The reentry process is different for every individual. There are many factors that will determine the intensity of readjustment you may go through upon return to your home country.
If you voluntarily desire to return home, you will have more motivation to re-integrate. Likewise, if you are expecting the reentry in advance and can mentally prepare for the return, you will more easily cope during the transition. You will find it less difficult to manage the move back home if you have had any previous reentry experience and if the length of your stay does not surpass the amount of time it takes to adapt to your surroundings.
The degree of interaction with the overseas culture will have a tremendous effect on the level of readjustment to the home environment. The more involved you become in the local culture, the harder it may be to leave it behind. However, if you stay in touch with your home culture as much as possible while overseas in order to familiarize yourself with the various changes that take place in the U.S, reentry will be less stressful on you because you will have more realistic expectations upon return. Above all, the more familiar and supportive the reentry involvement, the better you will be capable of handling a healthy re-entry.
The length of the re-adjustment phase will vary from person to person, but it will also depend on the level of intensive reaction that you experience from this phase. If you experience a very high level of intensity, your adjustment will most likely take longer than if you experience a very low level of intensity. In addition, the length of time the re-adjustment period lasts will depend on you and how you easily you learn to cope.
Even the most aware individual can not avoid reverse culture shift. You should make an effort to fathom the feelings of re-acculturation. Ideally, you should be calm and capable of focusing on what you can do to ease the transition process, look for ways to assimilate the host cultural experience, and translate it so that family and colleagues can understand and share the benefits as well.
Re-entry is not as simple as some people may expect it to be. Readjusting to your home country will hit you just as it did with culture shift upon arrival into your host country. You will notice that it is very difficult to pick up where you left off, especially when you realize the magnitude of changes that have taken place all around you.
Change and adaptation
Personal growth, new insights into your own culture, connections with people overseas, a new understanding of the issues facing your changing world, and new language skills are just a few of the changes you may have noted after returning from your study abroad experience. You may unconsciously accept again the conveniences you missed while abroad, and at the same time, you may be sharply critical of practices that you once took for granted in your home country. You may find their being at home again can match nothing of which you have just experienced overseas. Surprisingly, you may even feel awkward speaking English again if you developed other language skills overseas. As a result, you may feel lonely, restless, and perhaps resentful towards your home country.
Family and Friends
You have just returned from a unique social experience. Just as it was difficult adapting to a different way of life overseas, you may now find it difficult fitting in the way you used to with your friends and family. As you recognize the gap that exists, you may feel as if you lost everything you once had in common with those closest to you, and you may lack the support system of which you are in need. You will want to share endless stories and newfound knowledge with them to which they may not always be responsive, simply because they haven’t partaken in the same experience as you have. The people that knew you before the study abroad experience may also be unprepared for the changes in your values and lifestyles. Remember that your family and friends have also had new experiences while you have been gone. A break up in a relationship, for example, may seem small when compared to seeing famous art, architecture, etc., but it was probably a significant event in the person’s life. Take the time to listen to their stories as well.
Friends and family can help students by showing interest, by not making you feel defensive, giving them freedom to adjust at their own pace, encouraging them to share photographs, and discussing their feelings as they readjust to your home environment. Above all, it is important for family, friends, and returnees to be patient with the readjustment process.
Loss of status
In your host country you may have been seen as an informal ambassador of the United States. And as a foreigner, you may have been especially intriguing to others, which probably lured much attention to you. When you return home, you may become frustrated to realize that you seem just like everyone else and that your status is generally lower than it had been overseas.
University/College life
The experience of learning within a different education system and cultural environment has a liberating and confidence-building effect. The academic independence that you build overseas will give you more motivation to increase your standard level of achievements as well as help you to appreciate new perspectives on particular subjects.
For those study abroad participants who return directly to your university upon return from overseas, you may find life on campus restrictive and unexciting at first. However, you will be able to add new dimensions to the classroom by sharing your study abroad experience– the rewards from this can be quite gratifying.
*Some of the information on this topic comes from the book, The Art of Coming Home by Craig Storti and the Global Campus Study Abroad Re-entry Guide.