I moved back to my home country 14 years after living in London. It’s hard! I have been back now for almost 2 years. I love being closer to my Mum, but miss my expat life.
I think it's human nature to miss what we don't have and it's easy to get ourselves in a tizzy over these decisions. I definitely thought less about this all before I had my son - now the stakes just feel so much higher! It's always wonderful to be able to be closer to family though.
Ohhh interesting, because I’ve never thought about going back “home.” This is home now and that would feel so… odd. So disorienting (I imagine).
Though, as I’ve been scrolling through the expat tag today after posting my own article on the subject (shamelessly sharing below in case you’d like to give it a read!), I’ve been finding a lot of compelling arguments for being a more ethical and sustainable expat
Oh, this is such an interesting angle! I love that you shared it (despite the shameless plug, which I’m happy to ignore this time because you took the care to tailor your comment and add something genuinely thoughtful to the conversation!). For a lot of people, the idea of “going back home” becomes almost impossible to imagine once they’re fully settled somewhere new. But at the same time, not everyone has the luxury of letting go of the idea of home - depending on the country’s rules, visa restrictions, and the inability to ever obtain citizenship can mean that no matter how long you’ve lived somewhere, you still might never truly be allowed to be fully “home” there. And that uncertainty or feeling of always being somewhere temporarily (the idea of being either permanently temporary or temporarily permanent as I like to say!) makes a big difference.
I did give your post a read, and it’s a really interesting subject. You’re absolutely spot on about how many people leave to build a new life while still quietly yearning for their old one.
The sustainability angle is so true as well. It’s easy to see how small shifts creep in almost innocently, but those changes can have a huge impact over time. We see the same patterns in travel to over-visited places or destinations that get overexposed through social media. It’s such a complicated topic - how both short-term and long-term movement reshapes the world and the cultures around us.
I suppose, as with everything, the only constant is that change is inevitable.
I moved back to my home country 14 years after living in London. It’s hard! I have been back now for almost 2 years. I love being closer to my Mum, but miss my expat life.
I think it's human nature to miss what we don't have and it's easy to get ourselves in a tizzy over these decisions. I definitely thought less about this all before I had my son - now the stakes just feel so much higher! It's always wonderful to be able to be closer to family though.
Ohhh interesting, because I’ve never thought about going back “home.” This is home now and that would feel so… odd. So disorienting (I imagine).
Though, as I’ve been scrolling through the expat tag today after posting my own article on the subject (shamelessly sharing below in case you’d like to give it a read!), I’ve been finding a lot of compelling arguments for being a more ethical and sustainable expat
https://open.substack.com/pub/lizburling/p/the-expat-problem?r=6rijrt&utm_medium=ios
Oh, this is such an interesting angle! I love that you shared it (despite the shameless plug, which I’m happy to ignore this time because you took the care to tailor your comment and add something genuinely thoughtful to the conversation!). For a lot of people, the idea of “going back home” becomes almost impossible to imagine once they’re fully settled somewhere new. But at the same time, not everyone has the luxury of letting go of the idea of home - depending on the country’s rules, visa restrictions, and the inability to ever obtain citizenship can mean that no matter how long you’ve lived somewhere, you still might never truly be allowed to be fully “home” there. And that uncertainty or feeling of always being somewhere temporarily (the idea of being either permanently temporary or temporarily permanent as I like to say!) makes a big difference.
I did give your post a read, and it’s a really interesting subject. You’re absolutely spot on about how many people leave to build a new life while still quietly yearning for their old one.
The sustainability angle is so true as well. It’s easy to see how small shifts creep in almost innocently, but those changes can have a huge impact over time. We see the same patterns in travel to over-visited places or destinations that get overexposed through social media. It’s such a complicated topic - how both short-term and long-term movement reshapes the world and the cultures around us.
I suppose, as with everything, the only constant is that change is inevitable.