In Indonesia, severe public penalties are inflicted upon people found to be in same-sex relationships.
Beawiharta Beawiharta/Reuters
Published: November 22, 2017 2:05pm EST
Authors
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Miriam Moeller
Senior Lecturer, International Business, The University of Queensland
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Jane Maley
Senior lecturer in management, Charles Sturt University
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Ruth McPhail
Head of the Department of Employment Relations and Human Resources & Professor at Griffith University President RQAS GC, Griffith University
Disclosure statement
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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Griffith University, Charles Sturt University, and University of Queensland provide funding as members of The Conversation AU.
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Languages
- Bahasa Indonesia
- English
As the number of workers taking international assignments increases, companies have more responsibility to look after their LGBTI employees who face persecution while on assignment.
Russia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia are becoming some of the most challenging expatriate assignment destinations for multinational firms, according to relocation business BGRS. This is in part because some of these countries advocate the death penalty for homosexuality. Other popular assignment destinations include Brazil, India, China, Mexico and Turkey, and these countries exhibit less sensitivity to homosexuality.
International assignments among multinational corporations have increased by 25% since 2000 and the number is expected to reach more than 50% growth through 2020.
The opportunity for LGBTI expatriates and their respective families to be part of an intra-company transfer is statistically likely. Worldwide, the LGBTI population is estimated to be between 1-in-10 and 1-in-20 of the adult population, and over 200 million people worldwide live and work in a country other than their country of origin.
LGBTI employees relocating for a foreign assignment are likely to experience additional hardships compared to the typical expatriate. It’s not uncommon for a destination country to refuse spousal visas if same-sex marriage is not legal in that country.
Likewise, access to healthcare and other benefits can be restricted for those relocating as a same-sex couple. In their study about LGBTI expatriates in dangerous locations, Ruth McPhail and Yvonne McNulty highlighted an interview with one LGBTI expatriate who experienced difficulty in gaining a spousal visa in Indonesia:
I knew my wife would never get a spousal visa in Indonesia; my experience had prepared me for that. So instead I wanted to be guaranteed two things: firstly that my wife could come and stay at least 90 days at a time with multiple entry, and second that if there was a medical evacuation or civil strife situation that we would be evacuated as a family.