Migrants' experience

Virtual special issue: Migrants' experience

Overall, this work offers an integrated examination of migrants’ work-related experiences in contemporary organizations, emphasizing how structural conditions, institutional arrangements, and organizational practices can simultaneously enable adaptation, agency, and contribution, while also generating vulnerability, exclusion, health inequities, and withdrawal, particularly in contexts marked by crisis, inequality, and workforce localization pressures.

Migrants' adaptation

Wechtler, H., & Lee, J. (2025). Updating theory and practice for cross-cultural adjustment of global workers, in The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Communication, edited by Liu et al., Sage Publication, LTD.

Lee, J. & Wechtler, H. (2023). Hidden Agenda for Cross-cultural Training: Understanding refugees’ cross-cultural experience through the capability approach. The International Journal of Human Resource Management.

Migrants' health

Nielsen, B. B., Wechtler, H., & Zheng, L. G. (2023). Disasters and international business: Insights and recommendations from a systematic review. Journal of World Business, 58(4), 101458.

Berardi, C., Lee, E. S., Wechtler, H., & Paolucci, F. (2022). A vicious cycle of health (in) equity: Migrant inclusion in light of COVID-19. Health Policy and Technology, 11(2), 100606.

Lee, E. S., Wechtler, H., Berardi, C. & Brewster, C. (2023). Vulnerable Migrants, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and International Business: A Vicious Cycle, in The Kaleidoscope of Global Migration: International Business Perspectives in a Turbulent World, edited by Mockaitis, A. & O’Connor, E.. Palgrave edition.

Workplace Localization

Wechtler, H, Faqihi, A., & Xu, X. (2026). Workforce Localization Theorization, Contextualization, and Paradoxes: A Systematic Literature Review.

Faqihi, A., Wechtler, H, & Xu, X. (2026). Beyond MNE-Centric Paradigms: Reconceptualizing the Mechanisms of Workforce Localization.

Faqihi, A., Wechtler, H, & Xu, X. (2026). Beyond Voice and Silence: A Typology of Skilled Migrants’ Workplace Communication Strategies Under Saudi Localization Policies.

Faqihi, A., Wechtler, H, & Xu, X. (2026). Dual Pathways of Responses: Understanding How Workforce Localization Triggers Global Workforce Engagement and Withdrawal.

Wechtler, H, Faqihi, A., & Xu, X. (2026). How workforce localization shapes expatriate agency: Narratives of voice, silence, and knowledge practices in Saudi Arabia.

How Workforce Localization Shapes Expatriate Agency

Narratives of voice, silence, and knowledge practices in Saudi Arabia , with Ali Faqihi and Cathy (Ying) Xu. Highlights Workforce localization is reshaping employment relationships in the Gulf region, yet little is known about how expatriates interpret their capacity to act within these politically sensitive environments. We examine how foreign professionals working in Saudi Arabia enact agency through voice, silence, and knowledge practices under Saudization. Drawing on 23

Beyond Voice and Silence: A Typology of Skilled Migrants

Workplace Communication Strategies Under Saudi Localization Policies, with Ali Faqihi and Cathy (Ying) Xu. Highlights How do skilled migrants respond when host-country institutional policies threaten their employment? We examine this question through the lens of workforce localization in Saudi Arabia, where Saudization policies mandate the replacement of foreign workers with nationals. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and analyzing data from 192 skilled migrants, we deve

How Workforce Localization Triggers Global Workforce Engagement and Withdrawal

A Dual Pathways of Responses , with Ali Faqihi and Cathy (Ying) Xu. Highlights We examine how workforce localization triggers the global workforce dual pathways of engagement and withdrawal using Affective Events Theory (AET) to understand how localization-related emotional events influence global workers’ behavior and attitudes. We propose that positive affective events foster constructive engagement through loyalty and voice behaviors, thereby enhancing mobility dissatisfa

Beyond MNE-Centric Paradigms

Reconceptualizing the Mechanisms of Workforce Localization, with Ali Faqihi and Cathy (Ying) Xu. Highlights Workforce localization policies requiring private-sector employment of host-country nationals has generated substantial scholarly attention, yet this literature remains conceptually fragmented and empirically siloed. Through a systematic review of 85 articles published between 2000 and 2025, we examine how localization has been theorized, which actors receive analytic

Workforce Localization Theorization, Contextualization, and Paradoxes

A Systematic Literature Review, with Ali Faqihi and Cathy (Ying) Xu. Highlights Workforce localization has become an important aspect of contemporary labor policies, driven by economic, cultural, and socio-political imperatives. This systematic literature review analyzes 85 scholarly works published between 2000 and 2025 to contextualize, theorize, and problematize workforce localization. With a comprehensive analysis of contexts and theoretical underpinnings, four key parad

Cross-cultural adjustment of global workers

Updating theory and practice, with Eun Su (Jeannie) Lee Highlights In this chapter, we firstly propose a brief reflection on current...

Vulnerable Migrants, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and International Business

A Vicious Cycle, with Eun Su Lee, Chiara Berardi and Chris Brewster Credit: This poster is part of an awareness raising campaign, 'Real...

Hidden Agenda for Cross-cultural Training

Understanding refugees’ cross-cultural experience through the capability approach, with Jeannie Lee Highlights Cross-cultural training...

Disasters and International Business

Insights and recommendations from a systematic review, with Bo Nielsen and Gloria (Linglin) Zheng Highlights Disasters – natural or...

A Vicious Cycle of Health (In)Equity

Migrant inclusion in light of COVID-19, with Chiara Berardi, Jeannie Lee, and Francesco Paolucci. Highlights Whilst mass vaccination is...