03/09/2025
The Uncanny Experience of Relocation
Freud described the uncanny (das Unheimliche) as that unsettling feeling when something meant to be familiar — even comforting — becomes strange or threatening.
For many families relocating to new countries, especially in places where instability or conflict is part of daily life, this experience is not just theoretical. “Home” is supposed to be a safe container, yet it can suddenly feel precarious. The streets where children play, the schools where they learn, or even the bedrooms where they sleep may be infused with a quiet undertone of danger.
This paradox is at the heart of the expatriate and international school experience in certain regions:
Parents strive to create stability, while sensing their own vulnerability.
Children recognize their new environments as “home,” yet carry a background hum of anxiety that unsettles play, learning, and belonging.
The very spaces that should offer security can, at times, evoke the uncanny — the familiar made strange.
For educators, counselors, and school leaders, recognizing this psychic dissonance is crucial. Beneath resilience and adaptation, there can also be a hidden layer of displacement and unease. Supporting families means not only helping them integrate academically and socially, but also acknowledging how the environment itself shapes their sense of safety and belonging.
