In this study, we conceptualize the thus far little explored relationship between expatriate and host country as a form of social exchange governed by the norm of reciprocity. Drawing from social exchange theory and our analysis of 451 self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) living and working in the United Arab Emirates, we examine whether the degree of SIEs’ career and community embeddedness explains their host country withdrawal intention via enhanced perceived institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination. Our results provide general support for our theoretical model and most of our hypotheses. In this way, our article makes three contributions. First, it suggests a novel way to conceptualize the relationship between SIEs and host country as a form of social exchange. Second, it differentiates between two dimensions of embeddedness and explicates how the two contribute to SIEs’ intentions to stay in the host country. Finally, the analysis theorizes and empirically tests two previously little explored mechanisms of enhanced institutional trust and a more tolerant attitude toward workplace discrimination through which SIEs’ host country embeddedness influences their host country withdrawal intentions.

在这项研究中，我们将迄今为止很少探讨的外籍人士与东道国之间的关系概念化为一种受互惠规范支配的社会交换形式。根据社会交换理论以及我们对 451 名在阿拉伯联合酋长国生活和工作的自发外籍人士 (SIE) 的分析，我们研究了 SIE 的职业和社区嵌入程度是否通过增强的感知制度信任和对工作场所歧视采取更加宽容的态度。我们的结果为我们的理论模型和大多数假设提供了总体支持。这样，我们的文章做出了三个贡献。首先，它提出了一种将社会企业与东道国之间的关系概念化为社会交换形式的新颖方法。第二，它区分了嵌入性的两个维度，并解释了这两个维度如何有助于社会企业留在东道国的意图。最后，该分析从理论上和实证上检验了两种以前很少探索的机制，即增强机构信任和对工作场所歧视采取更宽容的态度，社会企业的东道国嵌入性通过这些机制影响其东道国的退出意图。