Why do we leave home to live as foreigners in an unfamiliar land? What does it mean to feel at-home or homeless? This book tells the tales of existential migrants, those of us who leave home in order to find ourselves. It describes the effect of this leaving on the ability to ever feel at-home again. It also warns that globalization may be pushing us into a world where no one really belongs anywhere any more.

The End of Belonging is divided into two parts. The first presents the evocative stories of loss and adventure that originate when an individual leaves home to go out into the wide world. These stories are grouped according to themes that arose out of original research with this group of voluntary migrants. Part one culminates with a description of the experience of ‘existential migration’ where the impetus to leave is not economic but rather the call to fulfil one’s own potential.

Part two of the book moves into the more conceptual and practical influence of the new definition of existential migration. It describes new definitions of ‘home’, ‘belonging’, ‘identiity’, ‘the foreign’, ‘culture shock’ for example. It presents the literature of exile, showing the gap where the existential migrant should be. It also warns about the possible effect of globalization on the human experience of dwelling. It refers to traditional ideas of acculturation and counters this with the idea that home can be where one is most lost rather than most oneself.

Dr Madison presents a readable though profound account of the experience of making oneself a stranger in a strange land and also comments upon the attempt to return home, to be a stranger in a familiar land, and the limbo of being lost in-between. It is a must-read for anyone who has left home or is contemplating it, or for the family member who has never understood the brother or daughter who had to leave.

The topic would attract the corporate executive who has lived abroad, the international student, diplomat, NGO or academic, the freelance traveller, or anyone who has by choice or compulsion, lived in another culture. As well as general audience appeal, the book is useful for counsellors, psychologists and psychotherapists working with migrants and for students of intercultural theory, cross-cultural studies, diaspora, and migration training.

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