The 18th annual Corporate Relocation Conference and Exhibition took place on the 3rd of February this year, in London.

We attended the conference to gain further insight about the latest discussions in the field of global mobility.

Most of the reputable global relocation companies conduct annual surveys whereby they gather data on global mobility trends in international companies.

Plus Relocation – a company operating in corporate relocation for the past 40 years, just published the results of their Planning for International Mobility Survey.

Weichert Relocation specialists, provide essential insights into international relocations and personnel movement with their whitepaper “Current Global Workforce Mobility Trends”. 

As online cultural awareness training providers, whitepapers such as these are essential to helping us ensure our expatriate cultural training programmes meet the needs of relocating staff.

The annual Global Relocation Trends report, from  Brookfield Global Relocation Services, reports that China is the top expat destination followed by the U.S., UK, Singapore and Switzerland. 

 China has some great advantages for inbound expats. 

Donna Marsh is a business woman and cultural awareness trainer specialising in many fields.

Over her 30 year professional career she has visited more than 140 countries. As a strue globe-trotter this has given her a great insight into the field of intercultural communication, awareness and skills.

Now this experience has translated itself into a new publication entitled "Yanks in Blighty".

I recently attended the 11th annual Families in Global Transition (FIGT) conference – (an idea which was first planned at a kitchen table in Indianapolis). 

That kitchen table belonged to author and Cross-Culture Kid (CCK) expert, Ruth van Reken. The first conference attracted 80 delegates but this year's boasted over 200.

Expatriate executives, who were the flavour of the season when India was riding high on a 9%-plus growth rate, are now becoming the first ones to get the pink slip as Indian industry, hit by the slowdown, starts looking within the country for inexpensive hires.

“Many of the expatriate executives, who have been asked to leave, are subject experts. Their value diminishes in a downturn as companies are no more expanding, and thus don’t need people to guide in a new venture,” says K Sudarshan, MD of executive search firm EMA Partners’ India unit.

It's fair to say that Indian staff are naturally more effective within their position due to their understanding of Indian culture and business know how. 

Since October 2008, there has been a spate of replacements of expat executives with Indian professionals at the senior level. 

Read more > Execs in India