Living and Working Abroad: The Pros and Cons | UNWIND

 

Globalization has intrigued people to reconsider and redefine their limitations, goals, and lifestyles. No doubt foreign experiences are becoming more common in the 21st century. To stay competitive, companies target the international market; interpersonal relationships are no longer tied to a specific region; educational institutions are providing opportunities to foreign students, and the list goes on.

Relocating can be life-changing but what lies at the end depends on how one weighs its pros and cons. 

Perks of Living and Working Abroad

Living and working abroad increases self-concept clarity. Among different transitional experiences that people encounter during relocation, one is that people are exposed to a different set of values, norms, beliefs, and behaviors. This exposure enables them to question whether their beliefs learned from their home country resonate with their values or not.

As they are continuously faced with the norms and values of the foreign country, people tend to reflect on their own cultural beliefs and values that are put to the test in the foreign country. And as a result, they either discard or strengthen their beliefs and values and find out who they really are. This self-concept that may be obscured in their home country is now enhanced due to recurrent self-reflections.

Another important aspect is the length of time spent abroad. More time lived abroad means more self-discerning reflections and more self-discovery. Likewise, it is directly proportional to the number of opportunities to learn about the foreign country's culture and employment possibilities. Due to staying abroad, people get high-paying jobs in internationally oriented enterprises.

Where technological advances and global competition have made it difficult to make career-related decisions, self-clarity is known to host better job performance, psychological adjustment, adaptation to stress, psychological well-being, relationship satisfaction, life satisfaction, cooperative problem solving, and purpose in life.

Besides an increase in self-concept clarity, personality development is another benefit of living and working abroad. No doubt, it is argued that genetic factors influence personality traits to a certain degree. However, changes in emotional stability, conscientiousness, and agreeableness occur as an individual tries to fit into social roles and contexts.

Going abroad is usually associated with engagement. Engagement is highly subjective work meaning, occupational ambitions, high career orientation, and working hard for perfection. Studies show that higher engagement is associated with higher motives to go abroad and success. Moreover, being exposed to new perspectives and views helps broaden one’s horizons and expand personal development.

However, high engagement alone with low resilience results in inefficient problem-solving, restlessness, and increased chances of resignation. Resilience can be seen in the form of active problem-solving, psychological balance, remaining emotionally distant from the job, and a lower tendency to resign. Living and working abroad not only helps in the previously mentioned developments but also in increasing resilience. People living and working abroad face additional challenges than others. Unfamiliar communication styles, norms and values, and other daily difficulties help develop efficient problem-solving and self-regulation skills and better effective outcomes.

Moreover, abroad stay and exposition to foreign culture results in greater intercultural intelligence: acquiring knowledge about norms, values, and practices of the new culture, investing time and energy in learning about it, and behaving appropriately in intercultural situations.

The number of foreign countries visited and lived in also plays an important role. Broad foreign experiences enable an individual to develop trust across different cultural groups reducing intergroup bias, enhancing creativity, and promoting career success along with adding “culturally savvy, or “global cosmopolitan” type adjectives to the repertoire.

Downsides of Living and Working Abroad

Besides all the “good” that living and working abroad offers, there are caveats as well. The issue of acculturation (cross-cultural adjustment) is real. As living and working abroad requires adjusting to the host country, foreign-born workers as compared to native workers encounter more stress living and working in a culturally different country.

Relocating to a foreign country can induce feelings of loneliness and isolation, especially if one lacks a support network in the new place. Coping with homesickness can pose a significant obstacle, as the person may yearn for the familiar comforts of their homeland. Homesickness often manifests in isolation, loneliness, and depression.

While being exposed to new cultures is a thrilling prospect, it can also be a source of irritation and discomfort. Cultural differences can cause misunderstandings, making it arduous to adapt to the lifestyle and customs of a foreign country. The individual may feel like an outsider or find it hard to fit in, particularly if the culture is markedly different from their own.

Although the opportunity to enhance language proficiency is a valuable aspect of living and working abroad, language barriers can prove to be a substantial hurdle. Struggling to communicate in a foreign tongue can be vexing, leading to a sense of social disconnection and difficulty adjusting to the daily routine.

Adjustment issues arise as people have to deal with different cultural backgrounds and lifestyle changes. , in turn, the level of adjustment is related to organizational citizenship, job performance, job strain, job satisfaction, and turnover intent.

Worth mentioning, that the process of moving to a new country comes with a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy, which can be overwhelming. Obtaining legal documents like visas and work permits can be a lengthy and complicated ordeal. Moreover, figuring out healthcare, insurance, and banking systems can present another set of challenges.

The cost of living is another challenge. The cost in different countries can vary substantially, and this can place a strain on finances. Expenses may be higher than what the person is accustomed to, particularly if their salary needs to be adjusted to reflect the increased cost of living.

According to the literature, migrants or expatriates experience decreased well-being, less professional support, and more mental health concerns as compared to native people. And this psychological stress can lead to adjustment disorders, depression, or even premature return.

To sum up, language barriers, cultural differences, loss of familiar things such as home country beliefs, values, personal relationships, unfamiliarity with the resources available and how one can assess them, lack of social and professional support, legal and logistic issues, and cost of living posit psychological stress to the expatriate.

However, understanding the certain factors that play an important role in the degree of adjustment can help a great deal. Foreign adjustment is a multidimensional construct with three aspects: work adjustment is related to the adjustment to a new job, general adjustment is associated with adjusting to the living conditions in the foreign country, and interaction adjustment is socializing with nationals of the foreign country.

Some factors include relational skills, flexibility, job knowledge and motivation, family situation, adaptability, purpose, personality, perceived health, cultural distances, and extra-cultural openness. These factors have both positive and negative relationships with acculturation. In addition, cultural intelligence, and emotional intelligence both factors ease the process of adjustment.

Conclusion

Considering all the aspects, better planning and doing some things beforehand might cut down some struggle and stress. Things that must be considered before moving abroad involve checking the eligibility for a new job, understanding the visa requirements, checking for healthcare and insurance eligibility and options, creating a budget, resolving housing issues, learning the basics of the host country's language, doing research about the culture, discovering transportation options, learning and practicing both soft and hard skills to adjust better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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