Comments on: Existential Migration: Feeling at Home as the Foreigner

By: Greg Wesson

Greg Wesson — Fri, 13 May 2011 21:43:24 +0000

Hey Sioux – I grew up in Canada, and never really moved much. I am definitely not a third-culture kid (TCK), and never really had any interest in travel until I was in my 30s.

I think the difference between my need to move (probably existential migration) and wanderlust is that my need to migrate is to leave my home, but stay in some other place. I am in London and have been for the past 3 years, and am not interested in moving any time soon. I think if I was suffering from wanderlust, I’d be wanting to move on by now (if I hadn’t already). My migration need is to move some place else, and settle in a culture, rather than to keep moving on.

By: Sioux

Sioux — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:09:56 +0000

so greg, where did you grow up? what ages? have you done reading up on tck’s and atck’s? what are your thoughts on how your experience compares to those of tck’s and atck’s? also, how do you think that existential migration and your experience if it is that or something else are different from wanderlust?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 04:32:27 +0000

Thanks Greg,
I’ve moved from Holland to Canada I still don’t know why.I had a lot of friends and a great appartment back home and I’m stil not sure what I’m doing here. Maybe it’ll be more clear within a couple of months, cause I’ve only been here 6 weeks

By: Greg Wesson

Greg Wesson — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 20:07:12 +0000

Thanks to all that have commented recently, and glad to know that people are connecting with the article. As an update, it has been very comforting to be able to put a name to my desire to move away, even though much like Twin I never had anything against my homeland (also Canada). Knowing that this is a journey I am undertaking has allowed me to view it with a more long term view, and I can allow myself to enjoy the trip.

Heather GG – I have also recently read Global Souls. I enjoyed the book, though I found the last couple of chapters a bit confused. But the parts on LAX, Hong Kong and Toronto were very good, and I found a lot to connect with in the book.

Cheers,
Greg

By: Twin

Twin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 02:30:43 +0000

Hi Greg. Wow, you really opened my eyes. I am originally from Canada but I have been living abroad for the past 22 years. Finally I have a name that goes with my disease “existential migration”. I thought that I was just strange and I could never understand my desire to be so far away from such a wonderful country. I never had anything against Canada…heck, I’m proud to be Canadian. I just felt that I never fit in. My mother moved us to many different houses while we were growing up and I went to many many different schools. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I found it so easy just to pack up and leave Canada. I started in the Dom Rep, moved from there to Greece, then to Egypt and I found myself 4 years in Cyprus before moving to Mexico. I have been in Mexico for the past 14 years and my two kids were born here. I am now seriously considering moving back to Canada next summer. I am not fooling myself to believing that I am moving “back home”. No such thing. I am moving to a place that I do not belong. I want my kids to be able to experience what it’s like to grow up in Canada. Funny, it’s harder for me to return to Canada than to pack up and move to , let’s say Belize.
Thanks for your very interesting blog.

By: Ulyana

Ulyana — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:17:31 +0000

Hi Greg,

Your post has been really helpful!Can’t thank you enough. I’m going through a very unpleasant phase AGAIN being at home and feeling as foreign as it could possibly be, getting irritated with myself for not being able to appreciate anything at my home town,my parents house and questioning again why I can not be like others?

And I know I have been feeling myself forever like that, and nobody understood me around. I’m from a small Russian town in the Far East, and I have been studing in Japan for the last 4 years, traveled to other countries and I feel home there, in Kyoto, among other foreigners much better than in Russia. Now I’m on vacations at my parents house and I’m going nuts, feeling insecure and unhappy..And cant wait when I go back to Japan.

But inside of me I dont want to feel like that anymore, I’m so tired. I am asking myself how long this could possibly last?I’m 28 already, I feel the more I live abroad the more it would be difficult to go back. And the thought itself gives me too much frustration…Although I know when I go back to my international students life I would feel good again, but that feeling of rejection of my hometown stays, and some kind of guilt of not being able to explain to my parents why I cant except the life in the homeland. They just dont understand, they feel home and happy where they used to. I guess I should just stop feeling bad about not feeling “at home” in my homeland.

Thanks for the article again!

By: Heather GG

Heather GG — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:14:55 +0000

So there is a name for what I’ve felt since I was a little girl! Thanks for writing this and the links to Madison’s work. Will be doing much reading/research. I couldn’t stop nodding my head as I read Pico Iyer’s Global Souls, I’m sure I’ll feel the same about existential migration.

By: Amy

Amy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:07:57 +0000

I totally relate to this. I just came back from backpacking through Australia traveling on a 3 month working Visa. I was kinda lost for a little bit when I first got there. By the end I made a community for myself but it was hard. I did however find a backpacking tourism company (I think it was called Travellers Contact Point) that planned my tours so I could go in a group and that made me feel a little less lonely. Especially because you wind up traveling with other foreigners. They also picked me up from the airport with a personalized welcome packet, which was pretty cool. I recommend doing something like that and if you choose to go to Australia like me on the working Visa look them up. They were really helpful

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:27:28 +0000

Hi Greg!
This was an interesting post! I sometimes get those feelings of moving somewhere foreign as well, but fear gets to me and I just decide to stay where I am. I currently live in the Bay Area and for some reason I’ve always wanted to live in Canada. Maybe.. SOMEDAY I will go for it and DO IT!

By: Leslie

Leslie — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:47:57 +0000

A lovely post. I’m living the expat life in Laos and you said it perfectly–I feel most at home now, as a stranger in a increasingly not so strange land. Thank you.