Are you an expat, who was assigned to a year-long project abroad, and who feels homesick? I believe, many will understand you. Or are you a spouse, who decided to leave your life back home to accompany your partner, and you feel homesick? Well, that is also quite normal. What if you are an expat, […]
When an Expat Visits Home: Caught Between Two Worlds?
In this blog I have written several articles about expats’ difficulties and challenges for the initial adjustment abroad, and also about the difficulties of repatriation. However, what has been less discussed in my blog so far is the time ‘in-between’, namely when the expat is visiting home during the international assignment. Are there any potential […]
Homesickness: A Natural Part of Being Away from Home?
Globally mobile individuals are the ones who know by experience how it feels to adjust to a new destination, suffer from reverse cultural shock when returning back home, have a restless urge for new relocations, and finally recognize the homesickness when away from home again. The latter, namely homesickness, is not as pronounced a topic […]
Becoming more global or more homesick?
Globalization, internalization and cosmopolitanism are some of the terms that could be used to characterize the picture of the 21st century. In turn, he typical person of the 21st century is expected to be open-minded, culturally intelligent, excited for change, quick to adjust, and feel ‘at home’ wherever he or she resides. From being citizens of our hometowns, cities or countries, we are expected to become world citizens, or globalists. But are we really living up to these expectations?
Social media help to ease “Expat Blues”
The recent 2010 Expat Explorer Survey reports that for expatriates emotional worries cause much greater concerns than practical issues. More specifically, the survey results indicate that re-establishing a social life (41%) as well as feeling lonely and missing friends and family (34%) are topping the list of the most common expat concerns.