By marrying a diplomat, Uli Mans knew that he would often have to move. His only condition: to always be able to work and be financially independent.
Journalists Kristin Haug and Verena Töpper published Lunch break on the Mekong (“Lunch break on the Mekong”, 2021) where they recount their encounter with expatriates living in the four corners of the world. The mirror regularly publishes the good sheets and has decided in particular to highlight the career of Uli Mans, a German married to a Dutch diplomat.
When he was young, Uli Mans already dreamed of expatriation and left for New Zealand, far from his native Black Forest, after the baccalaureate. A few years later, he went on a study trip to Holland.
He was working for the Center for Strategic Studies in The Hague in the Netherlands, where he advised companies and NATO on crisis regions, when he met his future wife, a Dutch diplomat. Barely six months after their meeting, she received a job offer abroad. Uli Mans remembers that he did not hesitate, but specifies: “I had one condition: I had to be able to earn money in the country where she was sent. Just moving somewhere without working, I wouldn’t have accepted.” Together, they choose their future destination: it will be Sudan, where Uli could continue to work for ONG or for theHIM-HER-IT. They stayed there from 2008 to 2011 and then moved to Berlin. After a year and a half in Berlin, Uli Mans’ wife is sent back to The Hague. He follows her and they take turns caring for their two children.
We stayed in The Hague for four years, then we wanted to go abroad again to introduce our children to the world as soon as possible.
Back then, in 2016, my wife applied to Ankara, Pretoria and Tehran, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Then a position opened up in Washington – that’s what happens when a colleague unexpectedly leaves his post – and we accepted. However, we had to move within three months.
At the time, my employer, Leiden University, allowed me to work from abroad for a year. In Washington, I got a job as a political adviser for theEU in 2018. A year later, I was offered to work as an innovation expert for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs from the embassy. So I was able to take advantage of three career opportunities in three years and I was able to discover a large part of the political scene in Washington.
Uli Mans has no regrets, because the choices of expatriation have always been made by two people and each has been able to give up if the other did not find his benefit professionally. However, he realizes that he has always “moved before career development was possible”. His experiences were very diverse but not necessarily extensive. Back in the Netherlands since 2020, he is now focusing on his family and his new job.
Being an expat husband is not common, according to him:
I followed my wife abroad. Already three times. Unfortunately, men who do so are still in the minority. The circles of expatriate husbands are often small, and it takes some time to find your way around. Expatriate wives, on the other hand, are well organized, they meet quite often.”
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