Essential tips: Returning home after living abroad – Elyssa Preston repat coach

Your time abroad is coming to an end. The anticipation of returning home mixes with sadness about leaving behind friends and your adopted way of life, but on the whole, you are excited about returning home after living abroad for years or even decades. Going home should be a piece of cake, or so most returning expats think. Shortly after returning home, many returnees face unexpected challenges and the experience isn’t as smooth or exciting as expected. The following tips will help ease the return and adjustment process:

Accept the new beginning: Admit to yourself and all family members that your return is not a seamless continuation of times long past, but rather a new beginning. You should therefore plan your return as carefully as you plan your step abroad.

Reflect on the essentials: Remind yourself of the values ​​and beliefs that are important to you and your family. These values ​​are independent of where you live - and they carry you through temporary difficulties and readjustment phases.

Grieve: As nice as it is to come back home: You leave part of your life abroad: friends, successes, defeats, and a familiar everyday life. Accept these mixed emotions as well as those of your partner or children. Everyone feels a little different about their return, and it is important that parting grief be allowed. This is the only way to be open to new experiences at home.

Don't be disappointed: It is normal for friends and relatives to quickly lose interest in your experiences. The descriptions of your life abroad are simply too different from your usual everyday life. Sometimes narratives are also classified as showing off or know-it-alls. Children in particular should be prepared for this: classmates and teachers may not be too sensitive to this.

Find fellow returnees and expats: This is especially important for children. In contact with other expats, you can not only keep your language skills alive, you also learn, above all, that they are not alone with their experiences. Good contact points are expat networks and international schools.