D IFFERENCES BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF EXPATRIATES

Rana-Deuba (1999) suggest that expatriates with a stronger identification with co-nationals show less difficulties in psychological adjustment whereas those with a stronger host national identification experience fewer sociocultural adjustment difficulties. As mentioned above, the expatriates show no focus on their co-nationals;

however they seem psychologically well adjusted. Hence, the findings of this study do entirely not support Ward and Rana-Deuba’s findings. However, some support for their highlighted connection between sociocultural adjustment and host national identification could be found. Those expatriates that have less contact to the locals than the others also seem slightly less socioculturally adjusted.

Friends in general seem an important issue for the well-being and satisfaction of the expatriates. Many of them named friends and family as aspects they miss from their home countries. This importance of considering the loss of contact to family and friends during expatriation is highlighted by Hippler (2006). He criticizes other authors for only looking at the expatriate’s adjustment to the host environment, failing to see how the loss of family and friends influences the adjustment process.

Regarding the integration at work, one interviewee mentioned lower career possibilities for expatriates, an aspect that makes him not wanting to stay in Denmark for many more years. Selmer (1999) found that meeting career goals has a positive impact on psychological as well as sociocultural adjustment. Hence, this fits to the fact that the expatriate is less sociologically adjusted as many of the other expatriates and is psychologically well adjusted as long as he knows that his stay in Denmark is only temporary.

To sum up, the expatriates seem quite satisfied with their overall situation in Denmark. Most of them achieved to fulfil their existent desire to integrate, both in psychological as well as in sociocultural aspects.

As her Danish partner constitutes her reason to stay in Denmark, she is counted to the group of expatriates that came to Denmark for their Danish partner rather than for work.

Consequently, we can differentiate between a group of five expatriates that came to Denmark for their Danish partner and a group of five expatriates who came for work reasons.

Since the literature suggested a difference in the willingness to engage with the local society and language (e.g. Berry et al. 2002; Gudykunst & Kim 2003) this thesis intended to compare long term and short term sojourners. The separation between partner and work as reason for coming was understood as able to imply a rather long term orientation for the expatriates with a Danish partner and a rather short- or medium term orientation for those who came for work. However, the findings of the present study suggest that this differentiation could not be made in such a clear-cut way. Of those who came for their partner, two show no intentions to leave, two have no serious plans to leave, but do consider it for job reasons or to raise their children in their home country. One expatriate does not want to stay “longer than necessary”. Consequently, coming to Denmark to follow one’s Danish partner does not necessarily imply an intention to stay for unlimited time. Regarding the expatriates that came due to work reasons, only two have concrete dates in mind when they want to or have to leave. The other three want to stay for unlimited time, one of them vaguely mentioning a limitation for a few more years.

Hence, the intended differentiation was hard to make and no clear distinction in the definition of integration between the two groups could be found. Rather, it became clear that neither of the groups defines integration in terms of assimilation or as

‘becoming Danish’. Despite the general rejection of assimilation, there might be a slightly stronger tendency towards accepting and taking over parts of the local culture in the group of expatriates having a Danish partner. However they are only willing to take over these parts of the local culture if both cultures of the partnership are mixed and, especially in their home, they can decide themselves what and when they take over aspects.

Out of the group of expatriates who came to Denmark for work reasons, the two that had a rather fixed end date of their stay, either due to the ending contract or their personal wishes, somewhat stuck out of the group. They were less sociocultural and psychological adjusted as the others and seemed to live more in an expatriate society.

Hence there might be a possibility that the literature is right and expatriates coming for a

limited stay are less open towards changes and towards integrating into local society and culture less (Berry et al. 2002; Gudykunst and Kim 2003).

Another way one might differentiate between expatriates could be their cultural distance to the host culture. In that respect, some authors suggest that the degree of similarity or difference between host and home culture influences the adaptation in general (Gudykunst and Kim 2003; Waxin 2006; Berry et al. 2002) or the sociocultural adjustment (e.g. Ward and Kennedy 1992) of expatriates. Others, (e.g. Selmer 2007) disagree. As mentioned before, the cultural distance has not been measured according to the dimensions suggested in the literature (see point 3.3.2); rather the degree of cultural distance as perceived by the expatriates has been considered. According to the findings, an interrelation between cultural distance and integration could not be confirmed. Of the three expatriates that report a rather high perceived cultural distance, one expatriate seems well adjusted in both psychological and sociocultural dimensions of adjustment, one seems rather weakly adjusted and one has only spent a very short time in Denmark so that adjustment was not yet achieved. These findings do not seem to make it possible to draw clear conclusions regarding the interrelation of cultural distance and expatriate adjustment. Hence, the results of research from authors like Selmer (2007), arguing against an influence of cultural distance on the processes of integration, seem to be confirmed. However, the findings of this thesis could have two other reasons. Firstly, the rather international background and attitude of the expatriates could be balancing the distance to an extent. Secondly, to measure the perceived cultural distance might be misleading and considering the dimensions named in the literature (see for example: Hall and Hall 1990; Trompenaars 1993; Hofstede and Hofstede 2005) could lead to different results.

To sum up, no clear conclusions on differences between expatriates with or without a Danish partner or between expatriates with a more or less distant culture could be drawn. However, a tendency of lower openness towards change for expatriates with a temporary stay could be found.