Unfortunately, I do not know who to give the credit for this image I have discovered a few months ago on another platform.
But I like the way it states the difference between Fitting in and Belonging. It sums up many feelings of what I have experienced living in different places.
That is probably one of the biggest lessons I have learnt from living in different countries. I do not want to embrace everything to fit in. It also taught me a lot of new perspectives on how to look at my own birth country and the idea of “integration” of people joining it from different backgrounds, cultures, countries. Even within the different migration waves, there have been different ways of approaching this concept of fitting in and some misunderstanding around this amongst those waves themselves.
To end I would recommend to read or re-read the book written by Alice Zeniter “The Art of Losing” as she raises a very deep question: what price do our descendants pay for the choices we make (or undergo). It gives such an insightful perspective from the descendants’ point of view.
Wishing you a serene weekend.
Hélène Raison 