Moving Your Family Overseas

Rating:
Summary: Potentially useful
Review: This book describes some of the emotional and logistical issues that may arise when a family accepts an overseas assignment. It also provides some suggested ways of dealing with common problems. The book is divided into 3 parts: preparations, culture shock, and ongoing challenges. Topics covered in the preparations section include: deciding whether to take an overseas offer (implications for career, education, health, divorced parents, and extended family), breaking the news to family and friends, researching the new country, logistics (storing or shipping belongings, documents, inventories), and arrival (hotel living, settling in, and emotional upheaval). The culture shock section covers coping with culture shock, expatriate life (household help, business entertaining) and coping problems and strategies for family members. The final section covers building new social networks, parenting, making the most of home leave, and returning back home for good. At the end of the book is an annotated list of further readings, organized by age.

I bought this book when I was planning an overseas move myself with my husband. The book reminded me of some topics that I hadn't thought of before, such as the potential for worry amongst my extended family, and the need to put extra effort into staying in close contact with them while we were overseas. However, the emphasis of this book is very much on "family". Since my husband and I do not have children, many issues described in the book, like the need to research educational options for the children, were just not relevant for us (although they would be important indeed for families with children).

As I was packing for our move to the Middle East, this book didn't make the cut- -it stayed home because a lot of other books looked far more important to take with us. (The two books that I did deem important enough to pack were Understanding Arabs by Margaret Nydell and Survival Kit for Overseas Living by Robert Kohls) As I look through this book again after 5 years living overseas, I notice that it does point out a number of issues that families moving overseas must consider, but the level of detail is very general, perhaps too general. Certainly, the question of education options for children is crucial, and many American parents, who are accustomed to any local school meeting the usual standards, have to learn to be quite critical about choosing a school for their children. If you are moving to a European country, or any country where the public schools are well-funded and well-run, then this question won't be as much of an issue. If you enroll your kids in the local public school, they will quickly learn the language and make great inroads into the culture. But if you are moving to a country where either your children aren't welcome in the government schools, or the schools are of a low standard, then you really need to think about what you are doing. You need to visit the private schools and try to get into the classrooms, if possible, to get an idea of how the teachers relate to the children, and the backgrounds of the other children. In some private schools, all the students are quite well-to-do, and as a result, they may be spoiled, have atrocious attitudes towards either locals or less well-off people, and drug problems may be rampant. In the face of such problems, many parents choose to either homeschool their children or, when they are teenagers, send them to boarding schools in Europe (where, once again, other students may be spoiled rich kids with drug problems). The whole process of homeschooling can be a wonderful experience here in the US, where there are many support groups and peers. But a child who is homeschooled for lack of better options overseas may feel quite lonely and come to resent the experience later in life. Before moving overseas, I used to think that taking a child overseas, anywhere overseas, would be an incredible educational experience, that would be universally positive. But after living overseas myself, I realized that there are some cultures that kids would be better off not experiencing- -they would develop healthier attitudes towards learning, work, money, and other people elsewhere. A book like this, which is so general in nature, doesn't even attempt to consider the variety or range of situations you may possibly find.

Overall, I found the chapter on moving most useful, possibly because it was most specific (and could be specific, since the issues are relevant and similar for everyone). This chapter provides lists of documents you will need, things to pack, and important things to remember about your new country, like climate and electricity differences. If you are considering an overseas assignment, and you don't have much experience with travel or relocation, this book may be of use. But you're going to need to go a lot deeper into the topic than just reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Potentially useful
Review: This book describes some of the emotional and logistical issues that may arise when a family accepts an overseas assignment. It also provides some suggested ways of dealing with common problems. The book is divided into 3 parts: preparations, culture shock, and ongoing challenges. Topics covered in the preparations section include: deciding whether to take an overseas offer (implications for career, education, health, divorced parents, and extended family), breaking the news to family and friends, researching the new country, logistics (storing or shipping belongings, documents, inventories), and arrival (hotel living, settling in, and emotional upheaval). The culture shock section covers coping with culture shock, expatriate life (household help, business entertaining) and coping problems and strategies for family members. The final section covers building new social networks, parenting, making the most of home leave, and returning back home for good. At the end of the book is an annotated list of further readings, organized by age.

I bought this book when I was planning an overseas move myself with my husband. The book reminded me of some topics that I hadn't thought of before, such as the potential for worry amongst my extended family, and the need to put extra effort into staying in close contact with them while we were overseas. However, the emphasis of this book is very much on "family". Since my husband and I do not have children, many issues described in the book, like the need to research educational options for the children, were just not relevant for us (although they would be important indeed for families with children).

As I was packing for our move to the Middle East, this book didn't make the cut- -it stayed home because a lot of other books looked far more important to take with us. (The two books that I did deem important enough to pack were Understanding Arabs by Margaret Nydell and Survival Kit for Overseas Living by Robert Kohls) As I look through this book again after 5 years living overseas, I notice that it does point out a number of issues that families moving overseas must consider, but the level of detail is very general, perhaps too general. Certainly, the question of education options for children is crucial, and many American parents, who are accustomed to any local school meeting the usual standards, have to learn to be quite critical about choosing a school for their children. If you are moving to a European country, or any country where the public schools are well-funded and well-run, then this question won't be as much of an issue. If you enroll your kids in the local public school, they will quickly learn the language and make great inroads into the culture. But if you are moving to a country where either your children aren't welcome in the government schools, or the schools are of a low standard, then you really need to think about what you are doing. You need to visit the private schools and try to get into the classrooms, if possible, to get an idea of how the teachers relate to the children, and the backgrounds of the other children. In some private schools, all the students are quite well-to-do, and as a result, they may be spoiled, have atrocious attitudes towards either locals or less well-off people, and drug problems may be rampant. In the face of such problems, many parents choose to either homeschool their children or, when they are teenagers, send them to boarding schools in Europe (where, once again, other students may be spoiled rich kids with drug problems). The whole process of homeschooling can be a wonderful experience here in the US, where there are many support groups and peers. But a child who is homeschooled for lack of better options overseas may feel quite lonely and come to resent the experience later in life. Before moving overseas, I used to think that taking a child overseas, anywhere overseas, would be an incredible educational experience, that would be universally positive. But after living overseas myself, I realized that there are some cultures that kids would be better off not experiencing- -they would develop healthier attitudes towards learning, work, money, and other people elsewhere. A book like this, which is so general in nature, doesn't even attempt to consider the variety or range of situations you may possibly find.

Overall, I found the chapter on moving most useful, possibly because it was most specific (and could be specific, since the issues are relevant and similar for everyone). This chapter provides lists of documents you will need, things to pack, and important things to remember about your new country, like climate and electricity differences. If you are considering an overseas assignment, and you don't have much experience with travel or relocation, this book may be of use. But you're going to need to go a lot deeper into the topic than just reading this book.