Between Worlds: The Quiet Challenges of Being a Migrant

Migration is often seen as an opportunity for a fresh start, a new beginning. What’s less often spoken about, though, are the emotional costs of starting over in a new place, and how those costs don’t always fade with time. Whether you’ve just arrived or have been here for decades, the experience of being a migrant can be complex. From the outward journey, visas, housing, language, work, to the inward one: navigating unfamiliar cultural cues, grieving what was left behind, and wondering where, exactly, you now belong, the overwhelm is omnipresent. For newer migrants, challenges are often immediate and practical, and even minor tasks like making a phone call, understanding a form, or asking for directions can take their toll on our wellbeing. Additionally, there’s often a sense of disconnection, being far from family, familiar food, familiar seasons, or the sounds of your mother tongue.

You might speak the language fluently, have a job, a family, even citizenship and still feel like an outsider. You may find yourself adjusting how you speak, behave, or express yourself depending on who you’re with, trying to fit in without even realising it. That can be quite exhausting. And perhaps you may be struggling with an uncomfortable sense of shame or failure for not feeling fully at home in the place you now call home. This Limbo-like space, where you’re not quite here or there, can be hard to explain because it’s not something others can see, yet you feel it deeply. There’s also the grief that many migrants carry for the family continuing life without you overseas and the life that might otherwise have been.

But identity doesn't require you to have to choose between worlds. You’re allowed to belong in multiple places, and you’re allowed to miss home and still love where you are. And you are most certainly allowed to carry an accent, a culture, a grief, and not apologise for any of it. If you're feeling the weight of migration, whether fresh or familiar, these feelings are real, normal, and allowed, and you’re not wrong for having them. Therapy can offer a space to unpack those emotions without judgement and a safe space to feel seen, not explained. Belonging isn’t about assimilation, it’s about feeling recognised, in your wholeness, in your story, and in your difference.

Mind yourself,

Alan.