Career Sustainability of Self-initiated Expatriates: The Role of Context

Abstract

This thesis analyses the global career sustainability of Self-Initiated Expatriates (SIEs), skilled workers who independently choose to relocate abroad for professional reasons, without the struc-tured support of a sending organization. In an increasingly international and flexible labor market, understanding how these individuals maintain well-being, satisfaction and employability over time is crucial to interpret modern career transformations. The study addresses two research ques-tions: what impact self-initiated expatriation has on career sustainability indicators, health, happi-ness and productivity and how contextual factors influence such sustainability.

The research adopts the Sustainable Career Model by De Vos, Van der Heijden and Akkermans as a theoretical framework, interpreting career sustainability as the result of the dynamic interaction between person, context and time. The study uses a qualitative, interpretivist and abductive ap-proach; data has been collected through eight semi-structured interviews with SIEs with diverse national, professional, personal and geographical backgrounds. They were then analysed using a hybrid thematic analysis, guided by the theoretical framework and the empirically identified themes.

The results show that self-initiated expatriation can foster professional growth, boost skill devel-opment, create greater autonomy, improve quality of life and give a sense of fulfilment to the ex-patriates. However, it can also generate stress, isolation, instability, underemployment, language barriers and integration issues. Career sustainability therefore depends not only on international mobility or on individual agency, but also on the degree of alignment between personal resources, institutional, organizational, social and family conditions over time. We conclude that SIEs' global careers are sustainable when international experience allows them to integrate well-being, mean-ing, productivity and life balance into an adaptive and coherent trajectory.