Early Career Stage Academics and Their Expatriation Destination: What Drives Their City Choice in Enhancing Regional Sustainability?

Amid a growing interest in how geographical location functions as a motive for self-initiated expatriate (SIE) academics to choose their next employer, more research is needed to understand how academics select a potential location for their expatriation. With the goal of contributing to the literature on SIE academics, this study explores the cues that drive early career-stage academics to choose a destination—Copenhagen or Amsterdam—when accepting an international job offer. The data reveal that four frames drive SIE academics’ meaning-making regarding a potential destination city: positive impression, livable city, familiarity, and political stability and career development expectations. This paper concludes with a discussion of how our findings contribute to the higher education and mobility literature and offers important implications for practice.