Context Matters: Expatriates’ Adjustment and Contact with Host Country Nationals in Luxembourg

We examine the role context plays in expatriates' adjustment, specifically the extent of expatriates' contact with locals. We take data from 20 semistructured interviews with Luxembourgers, international executives settled in Luxembourg for more than ten years, 20 with firm‐assigned and self‐initiated expatriates in Luxembourg, 20 with international executives in five other financial centers (Zurich, Singapore, London, Frankfurt, and Paris), and four with expatriates' leaders in Luxembourg. Drawing on social learning theory, we show that in the highly international context of a Big Four firm in Luxembourg, expatriates interact mostly with their international counterparts, feel they meet the demands of their host environment, learn appropriate behavior from their fellow expatriates, and see little need to interact with locals. Our results suggest that the stress the current literature lays on the importance of relationships with locals for expatriates' adjustment is context bound and that in more international contexts, relationships with locals may be of less importance. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .