Trailing Spouses’ Career

When couples migrate, they are usually doing it for the benefit of the husband’s career. There are exceptions of course (yours truly is one of them) but most expatriates still are men. For the sake of simplicity and grammar, I will assume trailing spouse to be the wife here. They accept to give up their job, network, and family so their significant other can realize his true career and financial potential.

While some may chose to take a career break, most would prefer to find a job and keep their career buzzing. Unfortunately, this is not an easy feat to achieve, especially when moving to a new country. A 2009 study from the Permit foundation found that while almost 90% of spouses and partners were employed before expatriation, this figure fell to 35% during expatriation, and 75% of those who are not working want to work – especially among the younger age groups, men, graduates and unmarried partners.

The reason is that trailing spouses face many hurdles when looking for a job in their new country of residence.

• Visa - obtaining a work visa may be difficult.
• Language – how to interact with other when one do not master their language?
• Local network – cut from friends and support network, it takes time and a lot of efforts to find opportunities.
• Children structure – kindergarten and other childcare facilities may not be available.
• Local opportunities – developing country offer less opportunities for qualified job.
• Cultural differences – the working culture can vary greatly among countries, scaring employers away from expatriates applying to manager positions.

As a result, most spouses are forced to take a break. Very unfortunate as 46% of trailing spouse have a Masters or PhD, and 79% speak two or more languages. This qualified work force could be a boon for companies and developing countries in many ways. Unfortunately, companies prefer to recruit and send expats from their HQ, and developing countries have a tendency to create hurdles for protectionists’ reasons.