I don't really knoww...I spent the majority of my life in the Middle East so sometimes I just say the Middle east. But I don't really say a specific country. If I did I would have to say Bahrain, because my family still live there and I go back there every major vacation.
My passport country is the UK, but honestly the UK will never be home and I refuse to acknowledge it as so. I have no ties to it anymore since the last family members out here that I was close to recently died, and as soon as that happened, my interest in the UK pretty much died with them. I don't mean to be really negative, but all over the world for my whole life I've been subject to discrimination from Brits who refuse to acknowledge me as British because of my upbringing or because of the fact that I'm mixed, or they make fun of my upbringing. I know it's not all Brits, but it's happened so often for my whole life, that honestly, now I am ashamed to call England my passport country. And that's why England will never be home.

Cami, I'm also with you on the hotel thing lol. I love being in hotels sometimes. Not always, but I usually have no problem making myself at home in them.

I agree with Cami. For me this means my home is Japan, although my passport is from USA, because I share the most history with people and places in Japan, and spent the most significant years of growing up there. I have never felt that feeling anywhere else like I did when I had been gone for 5 years and finally went back to visit- I finally felt my brain slowing down as I stopped having to think about how to fit in with the people, because I just naturally knew what to do, and I could relax and be myself. Wow. What made it even more amazing was the fact that everyone, including my parents(and eventually myself too), had said that I had built it up too much in my head, I had been gone too long to still fit in, I had become more American now, I wouldn't fit in anymore... And none of it was true :) I wish I could go back again :)

I like Brice's questions on "belonging", and believe "belonging" happens when you share a history with a group of people. This could explain why I felt instantly at home when I visited the US over the summer, and spent a weekend with a huge group of old school friends. These men and women have known me since I was five; and we grew up together. I felt like I'd found a piece of myself that was missing for about three decades, and the comfort I felt then was (is) indescribable.

So for me, maybe it's: home = belonging = identity; to use all of Brice's words...I had never felt all three simultaneously or as strongly as I did during my visit to my childhood home in the US. And I have felt it no matter which state I have visited since then.

Having said that though, I can drop my bags in a hotel room anywhere in the world and feel at home within five minutes; or even wandering through a strange city on my own, whether it was London or Hong Kong or Hanoi.

What a swirl of emotions we connect with the word "home". I haven't figured it all out just yet :)

Wow, I find this a really hard topic to debate with myself. I guess culturally, I am Malaysian. It's also my passport country, and the 2nd place I've lived in the longest.
But most of the friends that I still keep in tocuh with realy well are in South Africa, so I guess that could be considered home?
I usually say Malaysia when I get asked where I'm from so that no one can debate anything with me, but yeah.

MajorTom, you make me smile!

I tried that line once, when I started my fifth year in graduate school, in Pittsburgh, PA -- at that time, the longest I had ever stayed in one place. They asked where I was from, I answered Pittsburgh, and they immediately started trying to reminisce with me about the old blues club that used to be just down the street from where the old burger joint used to be...

I almost died of embarrassment when I had to explain that I had no idea what they were talking about!

I dunno. I always tell people State College is home, mostly because I've been here longer than anywhere else, but there's always either a pause before I say it. That, or a quick voice in the back of my head saying "Dude, you're leaving stuff out!"

To me home is where my family is. I can't feel that Indonesia, Taiwan or Singapore is my real "home". I have sort gotten detached from all of them.

But if I have to answer, I'll just say that Asia is my home.

yes that is perfect ezio! also thanks to Brice for putting more questions up to keep the discussion going.

For me, a sense of belonging is something you feel in your heart and gut. Its when it feels so right that you are there and you feel a part of it.

I've answered your questions by relating it to 'friendship' - You are close to the people you care about and you feel comfortable with (where you feel a sense of belonging). With others, you just don't feel AS close (yes - I think there can be a hierarchy) and sometimes you may even feel left out with certain friendship groups (isolation - which makes you feel a lack of identity).

I think a sense of belonging you feel for a country can be different. With some, it may even be possible to arrive to a country and just feel that this is the place where you want to call your home and live your life! But those other subjects such as family, friends, subculture, and your history with the place would also affect majority of the way you would feel for a 'sense of belonging'.

I also agree with Ezio where you would relate your sense of belonging and your sense of home to where you have had the most memorable time and experience and where you've met your lifelong friends.

Hi Miki,

Of all who replied, I'm afraid I haven't got a clear answer.

Until a few months ago, I'd have answered you by telling that Mexico is more of my home, and that Italy really isn't. Then, I had a chance to get in touch with many past friends from those Mexican years, and I saw how much they had changed and how they had gone on with life.

Rationally I knew that after all this time people would have changed, as well as Mexico itself. However, experiencing it directly proved very hard and has deeply impacted me. The result is that I no longer know how to answer your question... or rather, 'home' is made up of many parts.

An essential component is my family and relatives: we always were a very united family, and whenever we returned to Italy any occasion was good for large family reunions. Geographically, they are all in the North-East border of Italy along the Northern Adriatic Sea, where good memories of people, occasions and beautiful places will keep calling me back.

But I also grew up in Mexico, during all high school and some junior high school. There are just so many memories and feelings tied to the Mexican years, that in essence what Mexico is to me, is a sense of enormous potential to do anything. The future looked bright, and I was ready to go out and grab it! This is how I remember my friends from then, and the general atmosphere. I was one of them, and like them ready for the world! We were all going to get the world, and I would go it that way together with them.

And there is also Brazil... during primary and junior high. At the time, I could not possibly imagine that there existed an end to things: I simply lived Brazil as though it was my place. I think it is where the concept of a place I belong to formed. And it was the first time I had to say good-bye for ever to a place and its people, and staring out of an airplane window while thinking (crying) about it all.

So, I guess, what I'm telling you is that for me at the moment Home is more of a memories experience, with some geography thrown in and centred around the Northern Adriatic. Indeed, although chronologically everything occurred many years ago, the feeling is very fresh and as though it happened the other day. Just a month or so ago I moved out of Italy: I'm even more asking this Home question to myself, and trying to understand it. Let's see how things go...

But if your question is strictly about geography, then yes: other countries are more Home than my passport country.

Where is a Bedouin's home? Home for me is wherever I last unrolled my Persian carpets. It's the place where I currently brew coffee and tea for my family and guests.

I have come to think that for me "home" is not a physical place in particular but an environment where I feel comfortable, where I feel that I have a place in the social context that surrounds me. I feel at once like I have many homes and no home at all (I also feel that the concept of "not having a home" has an undue negative connotation to it). So ultimately, France (southern more than paris) is home, the US (Washington, DC and Boston), Madagascar is home (or at least was and if I have my place there sometime in the future will be) and, well china for now is a place I am visiting but who knows how my emotions/relations will develop. I guess I would generally agree with the idea that "home is where my [suitcase] is" and I have come to feel comfort and peace in this concept...

I would also have to note that concepts of home can change over time. Whereas many see "home" as a permanent place that never changes, I feel that in my case (and from my conversations with others I feel that many might agree with me) home is changeable, it is nonpermanent... to be honest the thought that everyone has to have 1 home in 1 location placed in 1 cultural context kind of scares me.

I also agree strongly with Ayako and Bronwen statements/reiteration: "It is better to be a stranger in a strange land, than to be a stranger amongst your own".

Ayako I love that..."Welcome to the Independent Republic of Your Home." :)

Home to me is the inside of my apartment/flat. It usually takes about 3 months for a new place to become my home.

I noticed this when I moved to London and lived in a flat on St. John's Wood High Street.

One rainy and dismal Sunday after having tea at Fortnum & Mason I felt that wonderful feeling of relief, security and re-energizing as I came out of the underground at St. John's Wood.

It had been about 3 months since I'd moved to London.

In this sense I totally relate to IKEA's tagline which is: Welcome to the Independent Republic of Your Home.

For me 'home' is Japan, rather than South Africa. I know that sounds really weird after only living here for 3 years. I think I knew deep inside that it would happen, that I didn't belong back in SA. Even when I went home after only a year, I could see the differences back in SA, and knew that I would never be able to go back.

A lot of people ask me, "How can you possibly call Japan home? You will never be 'Japanese' even if you get citizenship." Like Ayako said in another post, "It is better to be a stranger in a strange land, than to be a stranger amongst your own." At least in Japan, I know where I stand, I know what is expected of me.

If it were just me, I would stay here forever. As it is, we are going to see how my daughter is treated at school (so far she has been treated very well at her nursery school). It will ultimately be up to her whether we stay or go.

¨Home¨ for me is in Virginia, US of A. I have problem identifying a place as my home as long as I like what´s there and who visits us. For example, we lived in Indiana for a while.....famous for corn, basketball, and racing...ummm next? Then my family moved to St. Louis...midwest industrial wasteland (no offence) that was not home. Now we live in Virginia. In a permanent house. 30 minutes outside DC. People from everywhere come to visit us every weekend and there are 3 international airports within 20 minutes of our house. So that´s ¨home¨....even though I don´t consider myself American

"Home" for me is the Americas. I was having romantic notions of living in Europe, but I love the States and the Caribbean. For me, being so heavily into music, I feel like I am amongst "my own" when I am here. I feel comfortable, at peace, and content. I have always been very close to Caribbean people so living somewhere with no yardies, Bajans, Belizians, Guyanese, Trini's and Cubans makes me feel like the "soul" is missing :(

First, I would define the concept of "home". For me, home is where you have a sense of belonging.

Here are a few questions that comes to mind...

What is a sense of belonging and how do you get it?

What is the opposite of having a sense of belonging? .. Is it isolation and/or lack of identity?

Is there a hierarchy of belonging?

Is the sense of belonging you feel for a country different than what you'd feel for your family, relationships, subculture, and group affiliation?..

Hmm, it has always been Thailand but ever since I made that "closure" trip back in February, I think that's slowly changing.

I think my new home will possibly be the USA, that will eventually be where my life will take me.

Hiya Miki :)

Well, in my case, it was always clear to me what my nationality was and that I "belonged" there, as you know I was born in Nigeria and being white in West Africa, already demarcates clearly your "non belonging" status...despite that I did feel Nigeria was home, but I never could perceive myself as Nigerian.

Argentina (my passport) for a while a boasted about my "Argentineaness" whilst I lived outside (in my teens) there wasn't a prouder Latin American around...unfortunately it all changed when I moved here in my 20...I have hated every day and can't wait to get out.