You May Think Globally But you Reenter Locally

1
You May Think GloballyBut you Re-enter Locally!

• SIETAR-USA Conference
• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• November 1-4, 2006

2
Session Presenter

• Bruce La Brack, Ph.D.
• School of International Studies
• University of the Pacific
• Stockton, California

3
Session Focus

• Why the Social Contextof Reentry
  MattersandHow it is Changing Worldwide!

4
Session Overview

• Themes
• Reentry Definitions
• Traditional Characteristics
• Reentry Historically Pre-Modern
  Patterns
• 20th Century Patterns
• Impact of Globalization
• Existing Models
• Emerging Behaviors
  Models
• Diverse Impacts
  Communities
• Contemporary
  Issues Challenges
• New
  Directions and Complications

5
Reentry

• Upon reentering their native culture without
  adequate preparation, people are likely to
  discover, much to their surprise, that they
  cannot simply pick up where they left off
  Friends remember them more or less as they were
  when they left. In all likelihood, they are
  expected to be very much the same.
• Source Freedman, p. 22 in Clyde Austin,
  Cross-Cultural Reentry, 1986

6

• The illusion that it is easy to return home
  after an expanded overseas living and working
  experience is shared both by expatriate employees
  and their employers. This common misconception
  can lead to a variety of problems, from
  individual concerns such as disappointment,
  boredom, depression and anger to company
  issuesconcerns such as low employee
  productivity, and effective use of skills and
  knowledge gained from the overseas experience,
  and a loss in revenue due to high turnover rates
  in returned expatriate employees.
• Source J.
  Greenberg, 1997

7
Home

• where they are no longer foreigners, where
  they dont have to think before they speak or
  act, and where they neednt ever worry again
  about having to adjust.
• Home where its easy.
• Source Storti, 1990, p. 99

8
Types of Returnees(in very rough order of the
amount of literature available ontheir Reentry
experiences, problems, issues, and outcomes)

• US-American Study Abroad Students
• International Exchange/Foreign Students
• Missionaries (aka MKs or Missionary Kids)
• International Business (including expat families)
• Military (aka Military Brats)
• TCK/Global Nomad
• International Development/Aid
• Diplomatic Corps
• Peace Corps

9
Types of Returnees, cont.

• 10. Refugee/Political Exiles
• 11. International Education (teaching
  administration)
• 12. International Health Staff (doctors, nurses,
  AIDS clinicians, disaster relief workers, NGO
  agency medical personnel, etc.)
• 13. Journalists/Media
• 14. Hospitality Industry (e.g., Hotels, Resorts,
  Cruise Ships, Country Clubs)
• 15. Professional Athletes (e.g., American
  baseball players in Japan, American basketball
  players in Italy, Olympic athletes and coaches)
• Developed by Bruce La Brack, School of
  International Studies,
• University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA

10
General Categories ofDefinitions of Reentry

• Behavioral generic
• (i.e., the act of reentering again)
• Aerospace return from space
• Cardiology blood circulation
• Real Estate retaking possession of land
• Card Game Whist
• Prison Release parole
• Adult Education non-traditional student
• Sojourner/Study Abroad various
• Petroleum Exploration drilling

11
Reentry

• reentry \re-'en-tre-\ n.
• a retaking possession esp. entry by a lessor
  on
• leased premises on the tenant's failure
  to perform
• the conditions of the lease
• 2. a second or new entry
• 3. a playing card that will enable a
  player to
• regain the lead
• 4. the action of reentering the
  earth's atmosphere
• after travel in space
• Source Websters
  Dictionary. Infopedia CD-Rom Version, 1996

12
Suggested Addition

• Reentry
• the process or act of returning to one's native
  (passport) country after living or working
  internationally.

13
Why reentry home is potentially difficult

• Unanticipated change home is a given
• Unadjusted expectations or false expectations
• Heightened critical sense
• Comparative framework (new perspectives)
• Unprocessed experience
• Little opportunity for application or sharing of
  non-technical knowledge
• Getting socially up-to-speed may be frustrating
• Reverse home sickness

14
Degrees of Cultural Reactions

• Culture Surprise (Tourist)
• Notice Things, fantasy-like, exotic,
  concentration on difference, quaint,
  honeymoon phase
• Culture Stress (Traveler)
• Mild response to stimulus overload, tired,
  withdrawn, annoyance builds, daily reality
  phase
• Culture Fatigue (Work/Study)
• Greater impact due to need to operate in
  difficult context, symptoms intensify,
  functionality declines

15
Cultural Reactions, cont.

• Culture Shock
• Onset timing variable results in serious
  reaction to continuing tension anxiety
  disconfirmation of behavior possible severe
  physical/mental manifestations (e.g., anger,
  displaced aggression, freeze)
• Item Irritation Irritation
• Traceable to a single item/value focus on an
  overt, observable behavior that is common and
  recurrent and not likely to go away a real hot
  button(e.g., public spitting, mistreatment of
  animals)

16
Cultural Reactions, cont.

• Reentry Shock
• Reactions that occur as a result of
  re-adaptation to our home culture often called
  reverse culture shock shares some aspects in
  common with culture shock, but timing of stages
  very different.
• Added complication of surprise returnees
  usually dont expect home culture to be
  unreceptive to them or to be so difficult to come
  back to the familiar may seem foreign.
• Expectations of self and others can play major
  role in adjustment process, and be a source of
  ongoing stress.
• Specific context of reentry always a crucial
  variable.

17
Influences on Adjustment

• Time Abroad
• Location (degree of difference)
• Prior Exposure Overseas
• Extent of Immersion
• Home Contact/Support Networks
• Prior Reentry Experience(s)
• Degree of Home Culture Contrast

18
"When I go back I know I shall be out of it we
fellows who've spent our lives out there always
are.
Somerset
Maugham Source from The Gentleman in the
Parlour quoted in Craig Storti,
The Art of Coming Home, Intercultural Press
(1997), p. 1.
19
Reentry Predictor Variables

• Control Factors
• Intrapersonal Factors
• (personality/idiopathic issues)
• Somatic/Biological Factors
• Interpersonal (external support)
• Time/Space
• Geopolitical

20
Intensity Factors Adapted to Returnee Contexts
1. Cultural Differences 2. Ethnocentrism
3. Language 4. Cultural Immersion 5.
Cultural Isolation 6. Prior Intercultural
Experience 7. Expectations 8.
Visibility/Invisibility 9. Status 10. Power
and Control particularly salient in reentry
contexts Source R. Michael Paige. On the
Nature of Intercultural Experiences and
Intercultural Education, in R. Michael Paige,
ed., Education for the Intercultural Experience,
Yarmouth, ME Intercultural Press, 1994.
21
Reentry Program Models By Goal of Society or
Organization

• Reassimilation/Reacculturaltion/
  Resocialization
• Reflective Assessment
• Growth and Integration
• Negotiated Reentry
• Source Bruce La Brack, School of International
  Studies,
• University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA

22
Reassimilation/Reacculturation/Resocialization

• Dominant historical patterns characterized by
• Reinforcement of normative (traditional?) values
  is paramount and applied society-wide
• Deviation almost always results in negative
  sanctions
• Social pressure to conform often intense
• Limited ability of returnee to use prior
  experience
• Cultural variations are mainly structural and
  depend on type of society (e.g., tribal, peasant,
  industrial) and location (e.g., rural, urban,
  metropolitan)
• Limited mobility and/or alternative options

23
Human Society Dominated by Small Scale Societies
Until 1800

• For 250,000 years human society could be
  characterized as
• Small scale
• Hunting/Gathering Horticulture
  Agriculture-based
• Exhibiting mechanical solidarity or
  Gemeinschaft
• society (Durkheim)
• Held together by Moral Order (Robert Redfield)
• Relatively isolated
• Highly collectivist
• In the 1800s, there were 150 million people who
  were politically autonomous. In 1900, the number
  was still around 50 million.

24
Fit in or Suffer the Consequences!

• For 99 of human history, the role of the
  returnee was to fit back into prevailing
  cultural rules and roles of a specific society or
  kin group.
• The penalties for not doing so have ranged from
  ostracism to extreme isolation, banishment, and
  even death!

25
Early Historical Samples

• Rituals
• Brahmannical Hindu purification rites
  from
• Rig Veda (circa 1700-1100 BCE)
• Literature
• Prodigal son from New Testament Bible
• Homers Odyssey
• Asian History
• Tokogawa Japan
• Chinese response to Europeans
• Journals
• Marco Polo
• Hsuan Tsang

26
Contemporary Samples from Smaller-Scale Societies

• Western Apache of U.S. Southwest
• Mende of Sierra Leone, West Africa
• Yemeni of the Arabian Peninsula

27
Platos View of Strangers from The Laws
Utopian State needs to be insulated from the
outside world as much as possible therefore, in
terms of foreign visitors, good care needs to
be taken lest any of this category of visitor
introduces any novel custom. Contact with
strangers is to be kept down to the unavoidable
minimum.
28
Platos View of Study Abroad

• No young person under forty is ever to be
  allowed to travel abroad under any circumstances
  nor is anyone to be allowed to go for private
  reasons, but only on some public business, as a
  herald or ambassador or as an observer of one
  sort or another.

29
Platos View of Returnees

• Those who do go abroad for such purposes are
  obligated when they return to tell the younger
  generation that the social and political customs
  of the rest of the world dont measure up to
  their own.
• Source The Global Philosophers World Politics
  in Western Thought
• (Issues in World Politics Series),
  Mark V. Kauppi

30
Macro Transformations 1800-1950

• Large scale nation-states emerge
• Colonialism dominates political organization
• Industrialization, agri-business and
  easier/cheaper
• sea and land transportation possible
• Societies move rapidly towards Organic
• Solidarityaka a Gessellschaft society
  (Durkheim),
• held together by Mechanical Order (Robert
  Redfield)
• Widespread, cross-border economic and social
• integration accelerates
• Power increasingly centralized and urbanized
• Many Western societies exhibit increasing
  individualist
• tendencies and values
• Internal cultural and social pluralism grows
• Global circulation of elites and administrators
  commonplace

31
Macro Transformations 1950-Present

• End of colonialism
• Massive internal external migrations continue
• Plural and multi-cultural societies become
  norm in West
• and emerge elsewhere
• Jet travel becomes fast and less expensive
• Intensification of Global Mass Media/Pop Culture
• Computer revolution
• Internet evolution
• Asynchronous communication increases
• Non-traditional study abroad destinations
  increase
• Internships/service learning components grow
• Global management/manufacturing near universal
  trend
• Economic and social integration/interdependency
  intensifies
• World shrinks while diversity multiplies nearly
  everywhere

32
Shift in Goals of Repatriation

• Current philosophy of many study abroad and
  international exchange programs (at least in the
  West) revolves around a focus on Individual
  Growth
• Direct cross-cultural learning and exploration
• Personal and cultural diversity seen as normal,
  positive and encouraged
• Integration of sojourn with home academic and
  social life desired/expected to some extent
• Result is a positive bias towards applying and
  integrating international experience into ongoing
  life and studies post-experience.

33
Expansion of Possibilities for Returnees

• Reassimilation/Reacculturation/Resocialization
  models remain common world-wide, however
• Growth and Integration
• Reflective Assessment
• Negotiated Reentry
• examples have emerged as alternative models that
  support readjustment strategies for both
  institutions and individuals, reflected in
  growing differentiation of reentry styles.

34
New Issues and Contexts in Reentry

• Global Nomads as percentage of returnees
• Heritage-seeking students and attendant
• identity issues
• Revolvers (where and when is home?)
• Sequential Assignments without meaningful time
  at home to readjust
• Attractive global alternatives (just leave) and
  local alternatives (just staybut with limited
  networks and narrow comfort zones)
• Veterans (PTSD and reverse culture shock)

35
Local can be global Global can be local

• Possibility of cultural ghettoization or social
  encapsulationeven in the most multi-cultural
  societieswith all associated negative results.
• Possibility of finding or creating an
  international and/or intercultural experience
  increasingly likelyeven in homogenous
  traditional settings, and without leaving home.

36
Puschs Reentry Styles

• Going Home Styles of Reentry
• by Margaret D. Pusch
• In Donal Lynch, Adrian Pilbeam and Philip
  O'Connor, Heritage and Progress, from conference
  proceedings, SIETAR-Europa Conference, Bath,
  England, 1998.

37
(No Transcript)
38
Pusch Styles J. Bennett Marginality
Categories Compared
Free Spirit can seen as equivalent of
an Encapsulated Marginal Detached and
Integrator could both be seen as partial
equivalents of a Constructive
Marginal depending upon degree of engagement
39
In-PatriationA New Reentry Research Direction?

• Very recently, studies from areas as disparate
  as Ireland and Hong Kong/China have suggested a
  potential new direction in returnee research.
  They deal with return of expatriates (many
  formerly considered permanent) to their
  passport country due to current economic boom
  conditions. Adjustment patterns differ
  significantly from earlier expatriate returnees
  and associated literature. India is likely to
  experience similar patterns in near future.

40
Sample In-Patriation Studies

• The Returning to Ireland website questionnaire
  of Dr. Michael J. Curran, Trinity College,
  Dublin, through which he gathered data on his
  interest in the acculturation and health of
  current Irish in-migrants (www.r-I.com) in
  2005-2006. Site no longer available on web.
• Blending Cultures Hong Kong Chinese Return
  Home, paper by Dr. Nan Sussman, City University
  New York-Staten Island, presented at the
  SIETAR-USA Conference, Jersey City, N.J.,
  November 2005 discusses the emergence of unique
  re-migration reactions and effects among
  Chinese returnees (former expatriates).

41
In-Patriation Article on India

• Theres No Place Like Home...Again Returning to
  India
• Personal and Professional Challenges
• by Cindy Reif, in Strategic Advisor, Newsletter
  of GMAC Global Relocation Services Volume 2
  Number 13 (Sept. 2006)
• Source

42
Research Review Source

• The Psychology of Culture Shock, 2nd ed.,
• Philadelphia, PA Routledge, 2001
• Colleen Ward, Stephen Bochner, and Adrian Furnham
  provide a superb, relatively current, review of
  study abroad and international student adaptation
  research as part of comprehensive review of
  culture shock. Includes extensive bibliography
  on both culture shock and reentry shock.
  Excellent overviews of study abroad, immigrant,
  international student and other categories of
  sojourners.

43
Global Nomads

• David C. Pollock Ruth Van Reken
• Third Culture Kids The Experience of Growing Up
  Among Worlds, 2nd ed.
• Intercultural Press, 2001
• Pico Iyer
• The Global Soul Jet Lag. Shopping Mallsand the
  Search for Home
• Knopf, 2000

44
Native American Veterans Rituals

• Tom Holm
• Strong HeartsWounded Souls Native American
  Veterans of the Vietnam War,
• University of Texas-Austin, 1996
• (see especially Chapter 6, Strong Hearts, on
  contemporary ceremonies)

45
New Challenges in Reentry Training

• Greater domestic and international variety in
  types of returnees than ever before
• Their experiences, expectations, and reactions
  will exhibit greater complexity, range and,
  sometimes, intensity
• Alternative adjustment possibilities are often
  extensive, but choosing among or recommending
  them can be difficult
• Consequences and outcomes of returnee adopting a
  specific strategy nearly always uncertain and
  often unpredictable
• Local context always has an impact upon
  readjustment, but it can be multiplistic and
  positive or negativeand sometimes both
  simultaneously or sequentially! Depends upon an
  interplay among the attitudes of the returnees,
  the returnees goals and views of the local
  circumstances, and the prevailing perceptions of
  the returnees by the salient surrounding
  reference groups

46
Challenges in Reentry, cont.

• Possible Ethical Dilemmas
• What to do when client sets expectations for a
  reentry training that may be incompatible, even
  diametrically opposed, to those desired by
  returnee?
• What to do when it is clear that corporate
  interests do not coincide with that of returnee
  and/or their family in terms of repatriation
  goals/future plans?
• What to do when trainer acquires information in
  course of reentry session that may adversely
  impact the sponsoring company, but returnee
  expects trainer to maintain confidentiality and
  company expects candor?

47
Expat Allegiance Patterns

• Expatriates grouped into one of four allegiance
  patterns
• Free Agent Expats have low allegiance to both
  the parent
• firm and the local unit
• Going Native Expats have low allegiance to the
  parent firm and
• high allegiance to the
  local unit
• Hearts-at-home pattern Expats identify more
  strongly with the
• parent
  firm than with the local operation
• Dual Citizen pattern Expats are highly
  committed to both parent
• and local
  operation
• Source Black, J. Stewart, and Gregersen, Hal B.
  Serving Two Masters Managing the Dual
  Allegiance of Expatriate Employees, Sloan
  Management Review, Cambridge, Summer 1992

48
In a sense, it is the coming back, the return,
which gives meaning to the going forth. We really
dont know where we have been until we come back
to where we were -- only where we were may not be
as it was because of who we have become, which
after all, is why we left. Source Bernard,
character from TV show Northern Exposure after
returning to Alaska from Africa