Aug 17, 2026 · 41 min · 11 segments
How do you rebuild yourself when everything that once defined you changes? Today's conversation is about what happens when migration doesn't just change your postcode, but it changes your sense of…
Fabiola CampbellGuest
Sarah AnnHostJaniceHost
I find it really striking, just from your story, Fabiola, because obviously you've had this desire to come back to what is your birth country and just to know the place from which was where your parents had given birth to you, even though you had a Spanish upbringing in Venezuela and your roots were so deep there.
Actually, it was a pretty huge step of faith, I would say, for you to make that big move at 27 without knowing the main language of the country.
And the other part that is really striking as to what you're sharing as well is that you made a big move, even holding an Australian passport, but you still felt like you did not belong because... primarily it wasn't the culture you were brought up in it wasn't the language you were speaking it wasn't a comfortable environment in which you were intentionally putting yourself in and so something that I've picked up from your book as well is how when we make big moves like this migration and I can obviously relate having moved my life from Malaysia to Australia two years ago now and And what you said in your book is that migration doesn't just change your postcode.
You land in a new country, that's the both of us, and suddenly no one knows your story.
The qualifications, the network, the reputation that you've built, they don't always translate.
It's about social capital, which is that invisible currency that we built over time through trust, networks and shared history.
And when that capital disappears, so that's a version of ourselves that we've built ourselves in.
Not having those familiar mirrors to reflect back our worth can definitely leave us feeling like we are staring at a stranger.
These words that you've written in your book just really stuck out to me like a sore thumb because I absolutely can resonate with that.
In fact, my best friend and I, as part of this cast series we're doing, which is titled What No One Told You About Moving Abroad, because people glamorize moving abroad.
And for me personally, it has been a personal and a professional aspiration for me to move my life across.
The tension of joy and grief at the same time because there was a part of myself and my background and my history and all of that, I had to choose to let go.
And I think you have touched in there a few things that I love to talk about because now I have language for this.
That grief that I felt, that loss of that person that I knew, That invisibility that I experience, now I know what it's called.
I find it really striking, just from your story, Fabiola, because obviously you've had this desire to come back to what is your birth country and just to know the place from which was where your parents had given birth to you, even though you had a Spanish upbringing in Venezuela and your roots were so deep there.
Actually, it was a pretty huge step of faith, I would say, for you to make that big move at 27 without knowing the main language of the country.
And the other part that is really striking as to what you're sharing as well is that you made a big move, even holding an Australian passport, but you still felt like you did not belong because... primarily it wasn't the culture you were brought up in it wasn't the language you were speaking it wasn't a comfortable environment in which you were intentionally putting yourself in and so something that I've picked up from your book as well is how when we make big moves like this migration and I can obviously relate having moved my life from Malaysia to Australia two years ago now and And what you said in your book is that migration doesn't just change your postcode.
You land in a new country, that's the both of us, and suddenly no one knows your story.
The qualifications, the network, the reputation that you've built, they don't always translate.
It's about social capital, which is that invisible currency that we built over time through trust, networks and shared history.
And when that capital disappears, so that's a version of ourselves that we've built ourselves in.
Not having those familiar mirrors to reflect back our worth can definitely leave us feeling like we are staring at a stranger.
These words that you've written in your book just really stuck out to me like a sore thumb because I absolutely can resonate with that.
In fact, my best friend and I, as part of this cast series we're doing, which is titled What No One Told You About Moving Abroad, because people glamorize moving abroad.
And for me personally, it has been a personal and a professional aspiration for me to move my life across.
The tension of joy and grief at the same time because there was a part of myself and my background and my history and all of that, I had to choose to let go.
And I think you have touched in there a few things that I love to talk about because now I have language for this.
That grief that I felt, that loss of that person that I knew, That invisibility that I experience, now I know what it's called.
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