Motivation, careers, and experiences of individuals moving to their country of heritage

This dissertation examines the antecedents and outcomes of self-initiated expatriation of bicultural individuals to their country of heritage (COH). The first study of this dissertation is a qualitative phenomenological study which took place in the European context with a sample of 14 participants who were born outside of Turkey (in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland) and had moved to Turkey (in this case the COH) in adulthood. The goal of the first study was to explore the possible motivators that drive global mobility among biculturals. Based on the qualitative study, and the existing research I develop an individual-level theoretical model describing the motives that influence biculturals’ willingness to move to their COH, the individual differences that facilitate cross-cultural adjustment, and the resulting impact of this mobility on both career and (personal) life outcomes. In the second, quantitative study, I test the front-end part of the proposed model by conducting a survey with 257 bi- and multiculturals. The results highlight that ethnic identity is an important predictor of the willingness to move to the COH. The studies in this dissertation provide support for the notion that personal motivators are an important antecedent of international mobility, maybe so, even more than previously assumed.