For Academic Expatriates, Families Can Be a Big Risk Factor

By Rudolph Young

Many job applicants seeking academic positions in another country fail to ask about the conditions that their families will face. Likewise, employers are often hesitant to inquire about applicants' families.

Family issues are considered personal, not professional. But if an employee's children don't adapt to a new school or the spouse is bored at home and afraid to go out alone, it is unlikely that the employee will last for long. The expatriate who is employed has a better opportunity to adjust through structured interaction at work. The spouse has to deal with more informal adaptation and sometimes has to settle for a trial-and-error approach. Human-resources professionals can help by setting expectations early and offering coaching for both employee and partner.

Some family situations make international employment impossible, or at least very difficult. If a family member has a serious health problem that can't be treated in the host country or that could be exacerbated by the stress of a move, relocation is not appropriate. That principle applies to addictions and psychological conditions: The anxiety involved in relocation may have a traumatic effect on individuals who react poorly to stress. Many times I have had to deal with expatriates who already suffered from mild depression and who found adapting to a new environment made them feel too overwhelmed to cope.

If an employee's children have special educational needs, it may be difficult to find appropriate services for them in the new country. The parents should explore the options carefully before making an international move.

In addition, potential expatriates should check local drug-prescription laws, which may make it more difficult to get the medication they need or the right dose. In the Middle East, many mental-health counselors are from Arab countries. Because counseling usually has strong cultural foundations, the appropriate type of support may be difficult to find for those from outside the Arab world.

If an employee is the primary person responsible for the care of a parent in the home country, that duty may restrict the employee's effectiveness. Worrying about who is taking care of parents or grandparents can be a strong distraction and interfere with effective adjustment.

Potential employees who are in marriages that are unstable or in families with other psychological tensions often believe that moving to a new country might lead to a fresh perspective and help their relationships. But the opposite is often true.

The stress of moving to a new country may exacerbate dysfunctional behavior among family members. If families have strong ties to the community and the relatives they are leaving behind, the relocation can result in a longer-than-usual adjustment phase. If children are very attached to particular recreational activities such as sports, camps, or outdoor activities, the family will need to search for replacement activities, and that may take a while. In cases in which small children or difficult teenagers are having behavioral problems, moving abroad may accentuate negative behavior and the family conflict it causes.

In some countries, the rights of women and those of men are still extremely unequal. If an accompanying female spouse is an active and outspoken supporter of gender equality, an expatriate assignment in a country such as Saudi Arabia may not work. Women may be able to find employment but will not be able to drive and will be forced to either have a driver or take public transportation.

Similarly, if any member of the relocating family has strong religious beliefs and feels it a mission to convert local people, that can lead to cultural and political conflict and even imprisonment. Although most modern Arab countries allow expatriates to pursue their own religious beliefs, I once witnessed the arrest of a newly arrived expatriate who had been distributing Christian religious pamphlets in the mall of an Arab country.

Another important factor for potential expatriates to weigh is whether, however subtle the signs may be, a spouse and dependents have little interest in moving to a foreign country and are just being dragged along.

In my experience, older expatriates seem to be more committed to moves, and married expatriates with families are more likely to remain and complete their contracts. That may be simply because it is more difficult to leave a job when it also means interrupting your children's education, and older people may have less opportunity to move from one job to the next or be more apt to think through ahead of time what a job change means.

From the hiring administrator's point of view, it may be inappropriate, or in many countries even illegal, to discriminate against a candidate based on his or her family circumstances. One way to get around any legal problems yet help applicants make informed decisions is to give them self-assessment questionnaires and information about family-related risk factors. In some cases and in some countries, hiring administrators or human-resources advisers may see that an individual's family circumstances create a high chance of employment failure and screen out an applicant for those reasons.

After families adapt to new countries and discover activities they might not have been able to do in their home countries, they can act to support employees and not just be a worrisome distraction.

But the primary lesson is that anyone thinking about moving to a new country needs to take a careful inventory of every member of the family, their needs, and their ability to adapt before accepting a job offer.

Editor's note: This column is the third one in a series.

Rudolph Young holds an M.B.A. and a doctorate in organizational psychology. He works as the human-resources director for Higher College of Technology, the largest public higher-education institution in the United Arab Emirates. The views expressed here are his own and not those of his institution.