Going home - Keep Your Life, Family and Career Intact While Living Abroad - page 106

“It's an attractive offer. But at the same time, it feels like a big step down.”
Returning home can have pleasant connotations for most expatriates. They look forward
to a triumphant return, flush with success and prestige that they can display to their fellow
countrymen and colleagues. However, when the moment arrives, it is easy to feel exactly
the opposite. Such a letdown is a product of Identity Inflation.
Identity Inflation, discussed in Chapter Two, means an individual's sense of identity has
in certain respects been blown out of proportion. When placed back in the old environment,
he no longer feels the same about himself nor do people perceive him as in the past. The
person feels deflated in importance and self-worth.
Identity inflation can lead to identity crisis. The returnee loses his or her uniqueness as
an expatriate and their seemingly lofty, powerful position in business and society. Back in
the home country, he no longer stands out from the crowd. At work he is surrounded by
other people just like him.
To a certain degree, a returned expat is even treated like an outsider. After all, he's been
out of circulation and isn't familiar with day-to-day office politics. Such a person may end
up feeling more out of place than when he was a foreigner in another country.
The most difficult problem to overcome is when colleagues don't look upon overseas
experience with the proper respect. To many homebound colleagues, foreign experience is
irrelevant or of “lower” standard. If people ever acknowledge it, it is more out of curiosity
than anything else. A person like Phillip knows this, and does not look forward to dealing
with it.
Above all, the impending change of lifestyle can cause a major degree of identity de fla-
tion. From living on an expatriate package, including free luxury housing, maids, paid
home leave, paid private education for the children, he is going back to living in the sub-
urbs and driving his own car.
Change in identity is an inevitable part of returning home. But the anxiety that it causes
should not interfere with a person's decision to go. After all, the decision to return home
was a choice arrived at presumably for valid reasons.
Once a decision is made, it should be stuck to. Anxiety and stress prior to any change
are unavoidable. But if priorities are clearly defined and chosen, an individual can move
into the future, confident that the decision was the right one.
R ETIRING BACK HOME
Returning to the home country is not just an issue for people on temporary foreign as-
signment or unhappy with living overseas. Even those who have worked contentedly for