Dis-eased repatriates? A New Zealand study of perceived alienation during repatriation

Abstract

Given contemporary trends towards globalisation and international mobility, expatriation has become an increasingly common practice in New Zealand as more New Zealanders work and live overseas. This has inspired many young New Zealanders to go on their "big OE" (overseas experience) to Europe. Their OE ends when they either decide to repatriate to New Zealand or decide to be permanent residents in the host country. This study explores the repatriation of young New Zealanders, and aims to determine if their repatriation experiences can be understood according to Seeman's (1975) dimensions of alienation. The concept of alienation was adopted from social psychology to address the lack of theoretical frameworks in previous studies on repatriation. Understanding repatriation is important in facilitating the transfer of knowledge from repatriates to others. Twelve New Zealand repatriates, who were residing in Dunedin and Christchurch, were interviewed. The collected qualitative data were then analysed using NVivo. The findings indicate that participants experienced alienation throughout the different stages of their repatriation and that their repatriation experiences could be understood according to Seeman's dimensions of alienation. This study also presents some findings that contribute to the repatriate management literature and suggests areas for future research on repatriation.