International relations and global affairs

Trailing Spouses

The challenge of trailing spouses has been in existence and continues to be a central issue in the lives of the couples who are forced to relocate out of the U.S.A. To work in other countries. There are several reasons why the trailing spouse phenomenon continues to be a major issue in the lives of many people, like;

The majority of the people husbands or wives, who are forced to trail their partners abroad are used to leading a very busy lifestyle with well paying jobs and well charted out career paths. These phenomena may suddenly change with a majority of them forced to turn into stay home wives or husbands as they find themselves without a job in the new place that they relocate to. This at times goes to be long-term with an estimated 35% of those who relocate as trailing spouses not being able to get a job the entire time that they are abroad (ExpatInfoDesk International Limited, 2011). This then grossly interferes with the jobs and the career paths of the spouses and hence a challenge that many consider before they finally turn to trailing spouses.

The trailing spouses are also subjected to unprecedented culture shock that they were not prepared for. This is compounded by the fact that they are idle and are forced to stick to an environment that is of different in culture from the American culture. The culture shock and difference in language makes it hard for them to adjust unlike the working partner who will adjust faster due to the interaction with the locals at the work place and most likely get oriented by fellow expatriates.

The trailing spouse will also be forced to abandon the education that they were undergoing if at all they were enrolled for any. This will most definitely be tampered with as the new location may not have a branch of the institution they were enrolled at. It may therefore mean that the person would freshly enroll in another institution as they start a fresh.

The challenges don't just stop at the spouse level but the children are also affected as they may have to move with the family and in so doing end up facing the cultural differences and the education disturbance.

If the trailing spouse is a male then a further problem may come up as they may find it harder to socialize with the people around as it has been observed that there are fewer support groups that are focused on men abroad. It is easier for women to get support groups that will help them, guide them and educate them on the easiest ways to adopt to a particular environment. If at all there are any groupings for men, they are most likely to be of the expatriates and not trailing husbands.

There are several measures that organizations are focusing on to help lessen the hardships of the trailing spouses as below;

Organizations have adopted the practice of offering coaching and forming coaching groups that are geared towards helping the trailing spouses and the expatriates to be familiarized with the challenges of the new place and how to overcome these challenges.

Upon landing in the new country, there are many organizations that arrange for the orientation lessons and sessions. These at times go as far as being classes that tend to teach them the local language, the practices around and the most crucial aspects that will help them cope with life in the new land.

Organizations have also taken it upon themselves to link the trailing spouses to networks that cater for trailing spouses in regions or countries. For instance, once the company establishes that the expatriate will be going along with the spouse, they will seek for the networked group that operates within the region or the country where they are to locate the expatriate and enroll him or her for the appropriate support (Trailing Spouse Network, 2011).