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| less than a minute read

For better or worse and even during an expat assignment?

Valentine's Day is over, so let's talk about divorce!

Many mobility programs worry about and create solutions to properly manage tax and immigration compliance.  But what about expat marriage compliance? Many relationships become endangered during an expatriate assignment.   There can be a wide range of culprits from infidelity to  loss of identity for trailing spouses, to isolation caused by missing support systems and partners being pulled into travel and working long hours. Sometimes cracks that you were not even aware of surface and stress can cause us to struggle with handling situations the way we might have back at home.

Have you witnessed the challenges? Has your mobility program considered any supportive measures? It might be as easy as leveraging an assessment like SAGE and adding a couple's debrief according to my good friend at IOR Global Services, Mark Frederick!

Many people say that you don’t know someone properly until you’ve lived with them. I would argue that you don’t know someone properly until you’ve lived with them as an expat. When stripped of the part of their identity that came with their profession, lifted from the smart suits that were a must in the office and left to make their own way, they can seem an entirely different person. Worse, a person who wears grey jogging bottoms and dirty old trainers. The first years in a new country can put tremendous strain on a relationship, and you need to be prepared for the ups and downs of getting to know each other all over again.

Tags

expatriate, assignment, stress, divorce, isolation, infedility, marriage, loss of identity