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The End of Belonging: Untold stories of leaving home and the psychology of global relocation
Do we really know what we're doing when we leave our home to live in a foreign culture? Why do some of us keep leaving, travelling from place to place, never settling, never really feeling at home? In today's globalised world it is increasingly expected that many of us will go where the job takes us, but at what cost? This book tells the stories of 'existential migrants', people who left home in order to discover themselves. It also warns us that there may be an unexpected psychological effect from thinking we can just live everywhere. We may end up homeless. The 21st century could herald 'the end of belonging'.
228 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 21, 2020
For nomads, expats, travelers, soul searchers, existential migrants. For those who have made of wandering around their life style and those who aim at it but maybe don't have the courage to take the leap. This book will highlight trends, pros and cons, feelings of what makes people belong or not belong, maybe ever, maybe anywhere. If you identify with any of these categories, this book will definitely make you feel less lonely among a tribe who feels as you do and who's growing more and more into a restless, I have to go, community.
November 20, 2013
An important book that reflects on the desire not just to travel, but to find one's own identity within the context of globalisation and modern culture. A must read book for expatriates---it inspires reflection and offers reassurance. The book is a lovely beacon of light, or a starting point, for readers who wish to uncover and deconstruct their desires to exist in many places at once.
March 22, 2021
This book was truly a self-reflection.
So many of the concepts and ideas presented resonated with my own personal experiences (which made it both an extremely insightful and difficult read) and I am sure I will come back to this book again and again.
As an expat who recently moved back home, this book has helped me process some of the thoughs and feelings that have recently crossed my mind.
It will take me a while to process everything being layed out in these pages but this book has definitely opened a door for me.
So many of the concepts and ideas presented resonated with my own personal experiences (which made it both an extremely insightful and difficult read) and I am sure I will come back to this book again and again.
As an expat who recently moved back home, this book has helped me process some of the thoughs and feelings that have recently crossed my mind.
It will take me a while to process everything being layed out in these pages but this book has definitely opened a door for me.
August 1, 2018
An interesting look at why people choose to leave home and live elsewhere, what Madison calls "existential migration." Madison uses Heidegger's theory of the uncanny to describe the "calling" individuals feel when they do not belong in the place they reside. Sometimes these individuals would move overseas and still not belong, which is why they are in a constant state of having to leave.
The personal accounts are a little repetitive, and I can't help but peg these "existential migrants" as privileged teenagers who long for an "authentic adventure," taught by their friends on facebook. Still, there are some accounts that I would honestly describe as an existential condition, and many of Madison's theoretical work in the second part of the book on home and belonging makes it worth the read.
Existential migration is a fairly new psychological field; I'm interested to see where it goes in the future!
The personal accounts are a little repetitive, and I can't help but peg these "existential migrants" as privileged teenagers who long for an "authentic adventure," taught by their friends on facebook. Still, there are some accounts that I would honestly describe as an existential condition, and many of Madison's theoretical work in the second part of the book on home and belonging makes it worth the read.
Existential migration is a fairly new psychological field; I'm interested to see where it goes in the future!
April 26, 2020
As a 'Third Culture Kid' who has gone on to keep travelling and finding home in foreign countries yet simultaneously struggling with my identity and the concept of home and belonging, I stumbled upon this book and decided to give it a read. Reading this was a huge catharsis and one of the most comforting reads I've ever had. Although a form of qualitative research, a culmination of interviews, there was a poetic tone in the narration which perfectly fit the existential angst that I had been feeling. Many of the themes felt like they were word for word taken out of my mind, only written in a much more beautiful way. A book I will recommend to the few people I meet that have been through a similar life trajectory to me and may, as a result, also struggle with similar identity and belonging issues that I have been, and one that I will reread for years to come to calm my angst. Easy and enjoyable read, and exactly what I needed!
December 31, 2020
Book provides a nice and different viewpoint of people we could call today "world nomads" or as the authors names them - "existential migrants". I'm a digital nomad myself so I was curious to read what psychology says about such people
I'm relieved to know that there are many other migrants having similar feelings or troubles to what I've been experiencing. The book also shed a light on homelessness and defining "home" in general. While I'm only at the beginning of my nomadic life, thanks to the book I'm prepared for the situations that might (but don't have to) come to me in the future (like stating to miss home, need to settle or difficulties in settling or getting back home).
The last part of the book is very psychological and it was a bit difficult for me to read it. I think it's more for psychologists. But the rest I can definitely recommend for digital nomads like I am.
I'm relieved to know that there are many other migrants having similar feelings or troubles to what I've been experiencing. The book also shed a light on homelessness and defining "home" in general. While I'm only at the beginning of my nomadic life, thanks to the book I'm prepared for the situations that might (but don't have to) come to me in the future (like stating to miss home, need to settle or difficulties in settling or getting back home).
The last part of the book is very psychological and it was a bit difficult for me to read it. I think it's more for psychologists. But the rest I can definitely recommend for digital nomads like I am.
November 29, 2019
Very interesting book. Lots of good insight on something that is felt by a lot of people nowadays, yet you can't read anything on it besides some blog posts... and this book. Definitely recommend - good for making a retrospection on your past life and deciding what's next.
October 3, 2024
I have mixed feelings about this book. First off, I’m really glad it exists. While living overseas, I was looking for a book on this exact topic, and this is the only book I could find. As the first book of its kind written in English, it is filling a gap in the market that needs more attention, especially in this increasingly globalized world.
For as much as I appreciate the book’s existence, I did not enjoy the process of reading it. The book is written based on extended interviews with global migrants. However, the way the book is organized, it splits up these interviews into different themes or experiences of the migrants. This approach creates a few issues:
1) It is difficult to keep track of who is who. Individuals’ stories are fractured, and certain people are only mentioned in certain sections of the book (when their stories fit the narrative the author is trying to create). This makes it difficult to see them as whole people, and has the effect of reducing their lived experiences to examples of proposed phenomena.
2) The author’s subjective interpretations are extremely evident throughout. The categories the author chose for each chapter seem to be based on his own interpretations of the interview content. Since he is also a person with experience living overseas, his subjective experiences heavily influence how he interprets the interviews, and therefore how he categorizes them. Going into this book, I expected it to be more scientific, so I came away quite disappointed.
This is a really tough review to write, because I genuinely love the intention behind writing this book, and I know from firsthand experience how important this topic is. If you’re looking for a book to comfort you while you live overseas, you may find solace in reading some of these people’s stories. I did find certain parts comforting. But if giving comfort to expats was the intended purpose, I think the content could have been better served by organizing it into a lightly edited collection of “complete” interviews focused on the interviewees’ stories, rather than splitting them up based on the author’s subjective interpretations. Still, if you’re looking for a book on this topic, there’s nothing better out there at the moment.
If the author ever reads this review, I want you to know that despite the qualms I have with it, I do appreciate the hard work you put into this project. I encourage you to publish more books on this topic in the future. The world really does need them.
For as much as I appreciate the book’s existence, I did not enjoy the process of reading it. The book is written based on extended interviews with global migrants. However, the way the book is organized, it splits up these interviews into different themes or experiences of the migrants. This approach creates a few issues:
1) It is difficult to keep track of who is who. Individuals’ stories are fractured, and certain people are only mentioned in certain sections of the book (when their stories fit the narrative the author is trying to create). This makes it difficult to see them as whole people, and has the effect of reducing their lived experiences to examples of proposed phenomena.
2) The author’s subjective interpretations are extremely evident throughout. The categories the author chose for each chapter seem to be based on his own interpretations of the interview content. Since he is also a person with experience living overseas, his subjective experiences heavily influence how he interprets the interviews, and therefore how he categorizes them. Going into this book, I expected it to be more scientific, so I came away quite disappointed.
This is a really tough review to write, because I genuinely love the intention behind writing this book, and I know from firsthand experience how important this topic is. If you’re looking for a book to comfort you while you live overseas, you may find solace in reading some of these people’s stories. I did find certain parts comforting. But if giving comfort to expats was the intended purpose, I think the content could have been better served by organizing it into a lightly edited collection of “complete” interviews focused on the interviewees’ stories, rather than splitting them up based on the author’s subjective interpretations. Still, if you’re looking for a book on this topic, there’s nothing better out there at the moment.
If the author ever reads this review, I want you to know that despite the qualms I have with it, I do appreciate the hard work you put into this project. I encourage you to publish more books on this topic in the future. The world really does need them.
August 16, 2020
This isn’t really a book about moving countries. It’s a study -almost a quiet ethnography- of what happens to identity when “home” becomes a memory rather than a place.
Greg Madison writes from the in-between, that suspended space familiar to anyone who’s left not out of necessity, but out of an inner pull. He calls it existential migration, a journey not toward a better life, but toward a more authentic self.
What stays with you is how relocation reshapes not only external belonging but also internal coherence. Once you’ve left, you’re never entirely from anywhere again.
The “end of belonging” isn’t tragic; it’s transformative. It teaches that home isn’t a geography, but something we create, and recreate, through meaning, memory, and the people we choose to hold close.
Madison reframes the migrant’s unease as a kind of awakening: the realization that belonging is not given, but built. His writing, though grounded in research, feels quietly personal. It is a reminder that identity is always in motion, and that perhaps the truest belonging begins when we stop expecting home to be found on a map.
Greg Madison writes from the in-between, that suspended space familiar to anyone who’s left not out of necessity, but out of an inner pull. He calls it existential migration, a journey not toward a better life, but toward a more authentic self.
What stays with you is how relocation reshapes not only external belonging but also internal coherence. Once you’ve left, you’re never entirely from anywhere again.
The “end of belonging” isn’t tragic; it’s transformative. It teaches that home isn’t a geography, but something we create, and recreate, through meaning, memory, and the people we choose to hold close.
Madison reframes the migrant’s unease as a kind of awakening: the realization that belonging is not given, but built. His writing, though grounded in research, feels quietly personal. It is a reminder that identity is always in motion, and that perhaps the truest belonging begins when we stop expecting home to be found on a map.
August 22, 2015
When I compare this book to Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds I feel disconnected and weird. This books seems to me is about people who leave as adults, not as kids. It's also very hard to read.
July 24, 2011
Somewhat pedantic and often repetitious analysis of existential migrants, people like me who travel to foreign lands to experience the differences and search for a sense of belonging in being different.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews