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The purpose of this paper is to explain why entry-level job applicants intend to leave their home country to work abroad by adopting the framework of country embeddedness (i.e. career and community embeddedness).

Hypotheses are tested using survey data of a sample of prospective healthcare entry-level job applicants (i.e. last year medical students) using hierarchical regression analyses and bootstrapping procedures.

Results show that, first, home country career and community embeddedness are negatively associated with self-initiated expatriation intention (SIE-intention). Second, developmental feedback reduces SIE-intention. This relationship is at least partly due to increased home country career embeddedness. Third, national identity reduces SIE-intention. The relationship is at least partly due to increased home country community embeddedness.

This paper advances the understanding of SIE by focusing on home country factors associated with the decision to work abroad, whereas the majority of current research mainly considers host country variables.