Why expats make the move back
by Kelly Stone
Natasha Caulfield has spent the past three years surveying hundreds of South Australian professionals living overseas to find out why self-initiated expatriates may choose to return home.
Her research will now assist the State Government in developing policies to attract more skilled expatriates to make the move back to SA.
Dr Caulfield’s PhD titled Why do self-initiated expatriates choose to repatriate? has been presented to the Department for Trade and Economic Development, and includes a range of ideas to encourage greater repatriation, including marketing concepts and using family members to help bring expatriates home.
While the benefits of family ties and lifestyle in SA were major factors in repatriation, Dr Caulfield’s research found repatriates are chiefly being pulled home from abroad by shocks – such as weddings or engagements, pregnancy, elderly relatives, partner problems and job dissatisfaction.
Dr Caulfield interviewed and surveyed South Australians predominantly aged in their 20s and 30s who were living overseas as well as those who had recently returned home from abroad.
"The strongest and most consistent explanations of repatriation from the interviews and surveys were when professionals perceived shocks that triggered thoughts and actions to repatriate," she said.
She says repatriates "are pulled to return".
"As well as family ties and lifestyle factors, repatriates appear to have conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the benefits and costs of return," she said.
"Repatriates also return for affiliation reasons including to maintain relationships with family and friends, which is more so for women, and due to possessing a strong Australian identity. They also return to settle down and start a family, consistent with an interpretation that they are in the establishment stage of life."
Dr Caulfield says investigating why skilled workers self-initiate repatriation is of practical importance.
"Skill shortages at national and local levels in Australia are a concern for government policy and planning, with shortages in Australia across many occupational groups from accountants to veterinarians," she said.
"Whether skilled expatriates return is equally of concern to industry as it is to government."
Dr Caulfield says the loss of professionals is of particular concern for South Australia.
"It is important, for policy development and population planning, that research examines the reasons why South Australian expatriates intend to and do return," she said.
"With only half of South Australian expatriates intending to repatriate, and somewhere between a fifth and a half actually doing so, the realisation of these intentions into repatriation warrants this research."
Dr Caulfield works as a project officer (Teaching and Learning) in UniSA’s Division of Business and her PhD was supervised by Professor Phyllis Tharenou.