07/02/2026
When you are an immigrant, coming “home” can be tricky. What even IS home? I often struggle to feel completely at home, both in my host country (Italy) and my country of origin (Bulgaria). Having lived abroad for the past 13 years has created in me a permanent sense of dual identity. Residing in some sort of limbo, I see myself as a local foreigner in both countries 😅. They call it the “One Foot in Each Country” syndrome.
This awkward feeling of cultural “homelessness” stems from gradually replacing one’s familiar routines with new ones, putting one’s native language on hold while functioning in a foreign one on a daily basis, losing old social and professional networks while trying to build new ones, and undergoing an inevitable (and not always comfortable) personal transformation. All this has made me feel like I no longer fully belong in either place.
At the same time, I consider myself privileged to actually belong to two countries, enjoying the best of two worlds. I make the most of my time when I’m back in Bulgaria. I hang out with my favorite people, laughing, reminiscing about the past and celebrating the present. I eat all the banitsa, lyutenitsa, sirene, and lokum I’ve craved for over a year. I wander downtown Sofia with no particular aim, just to soak up all the colors, smells, faces, and sounds. I travel around the country to visit all my relatives. I take lots of photos so I can remember all the precious moments of fleeting happiness. I buy all the Bulgarian books my Ryanair hand luggage can hold. I remember all those beautiful, uniquely colorful, and utterly untranslatable Bulgarian expressions. For a week or so, I do belong.
Then it’s time to fly back to Italy and it feels like… homecoming. Over the years, I’ve discovered that “home” is more of a feeling rather than a specific geographic location.
What’s YOUR experience as an immigrant (or someone who has lived abroad for a while)?
