近几年，耳边时常会听到消息说，某个朋友因为爱人被派去外地或外国工作而放弃北京的一切跟随前往。在这样的情形中，这位跟随爱人前往另一个陌生城市的朋友就叫做trailing spouse。

The term trailing spouse is used to describe a person who follows his or her life partner to another city because of a newly-found job or work assignment. The term is often associated with people involved in an expatriate assignment but is also used on domestic assignments.

Trailing spouse（随迁配偶）指因为伴侣换工作或者接受工作委派而随其搬到另一个城市的人。境外委派或者国内委派任务中的随迁配偶均可用此表达。

The phenomena of trailing spouses is most apparent in the military, diplomatic, and other government communities as well as the private sector where the employer regularly re-assigns their employees to new locations.

随迁配偶多出现于军队、外交、政府机构以及私营企业等会定期轮换委派员工到不同地区的单位。