Rooted Global · A Self-Assessment by Arlette Chatlein
For serial expats
Are You Rooted?
The 5 signs your identity has been quietly uprooted by repeated relocation — and what to do about each one.
The 5 signs your identity has been quietly uprooted by repeated relocation — and what to do about each one.
You're not new to this. You know how to find a flat, navigate a new school system, build a surface-level social life somewhere you know no one. You've done it before. You'll do it again.
But somewhere along the way — somewhere between the second move and the fourth — something quieter happened. You started to feel less like yourself.
"It's not that you're struggling to cope. It's that the version of you that moves keeps getting smaller."
This guide names five signs that repeated relocation has quietly uprooted your identity — and for each one, it tells you what that really means and what to do about it. Read it slowly. Your honest reaction to each sign is information.
You adapt so well to each new environment that you've lost the fixed point you're adapting from. In India you were gregarious. In Germany you became quieter. In Brazil you loosened up again. Each version felt authentic — but when you try to describe who you actually are, you find you can't quite pin it down.
You've been hurt too many times by the goodbye. So you've started holding back — staying surface-level, not letting yourself get too close, protecting yourself from the next loss before it happens. Somewhere along the way, self-protection became loneliness.
You had a career. You were good at something. And then you moved — or moved again — and that self got packed in a box you're not sure how to unpack in a new language, a new culture, a new context. You find yourself saying "I used to be..." more than "I am..."
You chose this life. You know how lucky you are. So you smile. You stay quiet. And privately, you wonder what is wrong with you.
The country you grew up in no longer quite fits. But you don't fully belong where you are now either. You exist somewhere in between — at home nowhere, carrying pieces of everywhere. People tell you how amazing your life is. You nod. And you still feel, underneath it all, profoundly unmoored.
There are no wrong answers here. Count how many of the five signs felt like a description of your life right now.
"Being uprooted is not a character flaw. It's what happens to a tree that gets moved too many times without enough time to grow new roots. The answer is not to stop moving. It's to build roots strong enough to survive any soil."
Wherever your number lands — the most important thing is that you're here, asking the question. That already means something.
Three ways to begin — wherever you are in your globally mobile journey.
chatleincoaching.com · @chatleincoaching
Born in Curaçao, I moved to the Netherlands at 19 and never really stopped moving. Eight countries across Africa, Asia, and Europe have shaped everything I know about identity, belonging, and what it means to feel at home. I recognise every sign in this guide — because I lived them. I am a certified Coach and Mentor and I help the globally mobile feel rooted — reclaiming their identity, deepening their belonging, and feeling at home across borders.