During the past two decades I have been living and working abroad. All over the globe, from Europe to the middle east, The USA and even The UK.
Undoubtedly, expat life can be very interesting and somewhat exciting.
All the experiences and challenges of living a colourful life abroad can help develop character and other attributes that can help a person better themself as a human being. Not to mention all the valuable memories and things that are of a sentimental nature.
But... it isn't all honky dory!
The first and initial problem is more so personal, psychological, not material. All of us feel as if we are neither home or away (nothing to do with the old TV show). We don’t fit in overseas, as we are Aussies, we have a mentality and an approach to life and people that is very sincere and upfront. We do not beat around the bush or pretend to be something that we are not, hence we do not fit into many cultures around the world where the people are “overly sensitive”. That is just one thing that really sticks out like dog balls.
Then there are the other things, where a foreigner is always a foreigner, no matter where one goes in this world. No matter where an expat goes, s/he is always a foreigner. (dot)
However, when it is time to pack up and head back, the reality of repatriation turns out to be a lot more difficult than imagined.
As we are also somewhat guaranteed to feel estranged when we arrive back home, after all some things have changed.
This goes for most expats.
Except for Australia, maybe, where this is less evident among the people of similar moral backgrounds. The only foreigners in Australia are those that bring their foreign immoral “baggage” with them.
Definitely not the people who accept the Australian way of life and Australian morals.
But we expats are not strangers back home in Australia, so why then do we feel like we are somewhat like strangers in the land we so dearly and wholeheartedly consider our home?
Then there are the material aspects to moving back home. Most expats who have a family also have some belongings or property or properties. Getting rid of the properties overseas and moving all the items back home via shipping container is all so easily said, but when push comes to shove and it has to be done. Well lets just say that “Murphy” had a point with his God forsaken law.
Even that isn’t so much a problem, it’s the issue of not being home nor away again!
In our case my wife and kids are in Australia, I am in Europe. The property market isn’t being nice to me over here. Most offers are of a barter + cash, which would be OK if we planned on living here. So from what was planned to be a 3 to 4 month stay overseas again has turned into an indefinite, already at 7 months. That is right, again after everything and all the time we spent apart as I worked in foreign lands, as she at home would be watching the TV screen hoping not to see me, we are once again separated because as usual nothing goes as planned.
So, traveling the world is fun, WOW.
It also comes at a price, all the stuff I’ve spoken about here is just a small portion of a smidgen of it.
What I can recommend is that anyone who is somewhat overly hooked up with their parents, that they do not go overseas, it will just cause you havoc and grief, possibly even kill your relationship with your partner, I’ve seen it one too many a time with expats. I was lucky enough to find the love of my life overseas and things are a little different in our case. Plus I’ve been overseas for 20+ years, most expats don’t manage to handle 5, max 10 years. So there are many variables and factors that affect the life story, path and overall journey of an expat.
But one thing is for certain.
Australia is HOME. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.