Asmara - Post Report Question and Answers
What types of jobs do most expatriate spouses/partners have? Locally based or telecommuting? Full-time or part-time? Can you comment on local salary scales?
All I know work for the missions their spouses work for. There are no other options. - Apr 2021
There are comparatively few opportunities outside of the diplomatic missions and international organizations. The US Embassy usually has more positions than available applicants for our in-house family member employment positions, but these are only open to U.S. Embassy family members. Some spouses/family members can work or volunteer at the Asmara International Community School (an IB-accredited grade 1-12 school) or at the Italian School. I've heard of one UN spouse getting a job with Finn Church Aid, the only international NGO in Asmara, and I've heard of one person volunteering with FCA. Telecommuting may be limited by the poor internet reliability. Anything that requires steady or frequent real-time online presence (e.g. videoconferencing) might be hard, given that the internet comes and goes. However, telecommuting could work if you only need to send and receive documents over email. - Feb 2019
Spouses don’t really work. There is the international school, the Italian school, and one Finnish NGO. Internet is not reliable enough to telecommute, in my opinion. There is no local work agreement but there are no jobs anyway. - Sep 2018
Those working for the US Embassy tend to work at Embassy jobs, because there is no bilateral work agreement. There are some UN agencies here, that might have openings, but when I was in Eritrea all of the spouses worked for the Embassy in a full time or part time capacity. - Dec 2016
No, it isn't allowed even to volunteer. - Aug 2007
