The nervous system adaptation to the natural environment

Moving to a new place also means having to adapt to a new environment. Meaning, new climate, vegetation, and landscape. 

Your nervous system has spent years getting used to the weather and environmental characteristics of the place where you grew up. Putting your body in a new environment can make it feel non calibrated, uncomfortable, or tired. When you go back home you could have the experience of feeling regulated as if your senses are calibrated again. This sensation brings safety and calmness while the effort to physically adapt can translate into feeling unsettled and stressed.

Changes in our senses

The familiarity you feel with the sights, tastes, noises, and smells of your home country create a special emotional connection with that place. There is a number of experiences we have with our environment that create the story of our life. Some places and traditions bring up memories of the times you experienced them. They mean something closer to you since they become part of your own life story. We get used to our environment, and a sudden change in it could be something difficult to get used to. In fact, the things we become used to have helped life be more predictable, thus being immersed in a new place can inadvertently make us feel hypervigilant, stressed, or unsettled. Losing the comfort of understanding our surroundings can now be mixed with nostalgia and longing for what is lost. 

Even if you don't experience moving to a new place in this way, I believe that it will still be worth considering if losing the sense of familiarity has any influence in your emotional state if you are feeling more isolated, fearful, or lonely at any point. 

The loss of identity

The person you are is also based on how others see you. To a great extent, our identity is shaped by our relationships. You are the son/daughter of someone, the sibling or friend of someone, the person who studied at a particular school or lives in a certain area. All the things that you are have a meaning in the place you were born, but in the new country this is meaningless or is not perceived in the same way. This could face us with the challenge of having to rebuild our identity to make sense of who we are now. 

We need to build new relationships and create a new social circle to rebuild our identity, but this quest becomes harder since a new place means not only new people but also new ways of communication, new social rules. The longing for emotional connection and warmth starts clashing with the new expectations we have to learn and follow, which could make our new social environment feel frustrating and rejecting.

Your life past becomes stuck in time

Something a migrant might not have in mind is that their past life becomes somewhat "stuck". The fantasy of what would have been your life if you stayed back home stays as an imaginary possibility. There is a real break in the progression of life, and now everything changes for both yourself and your family members who now have to adjust to a life without you. 

The traditions, events, and routines that were part of your everyday life, now become something you are missing out. Since they were a normal part of your life, not being present brings up emotions you might have not were expecting or be prepared for. 

The loss of social capital

The fact that we have to rebuild our relationships means that our social network is, to a certain degree, lost or reduced. Our social capital are the people we know, our friendships, the community we belong to, the connections we have, and the people that we can rely on when facing difficulties. This is relevant to consider since finding who to trust in the new country takes more effort. For instance, choosing a mechanic or a baby sitter might no longer be as simple as tapping into an existing web of contacts. 

When moving to a new country a significant portion of our social capital is lost, which can lead us into feeling immersed in a state of survival, anxiety and sadness. However, it is true that we still can rely on significant relationships from the distance, and in the new place there might be people we already know and communities we can become part of, but we cannot underestimate the impact that reducing and changing our social capital has on us.

Navigating new social rules

As mentioned before, rebuilding your social capital can be difficult since you have to learn the ways and pace you can interact with others. For instance, lets use physical touch as an example. In Latin and Spanish cultures physical contact is accepted, and even expected, but comfort with physical touch can vary depending on the culture. For someone used to use touch in their day to day interactions, not receiving it when communicating with people could feel as if something is lacking in their social interactions, maybe feeling less fulfilled since closeness is not fully experienced. In the contrary, for someone who is not used to physical contact,  being in a place where the expectation is to be touched while interacting could feel uncomfortable and tense. It might take long time for you to accept and adapt to the expectations of your new social environment.

The loss of familiarity

All the losses and changes I have presented to you can be seen as what entails a loss of familiarity. This concept is very important because the sense of familiarity is what makes us feel more connected to the place where we live. In fact, when you encounter a familiar face or a comforting, meaningful place, your brain's internal reward and safety networks light up, releasing feel-good neurotransmitters (Dopamine, Oxytocin, Endorphins and Serotonin) which apart from evoking positive emotions it also signals us that we are safe. Therefore, the more familiar you become with the place you live in, the less lonely you could feel.

Conclusion

What your emotions say about your migration experience?

Experiencing low mood, depression, anxiety, frustration, or similar feelings, does not mean you are in the wrong place or are doing things wrong. It means you are navigating a difficult process of change that demands from you significant adaptations to the the natural and urban characteristics, the social environment, and the changes in your identity. I consider it is beneficial to take into consideration that a migration journey involves many processes and challenges we might have not considered beforehand. Acknowledging this can help us to accept the new feelings and discomfort as something which is part of a process of adaptation that we all navigate in different ways. 

Depending on the person, some places might be easier or harder to adapt to. Regardless of which one is your case, I consider that investing your energy and time to make your journey a worthwhile experience will always be a good way to approach migration. Nevertheless, accepting that a place might not be good for you is also valid, and migrating again or returning home, as hard as it can feel, is also an option you are allowed to consider.