Source: Relocate magazine

A large-scale survey of the views of spouses and partners of international assignees has recently been conducted by Permits Foundation. It finds that a lack of spouse and partner employment opportunities adversely affects international mobility, and that a few simple improvements, including providing work permits for spouses and partners, can create a 'triple win' for employers, families and host countries. Moreover, the research finds that spouses and partners are a highly-educated, under-utilised talent pool that can contribute to the economy of the host country. Sue Shortland reports.

Going global typically means that employers require employees to live and work abroad. Reasons for this include filling skills gaps and training and developing local staff, as well as providing a source of organisational control and acting as a conduit for the dissemination of organisational policies, practices and culture. Employees may also be asked to work abroad as part of their own development as they are groomed for even higher positions within their own organisations.

Today, though, the scenario of the working expatriate husband and accompanying non-working female spouse is long since a distant memory. Expatriates are, typically, accompanied by a spouse or a partner who works and wishes to continue to do so. For some, this is a matter of financial reality, while for others the desire to remain in employment concerns career aspirations and feelings of social acceptance and self-worth.
Spousal/partner employment has for many years been considered as a brake on international mobility, but the degree to which this is conjecture or reality has not been studied from the perspective of the spouses/partners themselves. That is, until now. The Permits Foundation – a body which represents employers to lobby governments for change in respect of work-permit regimes affecting spouses and partners wishing to work while on international assignment – has conducted a large-scale survey of some 3,300 accompanying spouses and partners based across the globe in 117 host countries for 200 employers in both the private and public sectors to find out their views.

There is no doubt that this is an impressive piece of research, in terms of both the magnitude and the breadth of its coverage. The survey was hosted by ORC Worldwide, whose web-based survey technology enabled individuals married or partnered to employees working as assignees for a wide range of organisations to complete their survey returns online while based abroad.

Clearly, the Permits Foundation has a vested interest in this research supporting its lobbying work, and no doubt it was pleased with the results that emerged, which gave a green light to its agenda. That said, the survey results are not simply propaganda to be dismissed lightly.