Leaving Paradise: My Expat Adventure and Other Stories
By Sonia Harford
MUP, 232pp, $24.95

ALMOST one million Australians - 5 per cent of the population - live overseas. Until the 1990s those departing were mainly migrants returning home. That trend is now reversed; those leaving permanently are more likely to be Australian-born. Mostly, attention focuses on the implications for Australia: Why the brain drain? How can we persuade well-educated professionals to return?

But for many who decide to live elsewhere, perhaps for career opportunities, to join a loved one or seek new experiences, it is a decision made with mixed feelings, raising complex issues of identity and belonging, of where to call home.

The Australian - Books