The Global Phoenix - Issue 2 April - June 2017 | Page 21

Well, they might remember a place like that, but the truth is quite the
opposite: in study after study, “return” shock is typically more difficult
an adjustment for both the assignee and the family than outbound
shock, and the degree to which assignees and their families are able
to adjust to returning to their original “home” country dramatically
affects the bottom line, or ROI, of the organization. There are a
number of reasons for this phenomenon, and they are, for the most
part, hidden and unexpected. Nevertheless, unless these repatriation
challenges are managed, a failed repatriation can undermine the
significant investment that has been made in the success of the
international relocation. There are a number of reasons for the
repatriation challenge, and they fall into two areas, the personal and
the professional.
PERSONAL REPATRIATION CHALLENGES
Personally, assignees and family members alike tend to idealize “home”
while they are abroad, and now that they are going back, they tend to
remember home as it was, not as it is, even though they have made
home trips periodically while on assignment abroad; when it comes
time to return home “for good”, idealization tends to kick in strong,
and with it, severe disappointment with the inevitable reality that home
is not the “white picket fence” (it never was), or the perfect nurturing
environment the repatriating family may imagine it to be.
Assignees may not understand the changes
that have occurred “back home” while the
assignee was abroad; nevertheless, now they
have to make sense out of them. In effect, they
have to learn what “home” is now “all about”, all
over again.
There is also an expectation that friends and family will be there
(they often are not, having moved away, or died), and breathlessly
waiting to hear all about the adventures the assignee and their family
experienced while on assignment abroad. The disappointment can be
profound when assignees learn that there is, in fact, very little interest in
learning about what happen ed to them while away, but rather, friends
and family are far more interested in telling the assignee about all the
things that happened to them while the assignee was gone. Kids come
back with accents; some may have been born abroad, and they speak
their parent’s home country language as a second language, if at all.
Kids may feel disoriented at not being able to find groups with whom
they feel comfortable: the school system may be very different (usually
less challenging), the local home country kid culture may be mystifying
and uninteresting (going to the mall is usually very boring for “repat”
kids), and often they express a real desire to return to the country of
their expatriation. Most importantly, there is a general failure on the
part of the assignee and the family to recognize the fact that they
have individually changed, substantially and significantly, in subtle and
profound ways, while on assignment abroad, but often in ways that they
only recognize once they return to their home country. The shock can
often be overwhelming.
www.theglobalphoenix.org
PAGE 21