HEC Paris pôle Sud Study
The influence of international education availability on
expatriate executive and knowledge worker relocation
decisions
by
Marie-Charlotte Vaissier and Vincent Fournier
Special Project for the Specialised Masters in Marketing Intelligence
July 1, 2007
The expatriates’ questionnaire:
86.4% of the expatriates who answered the survey received it through an e-mail (thanks to Monique
MAISONNEUVE) and 11.9% answered because of the word of mouth.
27 of the 62 expatriates who answered the survey are willing to be contacted again to get more
information about the study and its results.
It shows us that they feel concerned about this subject which is also why so many answered the
questionnaire with only one e-mail sent.
I.
The expatriates’ profile
Most of them live in Paris or in the South suburbs. They are for 84% between 31 and 45 years old.
Age of the expatriates
6%
5%
5%
14%
26-30
31-35
36-40
26%
41-45
46-50
51-55
44%
36% are working in the consulting or other business services, 29% in the High tech industry
(equipment and software) and 25% in other area such as Education and Law. Manufactured
Industrial Products only represents 3.6%.
Activity area
6%
Fast Moving Consumer goods
4%
25%
Manufactured Industrial
Products
29%
High tech (equipment and
software)
Consulting and other business
services
Other
36%
No major job responsibility really has a higher score than the others. Meanwhile Management (16%)
and Research and development (14.5%) are the most given answers.
Most of the people who answered are American (40%), English (27%), Canadian (4%) or Irish (5%).
Most of the spouses are French (59%), English (13%) or American (8%).
Nationality
2%
3%
3%
5%
American
5%
English
40%
French
Canadian
15%
Irish
Australian
German
Italian
27%
But 92% of the expatriates are not in France under an expatriate contract but with a local one.
They have worked in France for:
 0 to 5 years : 29%

5 to 10 years : 36%

10 to15 years : 19%

> 15 years : 15.5%
Number of years worked in France
2%
5%
12%
28%
0 - 4.99
5 - 9.99
10 - 14.99
15 - 19.99
18%
20 - 24.99
≥ 25
35%
Before France they worked in England (40%), the USA (30%), and China (10%). Some (10%) already
had worked in France in a previous assignment.
According to them their nationality never really had any significance in the process to obtain their
position in France.
II.
The Family
The expatriates’ children are for 97% between 2 and 11 years old.
Age of the expatriates' children
3%
33%
28%
2 to 3
3 to 5
6 to 11
12 to 14
36%
Education:
61% of these children are going to the French public school, 16% to a French Private school.
Moreover 30% are in a partially bilingual school (the Lycée International of St Germain en Laye is the
most mentioned) whereas only 11% are in a bilingual school (Montessoury for instance).
69% of the expatriates are globally satisfied of the quality of the education their children receive. No
one is really unsatisfied with the quality of education but if they were, they would at 70% move their
children to another school and would mostly look for a bilingual one.
Something important to notice because often said is how difficult it is to find these bilingual schools
and how few are the places available there.
Most of the spouses (88%) are happy with the decision made to live in France and so are most of the
children (83%).
III.
The city of residence
In this part of the questionnaire (question 17 and 18) they had to rate how important some factors
are in their decision where to live and then evaluate their satisfaction degree regarding the city they
live in.
The price of real-estate
It is important for 71% of them but only 13% think it to be the most important factor.
44.4% find their own city satisfactory on this matter and 31.1% find it barely satisfactory.
Proximity to their office
73% think it is important, 70% are satisfied and 15% give their place the highest rate.
Quality of education
It is (as we already said) a major point for the expatriates; 27.4% think that it is the most important
factor in their decision where to live, 45% that it is very important and 26% important which makes
98.4% of the expatriates who think that the quality of education is at least important.
86.5% of the expatriates are at least satisfied with their situation (17% excellent, 39% very
satisfactory and 30.5% satisfactory).
Availability of English language education
It is also a very important factor for most of them (82% think it is at least important).
Importance of the availability of English
education
5%
13%
26%
Most important
Very important
Important
Less important
23%
Not important
33%
As we already said they find it difficult to get a bilingual education for their children (and think there
is a need for more) so the satisfaction rates are quite divided: 50% are satisfied and 50% are not.
Satisfaction regarding the availability of English
education
7%
25%
20%
Excellent
Very good
Good
Barely satisfactory
Not satisfactory
25%
23%
Density of public transportation and roads
80.3% find it at least important and 86% are at least satisfied.
Convenience of shopping is important or very important for 64.4% of the expatriates who answered
but also less important for 28.8% of them.
100% are at least satisfied with their living city regarding the convenience of shopping which is the
highest satisfactory score of the whole survey.
Availability of entertainment (theatre, cinema, nightclubs, etc.)
An interesting result is that 68.9% of the expatriates think it is not really important (43.3% less
important and 26.4% not important at all).
Nevertheless, 67.8% are satisfied or very satisfied.
Sports amenities
56.7% agree to say that it is not important.
80% are satisfied with the place they live in.
The expatriates are 77.4% to think that the beauty of the environment is important and 98% are
satisfied.
Regarding the climate, they disagree since 34.4% find it important and 31% less important. Their
places are very satisfactory for 24.6% and satisfactory for 69.9%.
Proximity to attractive vacation spots
We can see that the expatriates do not find it important (81.6%) and are moderately satisfied since
the answers show that 15.3% are barely satisfied, 55.9% satisfied and 20.3% very satisfied.
High cultural diversity in the population
They think it is relatively important and they are generally satisfied with their city since 22% think it is
very good and 47.5% good.
Established community of expatriates
They are 68.9% to think that it is not important and 30% not satisfied at all or barely satisfied.
Meanwhile 45% are satisfied so the mean is more negative than positive.
The spouse's desire to live in the country/region really matters to them: 32.8% says it is very
important and 28% important.
It is quite the same position for the spouse's ability to find a job in France since they are more than
70% to find it at least important in their decision where to live.
Quick summary:
Thanks to these questions we can see that what really matters is the expatriates’ children education
and their spouse well being (which is not very surprising…). They are not satisfied (50% of those who
answered the question) with the availability of English education or because they think (30%) the
community of expatriates is not satisfactory.
They are fully satisfied with the shopping availability of the place they live in.
IV.
Improvement that should be made in terms of infrastructures and
quality of life
Most of the answers which have a high score in this question refer to Education.
Thus they ask for more bilingual kindergardens or "garderies" (53.2%), more bilingual elementary
schools (77.4%) and bilingual college/lycees (74.2%). Less but not least they want less traffic
congestion to and from work and more international press (print, radio, TV).
Something really surprising is how few they ask for a quicker access to work permits for spouses
since they are only 4.8%. We would not have thought so according to the previous answers which
said the spouse’s ability to find a job in France to be important. So we can think that the time needed
to find the job is not critical.
Improvement that should be made
3%
More bilingual kindergardens or "garderies"
16%
12%
More bilingual elementary schools
More bilingual college/lycees
5%
Spouse cultural integration services
Quicker access to work permits for spouses
3%
More household workers (maids, gardeners, nannies, etc.)
More international press (print, radio, TV)
7%
23%
More entertainment venues
3%
2%
Better public transportation
Less traffic congestion to and from work
3%
If other, specify
23%
Nevertheless they are 31.7% to say that they are not certain whether the planned development of
the Region Paris Sud (6,000 or more residences and commercial centers) will or will not make the
region more attractive.
Others remarks and conclusion:
The education system is said to be better in the United States since there is more support for the
child who is also more stimulated.
A problem we already spoke about a lot but is once more mentioned is the lack of bilingual school.
Moreover the places are often occupied by French children which makes it even more difficult for the
expatriates’ to get one.
The costs of bilingual education are too high and thus make it is not affordable for everyone.
The expatriates are also in desperate need for more assistance with the French administration which,
as we all know, often speaks only one language.
The companies’ questionnaire
We did manage to have contact with the human resources department of ten companies but only
four really filled the questionnaire: two high tech industrials and two pharmaceutical companies.
The lack of answers makes the following explanations not that accurate (at least we can not be sure
about anything).
The companies agree on the importance of the price of real estate, the shopping availability and the
sport amenities for their expatriate employees.
Nevertheless they disagree on the road traffic importance.
They think that a community of expatriates does not really matter and think that the importance of
the availability of English education is not relevant. That is the major difference between the
expatriates’ and the companies’ questionnaires.
Most of the companies do not contribute at all to the private school fees.
Contribution to the private school
fees
33%
No
Yes
67%
The companies agree to say that their expatriates who are mostly English speakers want a bilingual
education for their children.
Conclusion
The lack of coherence between the companies’ and the expatriates’ answers can be due to the
absence of answers or due to a misunderstanding of their employees. There is unfortunately no
accurate conclusion to bring to. We need more answers for the companies’ questionnaire.
Nevertheless issues with education (availability of at least partially English bilingual education)
remain the main result of this study with or without the answers we would like to have.