emotional support (Fresle 2010). It includes social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), regularly receiving photos of kids via email, using real-time video applications (e.g. Skype, FaceTime), and daily phone contact. Overall, access to communication platforms has an important mediating effect on the impact of FIFO related WFC (see Henry et al. 2013; Lester et al. 2016). Because of the nature of FIFO, there is some evidence that effective communication has to be organised and managed. The disconnect between FIFO shifts and the rhythms of family life (eating, playing and working together) (Edensor 2016) can result in tension between rhythms of family life and neither align with conventional social rhythms associated with 9–5 work. In fact, the weekend emerges as a time of major disjuncture for FIFO spouses who feel out of kilter with conventional social rhythms associated with 9–5 work (Mayes 2020). Shifts, rosters, distances, and

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time-zone differences mean that families need to organise times in advance to ensure availability of both the away parent and children, and to plan and establish routines for how and when to best stay connected (Gallegos 2006; Sibbel 2010). Synchronising the rhythms of FIFO work and the rhythms of family (Neis et al. 2018; Straughan et al. 2020) requires concerted effort from both workers and spouses but is often perceived as the basic minimum to maintain their relationship (Dorow and Jean 2022). Furthermore, these efforts may be intensified in the lead up to the shift rotation (Mayes 2020). There is also evidence to suggest that communication content needs to be managed, for example, discussing extra shifts and work changes can be unhelpful to children, while organising reconnecting activities with one’s partner, children and wider family and social network during off-days can be helpful. Brainstorming creative joint activities to engage in while apart, such as reading the same book or watching the same movies so as to have shared experiences to discuss, can also be very helpful. Critically, what is most needed is to ensure that communication focuses on maintaining relationship satisfaction by listening and taking the time to understand each other’s perspectives (Brotherson 2002). Despite the evidence indicating the advantage of regular communication, FIFO spouses have expressed frustration at the lack of information regarding employers’ communication information and of not knowing how best to reach partners on site. Furthermore, it is evident that communication policies and facilities vary among FIFO employers, which can mean no access to a mobile phone during work hours, no internet access, and poor quality mobile or wireless coverage (Henry et al. 2013).

RELEVANT THEORIES FOR FIFO RESEARCH In the context of FIFO families, there have been very few research attempts to provide theoretical frameworks through which to interpret and understand when, how or why FIFO affects families. Those that have done so tend to focus on the scarcity of resources in relation to the demands of the environment (Espino et al. 2002). According to the scarcity hypothesis, individuals do not have endless time and energy (Goode 1960), while the role conflict hypothesis proposes that individuals’ life roles create conflicting demands (e.g. Role Conflict hypothesis; Coser and Rokoff 1971). Conservation of Resources Model Hobfoll (1989) proposed the Conservation of Resources (COR) model to explain that people facing role overload try to maintain their resources while attempting to acquire new ones. COR hypothesises that stress arises when resources are lost, such as when trying to attend to both work and home roles (Grandey and Cropanzano 1999). This may partially explain why stress has been shown to be similar across FIFO and non-FIFO samples as both experience demands on limited resources.

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One exception to this was highlighted by Clifford (2009), who found that stress was greater for FIFO workers when they were more dissatisfied with their roster. According to COR theory, longer rosters and the associated perception of an imbalance between available resources and the demands of work and home results in stress, which is in turn resource depleting. This imbalance has in turn been found to be strongly associated with WFC (Byron 2005). In a series of studies with offshore oil and gas and mining workers and their families, Storey and Shrimpton (1989) and Storey et al. (1988) concluded that although the majority of families coped well, those with longer rosters and swings experienced greater demands. Bahtic (2017) also found that personal, social and protective resources played a significant role in managing job and home demands and coping and that FIFO was perceived as enabling resource creation that could then be used to further manage the job and home demands associated with FIFO work. Job Demand–Control Model Karasek Jr’s (1979) job demand–control model which was later extended to consider support (Johnson and Hall 1988) contends that strain is associated with high demands, low control and low social support and that control and social support buffer the adverse effects of demands. Autonomy and control to prioritise and set goals, engage in challenging tasks and learn new skills enhances job satisfaction and employee engagement. This in turn reduces the negativity associated with job demands and alleviates or supresses perceptions of stress (Häusser et al. 2010). Albrecht and Anglim’s (2018) study of FIFO workers found that when measured on a daily basis autonomy predicted engagement levels and daily workload and emotional demands predicted emotional exhaustion. In the context of FIFO families, Brook (2020) has similarly identified that control to choose a preferred roster has associations with decreased WFC and increased perceived organisational support. However, control is just one aspect of the lived experience and other frameworks such as the job demands–resources (JD-R) model have extended the breadth of constructs considered central to adjustment and management of the FIFO lifestyle. Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) Model Within the JD-R model, demands refer to social and organisational factors that exert a negative impact through employees exerting sustained effort in order to cope (Idris and Dollard 2011; Nahrgang et al. 2011; Xanthopoulou et al. 2007). In contrast, job resources refer to protective factors (Richter and Hacker 1998) that facilitate coping and reduce the negative impact of job demands and reduce the psychological and physiological costs to the employee (Demerouti et al. 2001). The JD-R model has predominantly been adopted by researchers exploring physical accidents and safety although this has recently been expanded to consider psychosocial safety (Yaris et al. 2020).

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Albrecht and Anglim (2018) found that over the FIFO work cycle there was a decline in supervisor support, a key resource, and a corresponding increase in emotional demand. Similarly, Linton et al. (2015) and others (Bauerle et al. 2018) have shown that sleep disturbances are positively associated with high work demands and job strain and negatively with social support at work and job control. While research on the JD-R theory has focused on elements associated with work there is the potential to expand the framework to consider the demands and resources associated with family life. The Work–family Fit Model and Spillover Perceptions of work–family fit involve cognitive appraisals of the relative demands and resources at work and home and the respective demands associated with work and family roles. Role requirements, expectations, and norms influence the effort that individuals exert in responding and adapting to demands. Resources are assets that can be used to facilitate outcomes. The effectiveness of the individual’s response, reduction in demands, and ability to generate additional resources is facilitated by existing resources or assets both at work and home (Voydanoff 2004). The work–family fit model (Voydanoff 2005b) emphasises the need for individuals to balance their personal resources between the demands of both work and the family. If resources are not available to meet the family’s needs, the result is strain, which leads to WFC (Frone et al. 1997a; Greenhaus and Beutell 1985). The demands of one life domain may spillover into the demands of the other causing interference or conflict (negative spillover), or alternatively enrichment (positive spillover) (Frone et al. 1992). In negative spillover, conflict can arise from either work interfering with family (WIF) obligations and the ability to meet family demands, or family interference with work when family obligations interfere with the ability to meet work demands (Greenhaus and Powell 2003; Nomaguchi 2012). Fit has been conceptualised in terms of both demands–abilities and needs– supplies. Fit occurs when the individual has the required abilities (e.g. competence, knowledge, training, skills) needed to meet the demands. In contrast, needs refer to biological and psychological requirements and supplies refer to internal and external resources and rewards that enable an individual’s needs to be met (e.g. food, money, self-actualisation). Fit occurs when there are sufficient resources required to satisfy the individual’s needs, however, when needs outweigh resources the individual experiences greater stress. For example, longer shifts and total number of hours at work reduce the time available to commit to family (Frone et al. 1997b). As a consequence, time, or rather a lack of available time, directly impacts perceptions of WIF (Gutek et al. 1991; Parasuraman et al. 1996) and WFC (Byron 2005; Voydanoff 2005a). FIFO work incorporates factors that have been found to increase WFC (Hosking and Western 2008; Jansen et al. 2003; Voydanoff 2005a), many of which are exacerbated by international FIFO roles where rosters are generally longer and travel time further impinges on availability. For example, the long period of time at work leads to a reduction in quality time available to perform family roles (Wilson et al.

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2007), while not being available for children’s birthdays, school pick-ups or sharing a family meal can make it difficult to manage relationships and raise children (Schultheiss 2006). Spillover or crossover effects which emphasise the gendered character of relations between work and home and out of kilter household rhythms (Dorow and Jean 2022; Mayes 2020) arise when an individual’s experiences in the work domain impacts family systems (Greenhaus and Beutell 1985). Impacts may include inter-personal relationships between the employee and their partner and other family members, and their well-being (Matthews et al. 2006). On this basis, we draw on these theoretical perspectives to examine perceived WFC in the FIFO family context. Family Systems Theory From the perspective of ecological systems theory, work, community and family are microsystems consisting of networks of relationships (Bronfenbrenner 1989) with distinct characteristics associated with their respective structure, social organisation, norms and expectations, support, orientations, and quality. The combined effects of work and family characteristics can be considered in relation to multiple outcomes including job performance, turnover, and job satisfaction, marital and family conflict, cohesion, involvement and satisfaction, in addition to the well-being of all members within the system. A systems approach enables consideration of the components within family systems (e.g. support) as well as the dynamic processes evident as the system evolves and adapts to changing demands and resources including external factors such as work demands and resources (McNulty 2012). Furthermore, it is evident that a whole-of-family approach to support services is beneficial for improving the mental health and well-being of children and parents (Gibson et al. 2019). The relevance of flexibility and change is evidenced in several FIFO studies that have identified the importance of family life stage effects (e.g. Sibbel 2010; Taylor and Simmonds 2009; Taylor et al. 1985). Taylor and colleagues reported partners’ family satisfaction increased over time as they moved up through different life stages. External factors such as roster, previous FIFO experience, age of children and partner’s employment status are also implicated. For example, Taylor et al. (1985) found that the impacts of status of partner employment on family functioning were associated with the age of children. Part-time work impacted on family functioning in a positive way for those with teenage children, while fulltime work made coping more difficult. Fission and Fusion Theory We propose an additional theoretical model that draws on the literature associated with the intermittent husband syndrome experienced by oil workers and their wives as a result of the ongoing partings and reunions (Morrice et al. 1985) and the evidence from Canadian and Norwegian research that the FIFO workers have a limited appreciation of the changes that occur within their families as a result of their regular

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comings and goings and the additional demands made upon their families as a result (e.g. Lewis et al. 1988; Solheim 1988). The fission and fusion theory argues that the constructs of fission and fusion are central to the experience of FIFO and LDC families (Green and Canny 2003). Fission refers to the experience of disconnecting and detachment that results from separation. The contexts in which fission occurs are multifarious. For example, fission transitions arise when adult children leave the family home, or older parents (or other relatives) who had been living in the family home move out or a family sets up a dual-location household as one partner and children remain in the family home while the other engages in long-distance commuting. Fusion refers to the experience of re-connection and re-attachment that arises when family members come together in new contexts or under different circumstances. For example, fusion is evident when all core family members relocate to a new destination, or when extended family members move into the family home. As such, fission or moving apart and fusion or coming together provide another framework through which some of the underlying issues at hand for FIFO workers and their families can be understood (Green and Canny 2003).

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE: OUR STUDY METHODOLOGY We surveyed 399 Australian-based FIFO workers, FIFO partners and non-FIFO participants as a comparison sample in order to explore the differences between FIFO and non-FIFO populations and to examine the extent to which the availability of resources and household responsibilities were related to the participants’ perception of WFC in FIFO and non-FIFO contexts. Given the distances required in Australian FIFO work, including crossing time zones, the applicability of the findings is considered relevant to international FIFO work. Participants A variety of online and offline methods (e.g. Facebook, emails, paper flyers) were used to recruit participants, who were required to be 18 years and older. Participants completed a survey either on paper with a reply-paid envelope, or on an online survey platform. All responses were anonymous. Most participants were from Australia (98 per cent) and of the 45 per cent who responded to indicate where they worked, the majority worked in Australia, with 4 per cent offshore (see Appendix A for roster characteristics of the participant sample). Ethics approval for the study was obtained from the Murdoch University Human Research Ethics Committee. Work–family Conflict Work–family conflict was measured by 12 items adapted from the Gutek et al. (1991) questionnaire designed to measure perceptions of WFC. For example, ‘The first 1 or

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Table 14.2

WFC means and sample characteristics

 

FIFO workers

FIFO partners

Non-FIFO

Total sample

4.53 (1.07)

4.19 (1.17)

4.06 (1.21)

4.21 (1.18)

106

43

260

399

Male (%)

77 (72.6)

5 (11.6)

47 (18.1)

129

Female (%)

29 (27.4)

38 (88.4)

213 (81.9)

280

Mean WFC (SD) N

2 days of leave are stressful (e.g. difficult, demanding, tense)’ using a 7-point scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree). We found that when comparing FIFO families (workers or partners) with non-FIFO families, there was a significant effect of FIFO family status on WFC [F(3,274) = 3.020, p = 0.030]. Post hoc comparisons showed that mean WFC scores for FIFO workers (M = 4.53, SD = 1.07) was significantly higher than non-FIFO family WFC (M = 4.06, SD = 1.21), indicating that FIFO workers felt significantly more WFC than non-FIFO family participant (Table 14.2). Work Situation It is interesting to note that for non-FIFO workers their usual days on was positively associated with WFC, but not for FIFO workers or their partners, suggesting that for FIFO it is resource exhaustion rather than the roster that is the underlying causal factor. However, there was a strong correlation (r=−0.39) between FIFO partners’ perception of WFC and their partner’s days off, indicating that the more days off the FIFO partner has off the greater the ability to address WFC-related issues. Reason for Lack of Extracurricular Participation Participants were asked to rate to what extent certain factors reduced their capacity to be involved in activities outside the home, for items such as partner roster, on a 4-point scale from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much). Roster inflexibility and lack of flexibility in activities were positively correlated with WFC for both FIFO workers (r=.416; r=.404) and non-FIFO (r=.583; r=.408). The cost of participating in activities was a significant factor in non-FIFO workers’ decision to participate in extracurricular activities [F(3,208) = 8.650, p