NigelWaring

Definitely here to stay, Aus is well and truly my home. Have been back to the UK many times for brief visits when visiting Europe, will continue whilst two relatives are still there. I now find the UK as foreign as many other countries and have to do things very carefully. I still have the accent so they must think I'm asking daft questions.



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carolinephillips

40 years, crikey! The uk will have totally changed since then. I find it odd going back after 7 years - I only go because mum and MIL expect to see us every 2 years.

aries

I've been back in the UK for 4 years after living in Oz for 51 years, and it still feels foreign here! I saw a Wanted Down Under Revisited this morning and I was in tears, I should have kept to holidays. Most people are surprised that I don't have an Aussie accent, though some have said they thought I had lived somewhere else!

ozzieeagle

40 years is a hell of a long while to be "From somewhere else" I've been here 36 years now and I felt so foreign when I went back recently for a 7 week trip, that the accent thing made me feel like a totally displaced person, with almost no identity.... I'm still reeling from how it made me feel. All I know is I dont get that displaced/lack of identity feeling in Aus.


I've given this a lot of thought over the few weeks I've been back since my last trip. I think the feeling is epitomised by how I'm seen and greeted by strangers in Queensland.... Who definitely would call me and have called me a "Mexican" (South of the border from Victoria) .... way way before they think about me as a UK migrant. I now embrace that recognition as a fellow first generation Australian.

Not sure why I couldn't get that base recognition to the degree of people (strangers) actually being suss about my Australian identity in the UK.

I'm not Robinson Crusoe in this.... Apparently it's far far worse for long term Greeks and Italians, who possibly dont even get the full acceptance here in Australia..... I've been talking a lot about this with people in my circles with migrant parents. It's actually been one of the most disturbing facets of my migration....How I'm seen, feel and fit in the UK these days....