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"So, here you are. Too foreign for home,

too foreign for here. Never enough for both."  

           Ijeoma Umebinyuo

 

Experiencing expatriation

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Emotional distress you can experience as expatriate may result from many challenges you are confronted with in the new country regarding the professional / educational / familial setting.

 

  1. COMMON PERSONAL CHALLENGES FOR EXPATS

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  • Language barriers

  • Dealing with culture shock

  • Dealing with relocation anxiety

  • Living away from family, partner or friends

  • Dealing with long periods of separation from the loved ones

  • Repeated goodbye (international friends leaving)

  • Feeling of isolation

  • Adjusting to a new environment

  • Building up a new social network (cultural diversity)

  • Feeling the needs to succeed and to avoid the possibility of expatriation failure

  • Dealing with unresolved matters from the past

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  2. COMMON CHALLENGES FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS 

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Personal challenges

 

  • Learning to be independent without family and friend direct support

  • Dealing with limited economic resources or short time financing

  • Dealing with uncertainty or concerns about the future

 

Academic challenges

 

  • Managing time  

  • Doubts during the studies / writing of thesis

  • Dysfunctional relationship with a professor / colleague / supervisor

  • Lacking of support

  • Finding a new balance between work and leisure

  • Feeling under pressure and experiencing negative stress around the deadlines

  • Keeping up a high level of motivation over the long run

  • Feeling pressure and stress around the deadlines

  • Keeping up a high level of motivation over the long run

  • Dealing with a competitive atmosphere

  • Dealing with own expectations, those of the professors / supervisors, and those of families

  • Dealing with the impostor syndrome

  • Dealing with perfectionism / procrastination

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   3. COMMON CHALLENGES FOR NEW MOTHERS

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  • Dealing with your new identity: becoming a mother

  • The feeling of not being a ‘good enough’ mother

  • Dealing with a hard-working or travelling partner

  • Lacking of family support and/or no network support (yet).

  • Lacking of medical / psychological support in your mother-tongue

  • Navigating an unfamiliar health care system

  • Having less time or energy to adjust in a new environment

  • Exhaustion

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​   4. COMMON CHALLENGES FOR FAMILIES

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  • Having gave up a job to follow the partner and feeling lost of not having anymore a professional identity

  • Experiencing imbalances due to (lack of) dual career

  • Working conditions can be difficult

  • Dealing with a hard-working or travelling partner

  • Dealing with past / present couple issues

  • Changing family routines

  • Having to adapt to new codes of conduct, educational and social norms adjustment in a new environment of the entire family system (with different challenges for each member).

  • Dealing with daily family stress factors: for example, family planning and transport

  • Having concerns about children adjustment: children attending a new school, children with special needs / gifted children

  • Being / feeling unfamiliar with the schooling system of your expat child

  • Managing new experiences

  • Parental burnout

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