Do ex patriots have a distorted view of their homeland?

In my case, I wouldn't call it 'superior', but it's definitely distorted. I would think that this place is much better than my native countries. Maybe it's just a rationalization, or a justification for moving and staying here, but I do miss my hometown once in a while. We did come home last Christmas, and it was a blast!

I have seen in many times. I grew up with an immigrant father and I emigrated from the USA. The only way to be happy is to see the good in your new home. I love living in Israel. It's not perfect, but I came here because I thought I could make a better life for myself. My grandma came to America in the 60's and never did adjust. She was old, but it's not an excuse. It is just the way she was. She was always saying how much better Sicily was. It made people angry. My father on the other hand came to America after the war and made up his mind to like it and to become American. He managed to make a nice life there. I only get homesick for some foods. There are very few I can't get, buy those few are missed. I want corn tortillas. I have heard they are now available for a vastly inflated price in Tel Aviv, but I haven't found them. I miss Morning Star brand vegetarian breakfast sausage. It will never be available here because breakfast is a dairy meal. It wouldn't go over well. Instead of complaining about the few thing I can't have, I think how the food in general is better and fresher here.

I think it's only natural to miss those things we've grown up with, but it probably makes a difference as to how different the country we go to is from the country we came from. I was an expat for a year and it was very hard to become accustomed to many things, food, climate and speech included. However, I look back with fond memories now of that time. I don't know if my country is superior as much as it's more comfortable to me and I think that's as it should be.

I'm not an ex-pat, so I've not observed it in myself. On the other hand, both my parents were ex-pats. My father was born and raised in Australia, and emigrated to England as a boy. To me, he seems quite British/English, especially given his mother was English - while his dad, possibly his biological dad, was Danish. But I think it's fair to say part of him remains sentimentally attached on quite a deep level to both Australia and Denmark. I'd not say he has the same deep attachment to England as me, an Englishman born. But he doesn't speak much of it; and is fully integrated into British society. Which is natural given his mother was English, and he's been here since boyhood. My mother was born and raised in Canada, and came here when she was already over thirty, so it could be said she's much more Canadian than my dad is Australian. She has kept dual citizenship so I believe; and still speaks with a slight Canadian accent. She has remained - in other words - very much Canadian, while also feeling very much a part of the mother country: she has never suggested to me that Canada is a superior country. But has been attached to both the land of her birth, and her adopted land.

I've never been out of the USA, I lived in Hawaii for a year, it was a different culture but it was westernized enough to keep me feeling like an American. I have been to Canada and when we met some people on our hike they noticed that we were Americans, they didn't seem impressed that we would be in their backyard, it didn't bother me though. I'm comfortable where ever I am because I know who I am.

I have never gone abroad so far, let alone emigrated to some places. However I can well understand how the people who live abroad feel. After all, homeland is where they were born and bred in,they have a thousand and one links with it.Nothing could ever take motherland's place in their hearts.Of course, what you worry about alienating the local people is not uncalled-for.Sometimes you have to have your love for motherland buried deep in your heart, instead of calling a spade a spade where you emigrate to.

I was quite young when we left England, and my views of it are what I read or saw on the television of what it would be like in the late 1940s, and if I had not seen more recent news and more recent documentaries of what it is now, I would have a distorted view of it. Now when we moved, we went to British Columbia and lived there until my adulthood. I still get pangs of homesickness when I think of Vancouver and even though we visited it and saw the changes, it has not stopped my desire to go back. Although I probably could not live there as it would be too expensive and the population has changed. I have not alienated anyone here. I told them I am beginning to like Winnipeg in spite of being told it is the crime capital of Canada, it is cold as blazes (still can't stand the cold.) but my friends are here, and I own my own home and it is completely paid for that would never happen in Vancouver, B.C. unless I had married a millionaire.

yes, one cannot help but compare things since this is a natural tendency but sometimes we get deluded with either the things in the country we're from or the country we're in. This reminds me of what happened sometime ago, there was a line for a theater forming because the movie was a popular one. A foreigner came and shouted curses to the people falling in line about how stupid this country is and how in their country they never need to form in line etc., 'til someone cut him off and told him- "I've been to your country and I fall in line there all the time" the foreigner didn't say anything and stalked off...

Thanks a ton for sharing this discussion. Yes u are absolutely right, the reason why many ex patriots fail to adjust with a new country is because they get too much home sick and try to remember their own country. I know it is too difficult to forget the memories attached with our own country but it would be better if we keep intact the patriotic feeling with us and at the same time try to gel with the local people and understand their culture and tradition. What say?

I left my home country in febr. 2007 and have never felt homesick at all. Even more: I follow the news in online newspaper and it all even became worse over there. Yes, I miss my friends sometimes but we keep in contact via the internet. But I will NEVER miss the country. The Philippines is my country now and I think I adjusted quite well. Mase a lot of new friends here and feel happy.