Shades of Darkness in Expatriation: The Effects of Cultural Discrimination and Underemployment on Self-Initiated Expatriates’ Role Adjustment

Abstract This study examines the implications of workplace underemployment and discrimination for self-initiated expatriates’ (SIE) role adjustment in terms of their task-related and social roles. Analyzing a sample of 379 expatriates in the United Arab Emirates and drawing from role theory, it shows that not all effects of underemployment and discrimination are negative. While discrimination negatively affects SIEs’ role adjustment by hindering the quality of social interaction and job clarity, underemployment, in contrast, enhances SIEs’ socialization and job clarity. The analysis also finds SIEs’ gender to moderate the relationship between perceive discrimination and the quality of SIEs’ social interaction. The study uncovers the nuanced influences of discrimination and underemployment on SIEs’ role adjustment, mediated by job clarity and social interactions, and partially moderated by gender. It calls for further exploration of their complex effects on SIEs’ task-related and social role adjustment.