The Expatriate

An aspect that many HR practitioners ignore is the way they deal with Expatriate workers- their own or from another nation working for their organization.

Expatriate workers are a different kettle of fish, as dealing with them transcends normal HR activity that a firm would undertake.

A case in point is the recent brouhaha that has been created by the diktat that the MEA has issued, regarding Chinese workers, in India working on business visas.

The Chinese have been working on major power projects all over North India and this step has resulted in all of them leaving India jeopardizing the project, leaving the project contractors scratching their collective heads. The projects are in critical stages of construction using Chinese equipment, extensively and replacing these workers is difficult and expensive.

While the political situation in a country does not effect normal HR activity it does impinge upon International HR and if you as a manager deals with expats then it would be prudent to keep your ear to the ground.

Another example, is the police in Ahmadabad, asking people on business visas, who have overstayed, to leave the country. This has hit many of the upmarket hotels in the city.

"This is rather rude and a very short notice. We are not sure what to do now," said a US national, who has been living in Ahmadabad for the past two years.

According to sources, the Centre has decided to stop misuse of business visas by expats for employment. "Employment visa applications are examined thoroughly while business

"Employment visa has a limit of six months and requires constant monitoring by the employer. Business visas have much relaxed norms and can be issued for up to one year and can be extended by another six months," said an immigration official.

The impact of the notice has also been felt in other cities as well. Foreign nationals were vacating hotels in Surat.I can imagine the confusion, because when at Van Oord, I would put up with colleagues from Holland at the Taj and travel to Hazira Port not too far way. Three, four and five-star hotels have been instructed to ask such foreign nationals to vacate rooms at the earliest.

While that may the case in India, on occasions Indian workers live and work abroad in terrible conditions, particularly in many middle eastern nations as well as nations like the Maldives, where the schism between expats and locals is widening and at times resulting in violence.

Unfortunately as HR Managers, many of us miss out the International part and we do so at our own peril, in what is a globalized world................