Margot Andersen

When Bec Macdougall returned to Australia after nine years in London, she never imagined her journey would lead to a rural life in regional Victoria.

The stories of accompanying expats, often go untold. When Andrea Barton’s husband was offered a relocation to Lagos, Nigeria, she was forced to think about her career and how to reshape it. Throwing herself initially into community initiatives Andrea explored her passion for writing and storytelling.

Having already repatriated once before, Adam knew it was going to take more than a couple of calls to recruiters and a scan of the jobs page in the weekend paper to land the right opportunity. Determined to return with a role, Adam set about putting together a plan to leverage his networks.

When Chelsea Guy came back from Tokyo, and the work experience of the lifetime, she found she had still a pay cheque but didn’t have a role.

Chelsea had worked her way through various marketing roles at Toyota when there was an opportunity to put her hand up for a coveted secondment. Her assignment – digital marketing to support Toyota’s sponsorship of the Tokyo Olympics.

When Angella left Australia at aged 29, she knew she would be gone longer than two years.  With expat parents and grandparents, a life overseas was always on the cards. But she didn’t know it would be 22 years. Or that her time overseas would include 13 years in Bahrain.

Leonora was extremely excited when she landed in Hong Kong. A dynamic, exciting and unique place with family connections it had the potential to be her forever home.

But in 2021 Covid made Leonora feel uncomfortably isolated from family and confirmed for her that Australia was where she wanted to base herself.