As the world is transformed into a global village, traveling has become easier and more popular. Yet few can deny that traveling for pleasure is far less stressful than traveling for professional reasons. So can one avoid or reduce such a stress? “Yes,” says Mary MacKinnon, the author of The Global Staircase: A Handbook for People Relocating Internationally:

“International relocation is as stressful in the transition phases as it is exhilarating and it is not easy, especially if you are already stressed-out by the things that are going on in your life when the move comes along. The Global Staircase aims at preventing the pitfalls so you can experience the rewards as you go along.”

As a diplomatic wife, the wife of the current Canadian Ambassador to Egypt, Mary MacKinnon has herself lived through 15 international relocations over a period of 30 years. She also worked as an international mobility consultant for 15 years and her book is largely based on both her professional experience and her personal life.

Filled with useful tips, strategies and insights, Staircase is designed to make moving abroad and moving back home a successful experience for individuals, families and multinational organizations alike. MacKinnon, however, stresses the importance of postponing a decision to move abroad if the timing is definitely not right:

“Increasingly, companies and organizations that relocate employees abroad are eager to avoid expatriate failures which often result in the employee not completing the assignment… The cost of sending an employee and dependents abroad for three to five years has reached as much as $1 million annually, so there are compelling reasons for the organization to make sure the employee they are sending is the right person at the right time.”

The author also acknowledges that spouses who accompany their husbands abroad “bear the brunt.” They have to set up the family home-life, get their children into a new school before they can even think about themselves and MacKinnon reaches a conclusion expatriate mothers know very well: “Family members will also tend to adjust more easily if the wife/mother is genuinely up and coping well. It’s not fair to mothers but it seems to be the way it is.”

One section of The Global Staircase tackles expatriate issues such as dual career couples. In 1995, Shell International Petroleum conducted an extensive survey of attitudes to expatriation among their expatriate staff. Eleven thousand employees completed the survey and results indicated that the partner’s career and children’s education were two main impediments to international mobility; 50% of partners worked before expatriation but only 10% during expatriation. Shell executives took this into account and the “company now has perhaps the most extensive program in place to assist expatriates.” MacKinnon acknowledges that: “It seems to be getting harder to entice the best and the brightest who are entering the workforce now, to take an international assignment which involves relocating the family. One of the most important reasons for that is the difficulty in finding work, especially career related work for the spouse in a foreign location. The old pattern of wife following husband and working behind the scenes to further his career, is a thing of the past. Now, the expectation among those who are presently in their 20’s and 30’s is that both want equal opportunities to further their respective careers.”

Despite all the drawbacks and difficulties triggered by a relocation the author positively believes: “Few opportunities are as full of potential, as action-packed and exciting as the chance to live abroad for a few years. It revs up your engines and provides enough adventure and growth for a lifetime of positive afterglow.”