2024-02-28 15:38:28
According to’InterNations Expat Insider Survey 2023, Germany and France are among the top countries of origin for expatriates in the world: Germany occupies fourth place (behind the United States, the United Kingdom and India) and France sixth place (preceded by Italy). The two countries also constitute attractive host countries in this area, with first place for Germany and sixth place for France. The data also shows that 82% of expatriates have higher education qualifications, with an average age of 46 years.
Next to 2.3 million French people and 3.9 million Germans thus live abroad for professional or personal reasons. These can be sent by their company or leave on their own initiative. OUR research work attempted to better understand their experience and in particular the professional and personal networks on which it is based.
The study is based on 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with French and German expatriates with engineering or management training. Both seek, during their period of work abroad, to maintain the relationships built before expatriation and to create new ones. It nevertheless seems that French expatriates attach particular importance to personal networks while German expatriates focus more on professional networks. No doubt this is linked to cultural characteristics and the higher education system from their country of origin.
For France, the strength of alumni networks
France is characterized by a strong hierarchical distance but a more informal context where professional and personal spaces intertwine. Personal relationships can therefore play an important role in professional careers, particularly between individuals who have followed the same training.
French expatriates rely more particularly on the networks built during their higher education, particularly in the Grandes Ecoles which manage large alumni networks. The associative life linked to them constitutes a means of maintaining relationships but also of creating new ones more easily when arriving abroad, with other veterans already there. Nicolas, for example, an engineering school graduate, emphasizes the importance of common experiences that are shared between former classmates and which make them friends for life:
“We have a common history, a common student life, common courses and exams, common holidays, common celebrations. That’s life. »
Isabelle, a business school graduate, says she was able to keep in touch with her former classmates thanks to the alumni group she joined in Germany:
“Our school has a good group of alumni in Munich. Via our school, the network is well organized. »
Rely on the employer on the German side
As for German expatriates, they tend to stay in contact with former work colleagues and their network is more their individual responsibility. They followed their engineering or management studies in universities which offer more theoretical training or schools of applied sciences (technical colleges) which are more practice-oriented. Daniela, a graduate of a German university, explains that it was mainly thanks to her employer that she integrated abroad:
“As the company was international, employees were sent all over the world. Already through the company structure, I had an international network. And I always tried to keep in touch. »
Angela, a graduate of a school of applied sciences, also emphasizes the importance of the chosen destination:
“New York is also a great vacation destination. I had a lot of guests. When you’re in an interesting city, people think of you more than when you’re in Germany. »
Germany is more generally marked by a lower hierarchical distance but a stronger distinction between professional and personal spaces. This is also why personal relationships occupy a less important place in professional careers while the lower hierarchical distance facilitates the development of professional relationships within companies.
Accompanying desires from elsewhere
If the differences observed between France and Germany are therefore pronounced, let us nevertheless recall the importance taken in recent years by digital technologies, which facilitate the construction and maintenance of relational networks. Just as they could modify the behavior of French and German expatriates, higher education systems are evolving and alumni networks are also multiplying in universities on the other side of the Rhine.
Our conclusions nevertheless provide some keys for companies: it is better to take these observed differences into consideration to better support their expatriates during their period of work abroad and facilitate their integration upon return to their country of origin. As much as a survey carried out in December 2023 reveals that 30% of French people plan to emigrate. This figure even reaches 54% for 18-24 year olds.
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