Expatriation always means change, and HR needs to make sure their assignees are well-prepared for it. But does the western world meet the expections of those expats who have relocated to Europe from other continents?

Pinar Saglam had a good life in her native Istanbul.

Previous exposure to the host culture is likely to reduce culture shock.

Still, she wanted to experience living in the West. So when she was offered a managerial position with a bank in Amsterdam, she took it.

"My expectations of the western world were that it is so well developed, everyone is so happy," said Saglam. "But from what I have observed, it is not that way."

"Daily life is very similar. It doesn't really change," she said.

The rhythm of life may be similar whether one is in Barcelona or Beirut but the changes brought about by relocating your life – particularly across continents – can be great.

Pappu Mukherjee experienced the transition first hand when her family moved to Amsterdam from Delhi. She arrived in August 2003 with her two daughters and husband, who had accepted a transfer from his company, General Electric.

Despite an extended family, two homes and a very comfortable lifestyle in India, the family decided to make the move, leaving it all behind.

"You get quite spoiled in India," said Mukherjee, 39. "I had a cook, a maid, a driver and a gardener. And now, I'm all of them rolled into one. It took quite a long time adjusting to that."

As well as the change in lifestyle, Mukherjee and her family also faced a steep learning curve in terms of cultural adjustment.

"It's very different from where we come from," she said. "The surroundings are more beautiful here but we were brought up in a different way. You can just drop in on anybody [for a visit]. Here, you have to put everything into the agenda. Nothing is impromptu."

Culture shock and integration

Surya Kumar Bose, also from India, found his cultural shock to be relatively mild when he first arrived in Germany in 1972. Now based in Hamburg and working as an IT consultant, the Calcutta native credits the easy transition to his cosmopolitan upbringing. Bose, 55, said he grew up eating western food, speaking English frequently and having a diverse group of friends – all of which prepared him for living abroad.

"You don't have to give up your own culture to adopt another," he said. "Integration doesn't necessarily mean giving up your own values."

Also from India, Parmar Manjit relocated to Barcelona in 2000 because he had been impressed by the city when it hosted the Olympic Games in 1992, he told El Pais newspaper. Since arriving in Spain, Manjit has faced less discrimination as a Sikh than he did in India.

"Nobody persecutes me here for being Sikh. Everyone wants me and there aren't many racists," he told the newspaper.

Today, Manjit imports and exports software and has a small construction company.

But cultural stereotyping does exist in Europe, as 29-year-old Saglam observes when native Dutch tell her they are surprised that she is from Turkey.

"They still have the Turkish worker image from the 1960s," said Saglam, who manages the financial control division at Finansbank. 

"When I have a chance to talk with people, they say I'm not like what they expect. They say, ‘Are you sure you are Turkish?'"

Missing home

Saglam has also faced a cultural transition, originating from a city with 17 million residents to the Netherlands where there are only 16 million in the country.

"I still miss Istanbul. I miss the colour," she said. "Sometimes it's too quiet here. It's too boring for me, when you compare it to the eastern style. The most difficult thing for me is the weather. It's always rainy, grey or cold. But I like Amsterdam, there are people from everywhere."

Expats from Turkey battle out-dated attitudes towards their country

Adjusting mentally to the European way of life has made the physical challenges – such as the weather – easier for Mukherjee.

"I was pretty low for the first six months," she said. "Then I started planning. Ok, I'm going to do it their way. I put myself in Dutch classes. I made friends. I started some volunteer work."

"It's a beautiful country so might as well get on with it. I didn't start liking pancakes but I do like the flowers."

Flowers were the first thing that caught Nada Gavrilyuk's attention when she moved to Prague from Minsk in 1999 with her husband and 6-year-old daughter. The couple – both software programmers – had been offered inter-company transfers.

Compared to still-communist Belarus, the Czech Republic "was absolutely different," said husband Sergei, 50.

"I had been to America once so I didn't feel the huge change," he said. "But for my wife, it was her first visit abroad, and she was absolutely impressed. The first thing that impressed her was the flowers because you don't see them a lot in Belarus."

With all the changes in culture and surroundings, Gavrilyuk said there is still only one major difference in his life now.

"We started feeling much more confident," he said. "The change in salary has allowed us to live better but I cannot say that our lifestyle has changed dramatically."

Even after adjusting to life in Europe, it is locals who can sometimes wonder how expatriates from so far a field manage.

"People ask me, ‘How can you live so far away if you are from such a different place?'" said Rocio Arbula, a 30-year-old native of Peru who has worked in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands as a marketing specialist over the past five years.

"They suffer for us more than we do. It's not that we're from another planet."

Arbula and her husband, also from Peru, plan to have their children in Europe so they can be raised bilingual. Eventually, they would like to live in Spain and just may go back to Peru – someday.

That day is likely to come sooner for Mukherjee, who plans to return to India in several years when her husband's assignment is up.

"We are having fun here but as long as it's there, we will go back," she said. "It's home."

May 2005

[Copyright Expatica]

Subject: Living in Europe, expats in Europe, expats from India, expats from Turkey