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Brazilians returning from abroad face reverse culture shock, a phenomenon documented since 1960 and studied in Brazil by neuropsychiatrist Décio Nakagawa in the 1980s with *dekasseguis*, characterized by depression, anxiety, and a feeling of not belonging to one’s own country, a situation that gains relevance with the increase in deportations and anti-immigration policies.
Returning to Brazil after years of living abroad can be as challenging as leaving, and many Brazilians discover this the hard way: by disembarking in the country they thought they knew and realizing that it has changed, that they have changed, and that the reunion between person and place does not produce the expected relief. The phenomenon, recognized by intercultural psychology as reverse culture shock and popularly called “return syndrome,” is characterized by symptoms ranging from depression to anxiety, including the feeling of no longer belonging anywhere, a condition described in academic literature since the works of anthropologist Kalervo Oberg in 1960 and which in Brazil was first studied by neuropsychiatrist Décio Nakagawa in the 1980s with Brazilians returning from Japan after periods of factory work. “Migration doesn’t happen on the outside. It happens on the inside. So I would say: one must prepare, as much as possible, beforehand,” says Maucir Nascimento, author of the book “A Volta Dos Que Foram” (The Return of Those Who Left), who returned to Brazil in 2018 after ten years in Australia, in an interview with DW Brasil.
The topic gains urgency at a time when the flow of Brazilians returning to the country is increasing due to external pressure. In 2025, the tightening of migratory policies in the United States under Donald Trump’s second term, revisions of regularization rules in Portugal, and stricter controls in the United Kingdom produced waves of return that include everything from deported Brazilians to families who decided to return before being forced. For these Brazilians, returning is not just a change of address: it is a readaptation process that can take months or years and often surprises those who expected that “going home” would be the easy part of the migratory experience.
What is the reverse culture shock that affects returning Brazilians
The difference between the culture shock of those who leave and those who return lies in expectation. When Brazilians leave the country, they know they will find things strange: another language, other customs, other food, other climate. When they return, they expect the comfort of the familiar, and it is precisely the breaking of this expectation that produces the shock, because the country they held in their memory no longer exists as they remembered it, and the person they were when they left also no longer exists. The model proposed by Norwegian researcher Sverre Lysgaard in 1955, known as the “U-curve,” describes readaptation in four phases: initial euphoria upon satisfying longing, dissatisfaction upon realizing everything has changed, an emotional low with a feeling of not belonging, and finally equilibrium with gradual readaptation.
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Reverse culture shock is not an official medical diagnosis and is not listed in DSM-5 or ICD-11. It is a condition described in intercultural psychology literature whose symptoms can overlap with clinical depression, anxiety disorder, and adjustment disorder, which is why Brazilians who experience these symptoms intensely after returning should seek professional help instead of waiting for the discomfort to pass on its own. Frustration with everyday situations that previously did not bother them, such as traffic, bureaucracy, noise, and infrastructure, is one of the most reported signs by returning Brazilians, not necessarily because the country has worsened, but because the reference for comparison has changed after years of living in different contexts.
How Décio Nakagawa studied the phenomenon in Brazilians in the 1980s
The first Brazilian study on the psychological impact of return occurred in a specific context that marked the country’s migratory history. Starting in the 1980s, thousands of Brazilians of Japanese descent, known as *dekasseguis*, went to work in factories in Japan, usually in low-skilled positions, and when they returned to Brazil months or years later, they presented symptoms of depression, anxiety, and identity discomfort that neuropsychiatrist Décio Nakagawa documented in pioneering clinical studies. The *dekasseguis* faced a double strangeness: in Japan, they were treated as foreigners despite their Japanese ancestry, and in Brazil, they returned feeling displaced despite being Brazilian by birth.
Nakagawa’s work laid the groundwork for later researchers to study the phenomenon in other Brazilian migratory contexts. Studies by Unicamp and USP on migrants’ mental health broadened the understanding that return is not a one-time event but a process of readjustment that can last from months to years, depending on how long Brazilians spent abroad, the degree of integration they achieved in the destination country, and the conditions under which the return occurred, whether by choice or by imposition. The difference between returning by choice and returning because of deportation is abysmal in terms of psychological impact, and the increase in deportations in 2025 makes this distinction increasingly relevant.
Why Brazilians who return feel like strangers in their own country
The explanation for the feeling of not belonging that returning Brazilians report involves a psychological mechanism that science describes as idealization. When Brazilians live abroad, they maintain a relationship with their country of origin that is more imaginary than real, built on emotional memories, conversations with family, social media, and selective nostalgia that preserves the good and forgets the bad, and when the return confronts this idealized image with the concrete reality of a country that continued to change while they were away, the shock is proportional to the distance between expectation and reality. The Brazil that exists in the minds of those who have lived abroad for five years is not the Brazil that exists on the streets, and this discovery can be devastating when it happens at a time when the person most needed support.
The list of symptoms that returning Brazilians describe is consistent with what academic literature has documented for decades. A feeling of not belonging to either the country of origin or the country they left, difficulty reconnecting with old friends who lived different experiences during the years of separation, identity conflict about “where is my place,” longing for the country they left even while being back “home,” and frustration with daily habits and situations that were once natural but now seem unacceptable. Brazilians returning from countries with more organized infrastructure often report impatience with queues, inefficiency of public services, and informality that once was part of the country’s charm but after years of living under different rules has become an obstacle.
What Brazilians can do to prepare for their return
Specialized literature and the experience of those who have gone through the process converge on practical recommendations that reduce the impact of reverse culture shock. Planning the return with the same attention as planning the departure is the first recommendation: Brazilians who research employment, housing, schools for their children, and documentation before disembarking face less frustration than those who return expecting to resolve everything upon arrival, and maintaining realistic expectations about what to find in Brazil is protection against the idealization that fuels the shock. Experts recommend at least 12 months before definitively evaluating whether the return was positive, the minimum period for readjustment to complete the phases described in the U-curve.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty) maintains a practical guide for returning Brazilians with guidelines on driver’s license revalidation, regularization with the Receita Federal (Federal Revenue Service), asset registration, social security rights linked to international agreements, and professional reinsertion. The document, accessible via the gov.br/mre portal, acknowledges that the flow of returning Brazilians has increased due to the tightening of global anti-immigration policies, and offers information ranging from diploma revalidation to guidance on how to access the public health system after years of contributing to social security systems in other countries. For Brazilians returning with intense emotional symptoms, psychological or psychiatric support from a professional familiar with intercultural issues can make the difference between healthy readjustment and prolonged suffering that compromises their new beginning.
And you, have you returned to Brazil after living abroad? Did you experience reverse culture shock? Share your experience in the comments and help other Brazilians who are going through the same.
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