ALWAYS AN EXPAT, NEVER A REPAT:

Many expats don’t stop at just one international relocation, but repeatedly relocate to new countries. Mariam Ottimofiore shares her challenges of serial expatriation, why returning home is not an option for many and the type of support these expats require in their global mobility journeys.

(This article was first published in FIDI Global Relocation. This is an updated version)

 I’ve been introducing myself as an expat for 20 years. Living abroad outside of my passport country and moving from one country to the next is like a bad habit I don’t know how to quit. If only there was a seven-step program for expats!

I’m always an expat, but never a repat.

It turns out I’m in good company. According to the latest HSBC Expat Explorer Survey 2017: “a surprisingly low proportion of the expats surveyed around the world – just 23% - have been through a repatriation process.” The picture that is now emerging from global mobility trends today shows that even though we write extensively on both expatriation and repatriation as two flip sides to the same coin, one process does not necessarily follow the other. Instead, for many expats one expatriation assignment is followed by another expatriate assignment and then another. These serial expats have remained relatively un-examined until now as they leave a trail across the world which would rival a James Bond movie, making them harder to trace.

The Complex Face of Long-Term Expatriation:

The longer I am away from my passport country, the less likely it feels I will ever return. On visits back to my home country of Pakistan, I feel like a foreigner – I have never held a job there, paid my own bills, or given birth to a baby there – these adult experiences have taken place on foreign soil. Added to this is my experience of being in a cross-cultural marriage; married to someone who has a different home country: Germany. Our lives abroad have led to shifting identities and increased complexities over the years – I have also acquired a new Italian citizenship because of our expat marriage. Our children have been born outside of all three of their passport countries of Germany, Pakistan and Italy. For them home is Singapore, Dubai, Accra and Lisbon: their birth places and our recent expat assignments. So, when it comes to repatriation for a family like ours, there are no easy answers. Where would we repatriate to? His home countries or mine? My husband’s current employer is a Danish company, so ironically a repatriation for us could mean a move back to Denmark; a country where neither of us is from!

We are not alone in this situation. Many expats discover that once they have adapted to a new place, they feel confident they can do it again. And again. Discovering new cities and learning to build a life there becomes an addiction, a habit or even a necessity for some. While many others choose to stay abroad, or perhaps settle long-term in one place, having found the improvement in their quality of life that they were looking for when they originally set out on their overseas adventure. They might end up localizing in a country they like or ‘repatriating’ to one of their previous assignment locations, instead of their home country.

The reasons, motivations and scenarios might be different from one family to the next, but one thing remains for sure: contrary to many myths, extended expatriation or serial expats continue to face many challenges in their journeys.

Challenges of Repeated Expatriation:

·      The Assumption that moving “gets easier” with each move:

How many times do friends and family look at you after you have announced your latest move and then declare “but you’ve done this so many times – you’ll be fine!” While the confidence in our abilities is well-intentioned, the truth of the matter is that moving does not necessarily get easier with each move. Parts of it do get easier; such as your self-confidence in dealing with new challenges but parts of it get much harder; such as your challenge of maintaining your individual identity, grappling to raise your children in yet another foreign culture or keeping your career alive as an expat partner. My latest experience of moving in the middle of a global pandemic from Ghana to Portugal with our two kids while pregnant with our third baby, was my 10th country to move to and by far, my hardest move.

·      Not all international relocations are the same:

It does not matter if it is your first international relocation or your fifth – the fact is that each international relocation is different. Sure, there are lessons and experience that you can apply to each posting, but it is foolish to underestimate even your eighth international move. In my experience, some of the hardest moves are:

• moving to a country where you do not speak the local language
• moving from a third world country to a developed one or vice versa
• moving to a hardship location
• moving in the middle of a global pandemic

These require substantially more patience and understanding and are a true test of your adaptability in the face of problems you may never have experienced before or even thought of as potential problems.

·      Sorting out schooling, wealth management & planning for retirement become complex:

Repeated expatriations bring incredible complexities for families in areas such as international schooling for the children (which system to follow/its relative universality/transfer credits etc.) as continuity in academic systems and standards may prove a challenge. The effects of long term expatriation on wealth management can be seen in a family like ours – where our banking needs are dispersed from Singapore to Berlin. Planning for retirement also becomes harder without a clear home base or a social security network in one country to rely on – between my husband and I we have retirement savings plans in the United States, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Support Needed by Long-Term Expats:

It’s important to remember that serial expats are not moving from their home country, but from a different country that they have been expatriated to. Not surprisingly, long-term expats require a more focused approach and specific support in their global mobility journeys from their international companies, HR personnel and relocation agencies.

·      Pre-Move:

The most required assistance for long-term expats before a move is for the international companies to offer spousal support for the expat spouse, schooling support for the expat kids and intercultural training and support for the expat employee. Before our move to Dubai, I specifically requested spousal career support and asked what career assistance or help I would be offered in the UAE. After seven moves, I am no longer afraid to ask. Because I asked, I did get offered some extra help which was valuable in setting up my own portable business. We had a chance to tour kindergartens and schools for our kids before moving and my husband received intercultural training on how to do business in Dubai, with the chance to understand Middle Eastern norms of business etiquette.

·      During the Move:

The most critical areas of support that long term expats need during the move are in the areas of wealth management, financial advisory, tax advice (if you have income/wealth from different countries), retirement planning, educational planning for children and setting up of wills. When we arrived in Dubai, we realized the need for legal assistance in setting up our wills which would apply in the Shariah law practiced in the United Arab Emirates. Its important for global mobility specialists to be able to offer advice and practical support or a list of resources to the expat employee pre-emptively during the moving process to reduce stress, unwelcome surprises or penalties.

·      Post-Move:

The most required support that long-term expats need after a move, is the access to language courses, on-the-ground relocation assistance to build a support system and an offer of annual home leave. Long-term expats understand the importance of learning the local language as soon as possible so they are usually in a rush to start understanding their new world. Signing them up for language courses shows that they are supported in their new expat assignment. On the ground relocation assistance can be extremely helpful – this helped us in Denmark where our relocation company took us to tour a typical Danish supermarket and explained how the Copenhagen public transport functioned – since we didn’t speak any Danish upon arrival. Instead of providing moving checklists, relocation companies can offer a list of resources, groups and websites to help expatriates know where to ask their questions and get some personal recommendations and answers. The offer of an annual home leave also becomes quite crucial for long-term expats, who start to feel further and further away from their home countries, the longer they live overseas. It provides an anchor while they continue to sail in foreign seas.

Always an expat and never a repat, is not an easy choice as it comes with its own share of challenges and opportunities. Awareness of the complexities, an offer of practical support, a demonstration of empathy and a commitment towards providing 'duty of care' to your corporate assignee's can help these expats greatly in their global mobility journeys.

About the Author: 

Mariam Ottimofiore is a Pakistani expat who has lived in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Bahrain, Denmark, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Ghana and Portugal. She is the author of the expat book 'This Messy Mobile Life' (Summertime Publishing 2019) which is a guide book for multicultural, multilingual and multi-mobile families living and working between different cultures, languages, values and identities. She currently lives in Lisbon and writes about her expat life, cross-cultural experiences and raising her three global citizens on her blog 'And Then We Moved To'. You can follow her writing on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.