Assigned Expatriate (AE)
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
An AE, or Assigned Expatriate, is an employee who is formally sent by their employer from a home-country role to work in a host-country location on a time-bound international assignment, typically under a structured global mobility policy that includes relocation, compensation, and family support provisions.
Comparable terms
International Assignment (Transitions & Mobility); Expatriate Employee (HR / global mobility practice); Business Expatriate (international HR research)
Why this matters
Including AE in the glossary clarifies that not all globally mobile workers relocate under the same conditions or support structures. Understanding whether someone is an assigned expatriate shapes expectations around benefits, duty of care, and organizational responsibility for family wellbeing. It also helps distinguish AEs from self-initiated or locally hired mobile employees when designing support and measuring outcomes.
Cross-references
International Assignment (Transitions & Mobility) AE describes the individual employee status within the broader international assignment structure documented under International Assignment, including how policy, duration, and support are typically defined.
Sources
The term assigned expatriate AE is standard in international HR and global mobility research to distinguish employer-sponsored assignees from self-initiated expatriates SIEs. A foundational treatment of organization-driven international assignments, including selection, preparation, and support of assigned expatriates and their families, is Black, J.S., Gregersen, H.B., Mendenhall, M.E. 1992. Global Assignments Moving Managers Across Borders. Jossey-Bass.
The AE–SIE distinction itself, and its implications for motivation and support structures, is discussed in Suutari, V., Brewster, C. 2000. Making their own way International experience through self-initiated foreign assignments. Journal of World Business, 35(4), 417–436, which positions AEs as the organizationally initiated counterpart to SIEs. For a comprehensive contemporary synthesis of expatriation forms, global mobility policy, and family impacts including the centrality of assigned expatriates in corporate mobility programs see McNulty, Y., Brewster, C. 2017. Working Internationally Expatriation, Migration and Other Global Work. Edward Elgar Publishing. Industry definitions and package design norms for AEs are documented in Worldwide ERC mobility policy benchmarks and in major relocation industry surveys such as the Brookfield Global Relocation Services Global Mobility Trends Survey (annual), which remain the standard professional references for assignment typologies and assignee support structures.
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