« Professional expatriation is still too often viewed simply as the international relocation of an employee, whereas in most cases it actually involves relocating an entire family balance. Human resources departments devote considerable attention to expatriate compensation, housing, international taxation, social security, children’s schooling, airline tickets and repatriation conditions. Yet one stakeholder who is decisive to the success of international mobility remains regularly underestimated: the accompanying spouse.
This issue is far from marginal. Major historical surveys on international mobility show that around 80% of married expatriate employees or those in a relationship were accompanied by their spouse or partner. The Brookfield Global Relocation Trends Survey reported a rate of 80% in 2011, with a historical average of 84%, while subsequent editions continued to place the proportion at around 78% to 81%.
The implications for HR expatriation policies are significant. Supporting the spouse is not an optional comfort benefit. It is part of talent management, expatriation failure prevention, international executive retention and, more broadly, the overall performance of international mobility. Academic research also confirms the major role played by social support in the adjustment of expatriate spouses, particularly when they have to rebuild their entire social and professional network in the host country. »
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Professional Expatriation Is Also Family Expatriation
When a European company offers an executive the opportunity to manage a subsidiary in Casablanca, Abidjan, Dakar, Nairobi, Johannesburg or Port Louis, the decision does not concern the employee alone. Behind the international mobility of a CEO, CFO, industrial director, sales manager or engineer, there is often a spouse who must also leave behind their familiar environment.
The spouse may have to give up their professional activity, colleagues, friends, family, routines and financial independence. They must rebuild their daily life in an environment where they may not necessarily understand the cultural references, social codes or language.
This reality explains why family difficulties have long ranked among the main reasons for refusing or failing an expatriation assignment. An academic review published in 2021 noted that 62% of the expatriates studied were married or living with a partner and confirmed that family-related factors play a major role both in refusing an international assignment and in determining its success.
Expatriation policies should therefore adopt a different perspective. Contractually, the employee remains the expatriate, but in practice, the true unit of international mobility is often the family.
| Expatriation factor | Estimated weight in success | Main HR issue |
|---|---|---|
| Expatriate’s professional assignment | 30% | Performance and objectives |
| Spouse adjustment | 25% | Family stability |
| Children’s schooling and adjustment | 15% | Family continuity |
| Housing and daily environment | 10% | Quality of life |
| Cultural integration | 10% | Local adjustment |
| Compensation and benefits | 10% | Attractiveness and financial security |
This table is an HR analytical framework rather than a scientific statistic. Its purpose is to illustrate how a mobility policy focused exclusively on employment contracts and compensation can overlook a substantial part of the factors that determine success.
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Eight Out of Ten Expatriates in a Relationship Relocate With Their Spouse
Available international mobility studies provide a particularly useful benchmark. According to Brookfield, 80% of married expatriate employees or those in a relationship were accompanied by their spouse in 2011. The survey also reported a historical average of 84%. Other editions placed the proportion at approximately 80% or 81%.
It is therefore reasonable, when analysing international mobility policies, to use as a historical benchmark the fact that approximately four out of five expatriates in a relationship are likely to relocate with their partner.
Conversely, approximately 19% to 22% of married employees or those in a relationship undertake certain assignments without their spouse. The 2015 Brookfield survey reported that 20% of assignments were conducted on a “single status” basis, meaning without an accompanying spouse or partner. Among these unaccompanied assignments, 55% were short-term assignments while 45% lasted more than one year.
This last figure is particularly revealing. A separation lasting three or six months may be regarded as a temporary arrangement. A separation lasting one year, two years or longer profoundly changes family life.
| Family situation of expatriate employees in a relationship | Historical benchmark | HR implication |
|---|---|---|
| Expatriate accompanied by spouse | Around 78% to 81% | Need to support the spouse |
| Expatriate relocating without spouse | Around 19% to 22% | Risk of family separation |
| Short-term unaccompanied assignments | Around 55% to 62% of “single status” assignments depending on the survey | Frequent but temporary separation |
| Long-term unaccompanied assignments | Around 38% to 45% of “single status” assignments | Increased risk to family stability |
The available figures mainly come from major historical international mobility surveys. There is currently no single recent global statistic that would allow us to state that these proportions apply exactly to all European international groups in 2026. Nevertheless, they remain solid benchmarks for understanding the structure of the phenomenon.
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The Spouse Can Become the Main Weakness in an Expatriation Assignment
The typical situation may appear paradoxical. The expatriate arrives in the host country with an assignment, a company, colleagues, meetings, objectives and a full agenda. From the very first Monday morning, their social environment begins to form naturally around their work.
The spouse, however, may find themselves only a few hours later alone in an unfamiliar apartment or house, in a city they are just discovering, without a professional activity, colleagues or a personal network.
The first few weeks may be enjoyable. Discovering a new country, settling into the home, sightseeing, restaurants, administrative procedures and organising children’s schooling can fill the days. But once this initial phase is over, a much more difficult feeling can emerge: the sense of no longer having a clearly defined personal role.
Mercer identifies among the most frequent concerns of accompanying spouses the loss of income, career interruption, difficulty in subsequently rebuilding a professional career, as well as boredom, loneliness, isolation and the absence of structure in daily life.
The difference between the two members of the couple can gradually become considerable.
The expatriate builds their career while their spouse may feel that they have put their own career on hold. One develops a professional network while the other loses part of their social network. One experiences professional acceleration while the other may experience a form of personal downgrading.
The challenge is therefore not simply to find something for the spouse to do. It is to enable them to rebuild a social identity independent of being merely “the expatriate’s spouse.”
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Expatriation Failure Rates Linked to the Spouse
This topic requires considerable precision because very different percentages circulate online.
Historical Brookfield surveys placed the premature termination rate of international assignments at approximately 4% to 7%, depending on the year. One earlier survey reported a 4% failure rate, with a historical average of 5%, and ranked spouse or partner dissatisfaction as the leading individual cause of failure, accounting for 18% in the breakdown presented.
Other studies measure not the overall failure rate but the proportion of failed assignments in which a family-related problem was involved.
In 2014, Cartus reported that 61% of respondents cited the family’s inability to adapt to the new country as one of the main causes of international assignment failure.
Data presented by Mercer based on the NetExpat & EY Relocating Partner Survey 2023 are even more significant: 74% of assignments regarded as failed were associated with partner dissatisfaction or inadequate partner wellbeing.
This does not mean that 74% of all expatriation assignments fail. It means that within the sample studied, the spouse was very frequently involved in situations where the international assignment ultimately failed.
| Indicator | Result observed in different studies | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| International assignments terminated prematurely | Around 4% to 7% in certain historical surveys | Overall failure rate remains relatively limited |
| Spouse/partner dissatisfaction in an earlier breakdown of causes | 18% | Leading individual cause in the survey concerned |
| Family’s inability to adapt, cited as a cause of failure | 61% | Cartus 2014 |
| Failed assignments linked to partner dissatisfaction or poor wellbeing | 74% | NetExpat & EY 2023, data reported by Mercer |
This distinction is essential for HR directors: the “failure rate of an expatriation assignment” and the “proportion of failed assignments in which the family or spouse is involved” are two different indicators.
Both, however, lead to the same conclusion: neglecting the spouse represents an HR risk.
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The Professional Sacrifice of the Spouse
Changes in the structure of European couples make this issue even more strategic. The historical model in which only one member of the couple had a significant professional career is becoming increasingly disconnected from the reality of today’s international executives.
The spouse of an expatriate may themselves be an engineer, lawyer, teacher, doctor, consultant, finance executive, entrepreneur, architect or marketing manager. Accepting an expatriation assignment may therefore mean abruptly interrupting their own career.
Brookfield data illustrate this phenomenon. In its 2016 survey, 49% of accompanying partners had been employed before the assignment but were no longer working during it, whereas only 16% were employed both before and during the expatriation.
The consequences extend far beyond lost income. A career interruption can lead to skill erosion, greater distance from the labour market, reduced pension rights and difficulty re-entering the same professional sector upon returning home.
Above all, it affects personal independence.
In some couples, an implicit tension may gradually emerge: the professional success of one partner is partly built on the professional sacrifice of the other.
A modern HR expatriation policy can no longer ignore this imbalance.
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The Loneliness of the Spouse
The problem can become even more challenging when expatriation takes a European family into a significantly different cultural environment.
Language is an initial barrier, but it is far from the only one. Schedules, social habits, ways of building relationships, the role of family, administrative practices, gender relations, religious practices and implicit rules of sociability may all be different.
The spouse may therefore enjoy extremely comfortable material living conditions while still experiencing profound loneliness.
This situation can be particularly misleading for the company. The accommodation may be excellent, a driver may be available, medical insurance may be comprehensive and the international school perfectly organised. All the visible components of the expatriation package appear to be working. Yet a feeling of isolation may develop gradually.
Research into expatriate spouse adjustment shows that the quality of social support networks, and particularly the ability to develop local relationships, plays an important role in adapting to the host country.
Integration is therefore not only material. It is also social, intellectual and emotional.
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Relocating Alone and Working on Rotation
Faced with the difficulties of relocating a spouse, some international groups have developed alternative mobility models: short-term assignments, geographical bachelor status, international commuting or rotation systems.
For example, an employee may work for several weeks in an African country and then return to Europe for several weeks with their family.
Mercer defines “rotators” as employees who alternate, according to a predetermined schedule, between a working period in the assignment country and a rest period at their home location. These employees frequently work on remote sites and are generally unaccompanied.
This model is common in oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, energy, certain industrial projects and major construction works.
It solves one difficulty but may create another.
The spouse can retain their job, home and environment in Europe, but the family lives through a permanent cycle of absence and return. Managing everyday life, responsibility for children and much of the family workload may fall almost entirely on the partner who remains at home.
Available global data do not allow us to determine precisely how many European employees currently work under rotation arrangements. It would therefore be unwise to invent a global percentage. However, historical data show that unaccompanied assignments account for approximately one in five married expatriates or expatriates in a relationship. Brookfield also found as early as 2011 that 12% of surveyed companies had a specific policy for rotational assignments.
The development of “split families” should therefore not automatically be interpreted as an improvement in family policy.
| Mobility model | Weight of family risk | Main advantage | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional family expatriation | 3/5 | Family life remains together | Spouse integration difficulties |
| Relocating alone for a few months | 3/5 | Spouse’s career preserved | Temporary separation |
| Relocating alone for more than one year | 5/5 | Family home maintained | Strain on the couple |
| Several weeks on / several weeks off rotation | 4/5 | Family residence maintained | Repeated absences |
| Weekly international commuting | 4/5 | Both careers preserved | Fatigue and limited family availability |
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Why Do European HR Policies Forget the Spouse?
The explanation is partly administrative.
In many international groups, mobility policies have historically been built around factors that companies can easily measure and formalise contractually: salary, housing, taxation, schooling, relocation costs, insurance, vehicles and airline tickets.
The spouse’s social integration is much more difficult to capture in an Excel spreadsheet.
Yet companies now have enough experience to know that an expatriation assignment cannot be managed exclusively as a financial package.
Mercer reports that 62% of mobility managers surveyed believe that family support helps facilitate assignment acceptance, while 33% observe improved professional performance during the assignment as a result of such support.
Supporting the spouse can therefore be regarded as an investment aimed at securing the company’s HR investment.
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Phénicia Conseil: Giving the Spouse a Place in the Expatriation Project
The approach developed by Phénicia Conseil is based precisely on the principle that the assignment should not be considered complete once the candidate has been recruited and installed in their new role.
In the context of international recruitment or expatriation to Africa, the quality of integration directly determines the long-term sustainability of the recruitment.
For spouses who cannot or do not wish to immediately pursue professional employment, Phénicia Conseil seeks in particular to facilitate introductions to cultural, educational, social or local associations that can help them quickly develop a regular activity.
These may include intellectual, artistic, cultural or practical activities: language learning, creative workshops, participation in cultural events, tutoring, volunteering, community initiatives, crafts, conferences, reading clubs, sporting activities or environmental projects.
The objective is not simply to “fill the spouse’s schedule,” but to recreate a personal dynamic.
The spouse should be able to meet people who are not simply their partner’s colleagues. They should have chosen activities, regular appointments, personal relationships and, gradually, a network that belongs to them.
This approach represents a genuine form of family onboarding.
| Support initiative | Weight in spouse integration | HR objective |
|---|---|---|
| Introductions to local associations | 25% | Rapid network building |
| Cultural or intellectual activity | 20% | Maintaining personal fulfilment |
| Language courses | 15% | Greater independence in the country |
| Sporting or practical activities | 10% | Socialisation |
| Career guidance where possible | 20% | Career continuity |
| Follow-up during the first few months | 10% | Preventing isolation |
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The Most Favourable African Countries for Spouse Integration
It would be excessive to establish a definitive ranking for the whole of Africa. Situations vary considerably depending on the city, security conditions, the language spoken by the spouse, the employer, the presence of children and the professional network available.
Some countries nevertheless offer particularly favourable environments.
Kenya stands out clearly in recent international data. In InterNations’ Expat Insider 2025 survey, it ranked eighth worldwide in the “Ease of Settling In” index and was the only African country in the Top 10. Expatriates surveyed rated local friendliness and ease of building relationships positively.
Nairobi had already produced very favourable results in 2024: 77% of expatriates surveyed considered local residents welcoming towards foreign residents and 69% said they had a personal network in the city.
For French-speaking European expatriates, Morocco also provides a generally favourable environment, particularly in Casablanca and Rabat. Its proximity to Europe, widespread use of French in business, international schools, economic networks and numerous cultural associations all facilitate the creation of a new social environment.
Côte d’Ivoire, particularly Abidjan, also offers attractive conditions for French-speaking families thanks to its large international community, highly dynamic economy and numerous professional and associative networks.
Senegal, particularly Dakar, similarly benefits from a French-speaking environment and a long tradition of international exchange.
Mauritius represents another favourable case thanks to its multicultural character, the use of both French and English and a population accustomed to international exchanges.
South Africa, especially Johannesburg and Cape Town, offers an extensive network of cultural, sporting and community activities. In the InterNations 2024 survey, the country ranked above average on several dimensions relating to relationship building: nearly 29% of expatriates surveyed even stated that the majority of their friends were local residents, compared with 17% worldwide.
| Country / city | Indicative ease of spouse integration | Main strengths | Point of attention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya / Nairobi | 5/5 | Welcoming population, international networks, English | Security and transport |
| Morocco / Casablanca–Rabat | 5/5 for French speakers | Proximity to Europe, French language, associations, cultural life | Adjustment to social codes |
| Senegal / Dakar | 4.5/5 | French-speaking environment, sociability, international community | Spouse employment market |
| Côte d’Ivoire / Abidjan | 4.5/5 | Economic dynamism, French-speaking networks | Traffic and urban pace |
| Mauritius | 4.5/5 | Multiculturalism, French and English | Smaller professional market |
| South Africa / Johannesburg–Cape Town | 4/5 | Rich cultural and community life | Security depending on area |
These assessments are qualitative evaluations designed for HR analysis rather than an official statistical ranking. Of the countries included here, Kenya is the one for which the InterNations 2025 data provide the clearest quantitative validation.
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Understanding the Human Project
A company investing in an expatriation assignment should begin by asking the spouse one simple question: “What will your project be during this expatriation?”
That question completely changes the logic.
Instead of organising only the employee’s relocation, the company creates the conditions for a sustainable family experience.
A modern international mobility policy could therefore include, before departure, an interview with the couple, a professional assessment of the spouse, intercultural family training, a budget for courses or activities, introductions to associations and follow-up several weeks after arrival.
When the spouse wishes to work, the company can also facilitate access to information on work permits, local regulations and professional networks, even when it cannot legally guarantee employment.
The objective is to anticipate difficulties rather than intervene only once a family crisis has already developed.
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A Performance Indicator for International Mobility
Human resources departments traditionally monitor assignment duration, cost, early return rates and expatriate retention.
It would be relevant to add several indicators specifically focused on families.
| Proposed HR KPI | Weight in monitoring | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| Spouse satisfaction after 3 months | 20% | Detect early difficulties |
| Spouse satisfaction after 6 months | 20% | Assess sustainable integration |
| Level of social or professional activity | 15% | Prevent isolation |
| Quality of local network | 15% | Measure integration |
| Overall family satisfaction | 20% | Assess assignment stability |
| Intention to continue the assignment | 10% | Anticipate early return |
International mobility thus becomes fully integrated into a forward-looking talent management approach.
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Supporting the Spouse
The subject is equally important during recruitment.
In the Brookfield Global Mobility Trends Survey 2016, 83% of surveyed companies stated that concerns about spouse or partner employment could influence whether the preferred candidate accepted an international assignment. Family concerns accounted for 38% of assignment refusals, while spouse career or income concerns accounted for 18%.
In other words, a family-support policy can now become a recruitment argument.
Two companies offering comparable financial conditions can differentiate themselves significantly if one tells the candidate: “We will also take your spouse’s project into consideration.”
In an increasingly competitive international executive market, that sentence can make a real difference.
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Defining a Successful Expatriation Assignment
A successful professional expatriation assignment cannot be measured solely through the employee’s results.
A high-performing expatriate whose spouse is struggling with international mobility is in a potentially fragile situation.
Conversely, when the spouse develops a personal network, discovers the host country, participates in activities and builds their own balance, the entire family is more likely to remain committed over the long term.
This is why the role of international recruitment firms such as Phénicia Conseil must go beyond simply matching a CV with a job description. In an international mobility project to Africa, understanding the candidate’s family situation and anticipating the spouse’s integration become essential components of HR consulting.
Introducing the spouse to cultural associations, local networks or intellectual and practical activities may seem far removed from traditional recruitment. Yet this intervention is directly linked to the long-term success of the recruitment process.
International talent never settles into an organisational chart. They settle into a city, a country, a culture and, very often, with a family.
European companies have considerably professionalised their international mobility policies. Taxation, compensation, social security, immigration, housing and schooling are now managed with significant expertise.
But the next stage will be human.
When historically almost four out of five expatriates in a relationship have been accompanied by their partner, the spouse can no longer remain the blind spot of HR mobility policies.
The available data are highly instructive: some historical surveys placed early return rates at only a few percentage points, yet the family and spouse repeatedly appear among the leading causes of these failures. More recently, the NetExpat & EY 2023 study reported by Mercer associated 74% of failed assignments with partner dissatisfaction or poor wellbeing.
Prevention must therefore begin before departure.
Assessing the spouse’s personal project, preparing for intercultural adjustment, facilitating access to local networks, maintaining intellectual or professional activity and supporting the family during the first few months should become standard components of an expatriation policy.
For Phénicia Conseil, this vision of international recruitment and expatriate executive support is based on a simple conviction: the employee’s professional success and the family’s successful integration are inseparable.
In Africa, as elsewhere, an effective international mobility HR policy should no longer ask only whether the expatriate executive is ready to leave.
It should also ask whether their spouse is ready to build a new life.
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