In an article published in French on LinkedIn, Yannick Pons, International Project Manager at Areva, is questioning the international experience. Is it a valuable professional experience? Yes, of course, would he answer, but the expatriate also faces many challenges coming back to France.
Difficulties to be understood by the family that stayed in the home country, administrative complications, misunderstanding with the company, often linked with the working organization.
Comments to this article are also interesting.
- Difficulties are not specific to France and its cultural particularities, but also to the expatriates themselves, the changes he experienced, quoting Naomi Hattaway’s blog.
- The expatriate should not be encourages to feel a “victim” (of his country, his co-workers, his company, his relatives…) because this would make him helpless facing the challenges. He should on the contrary be trained and aware of the difficulties when coming back home, in order to create a strategy during this phase. Coming back is a new departure in his life.
- The expatriate is victim of a fake belief: he thinks that when he comes back home, he leaves a global and nomad life, and fears he will lose the treasure he found while abroad. He should on the contrary create a “global and nomad” life, even in his home country.
- Last but not least, it is highly advisable to prepare the end of an expatriation… as soon as expatriation starts.
This is exactly what Alceis recommends to http://www.alceis.com/en/coaching-repatriation.
