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There’s No Such Thing as a Vanilla International Relocation: Every Location Has its Own Unique Set of Cultural Challenges

September 14, 2010 by MSI

For most expatriates and their organizations, the success of any international assignment is dependent upon their ability to manage the cultural differences they encounter in adjusting to daily life and acclimating to the host location workplace. Cultural training is an essential support service for every international assignment. And because culture varies in every destination, the challenges that expatriates and their organizations face are different as well, location by location.

For example, relocating from an economically developed home country, such as in North America, Europe, or Japan, to an economically developing host country, like Angola, Ecuador or Yemen, requires a set of support services very different from what needs to be provided if the move were from, say, France to Australia. The former move might include relocating to a compound, high-risk lifestyle in an unstable political environment with very different and unfamiliar customs and mores, while the latter move will present issues such as identifying and managing unexpected and hidden, yet significant differences, that can be equally challenging in their own ways. 

There also needs to be consideration for the culture of the assignees themselves, because the same location can present a different set of challenges to individuals from different home countries. For example, a family from Peru relocating to China will experience Chinese culture differently from a family moving to Shanghai from the United Kingdom. While both families need to understand Chinese culture, the challenges each will face in Shanghai will be different because of their own first culture (in this example, Latin Americans often find moving to Asian cultures comfortable, at least in the sense that there is a similar orientation in both Latin American and Chinese culture for group support, work and comfort, while, at least in regard to this issue, this could be more of a challenge for the family moving to Shanghai from London). 

The dynamic nature of both the home and host country cultures can also be different. A family relocating from, for example, Switzerland to Tokyo will have a very different experience from the family relocating from Switzerland to Hyderabad, India precisely because the pace of cultural change is significant in India, while not as significant in both Tokyo and Switzerland. On this measure alone (and, of course, in such moves, there are many other considerations), we could anticipate greater comfort (and hence, faster adjustment) between Switzerland and Tokyo, than between Switzerland and India.

While there are many factors that differ in each location affecting the success of any international assignment, cultural differences per location, present unique challenges that require specific interventions. Ignoring these location-specific requirements puts the success of the international assignment at risk; addressing them with culture-specific interventions insures the million-dollar investment that each and every international move represents.