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2008-01-06
First of all, Happy New Year to all of you, INSPIRED friends, members, guests, partners and sponsors!!
I wish you all a Fulfilling 2008 Year, personally and professionally.

I have had during my holiday in sunny South Africa lots of time to read articles and books related to international assignements, expat spouses, career moves and personal development .. all of those being currently my favorite topics.
I would like to share with you what I found was the most interesting or useful:
A recent survey about relocation trends showed that: http://www.gmacglobalrelocation.com/insight_support/grts/2001_GRTS.pdf :
1. Multinationals rank China as the most common new destination for expat assignments.
2. At the same time, China was cited as the country producing the great assignment challenge.
3. My conclusion: if you are finding it hard to adjust to China as an expat spouse, you are certainly not the only one. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you!

I also found on different HR related websites the same type of comments: too many multinaltionals do not offer spouse assistance upon arrival in a foreign country, but would do so if asked...
My conclusion: do not hesitate to start an open dialogue with your partner's company and negotiate some type of spouse assistance and maybe an INSPIRED Membership!

During my stay, I also got very absorbed with one of Robin Pascoe book on repatriation ( www.expatexpert.com ). Some of her advice actually also apply for expatriation. She explains that it may be good advice during the period of transition and settling in not to look immediately for a working situation, but rather to make sure that ones agenda is full with tasks relating to understanding and coping with the local environment and networking wherever possible, in order to become more integrated in a new society prior to finding a job.
I fully agree with that and would add that this transition time and those new networks might lead us to change career, take up voluntary work, study or become entrepreneurs, that is to say - as my friend Sarah Cooper from www.cowsfrommywindow.com says - to lead the life one really wants.