ABSTRACT
International assignees or “expatriates” are nationals of one country who are sent by their employing organization to live and work in another country. They fill a range of positions, from the technical or support roles to managerial and leadership roles. Found within multinational organizations headquartered in every part of the world and in every industry, the number of international assignments is on the rise. According to the Brookfield Global Relocation Trends Survey (Brookfield Global Relocation Services 2011), 64 percent of companies are increasing the size of their international assignee population, compared to 43 percent in 2011. International assignments, once considered parent company nationals moving to subsidiary offices, are also widening their reach around organizations. The Brookfield survey reports that now only half of the companies’ international assignees are relocating to or from the headquarters country, the lowest percentage in the seventeen-year history of these data being collected (2011).
