Liminality
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
A state of being “in-between”; no longer fully belonging to a previous identity, role, or cultural context, and not yet fully incorporated into a new one. In the international living context, liminality describes the threshold experience of transition, where familiar structures have dissolved but new ones have not yet formed.
Comparable terms
In-betweenness (TCK literature, coaching — informal equivalent) · Cultural threshold (education — descriptive variant) · Transitional space (psychology, counseling — broader psychoanalytic usage) · Third space (postcolonial theory — Bhabha; overlapping but focused on cultural hybridity rather than temporal transition)
Why this matters
Liminality describes the fuzzy middle of transition that most global families know well. It explains why people can feel disoriented even when things look “fine on paper.” Recognizing it allows space for rituals, reflection, and gentler expectations.
Cross-references
Code-Switching (Language & Identity); Cultural Chameleon (Identity & Belonging); Departure Cycle (Transitions & Mobility); Anticipatory Grief (Wellbeing & Mental Health); Transition Rituals (Transitions & Mobility); Repatriation (Transitions & Mobility); Re-entry Shock (Cultural Adaptation). Liminality is experienced not only during forward relocation but acutely during repatriation — when the returnee is no longer the person who left but has not yet been reincorporated into the passport culture. The re-entry shock entry names the psychological distress that arises specifically when this liminal re-entry period is more difficult than anticipated.
Sources
Van Gennep described rites of passage as a three-part structure (separation, transition, and incorporation) with the liminal period as the in-between stage in which the individual is no longer one thing but not yet another; the terms “liminal” and “liminality” gained broader academic currency through Victor Turner’s writings in the second half of the twentieth century. Van Gennep, A. (1960). The Rites of Passage. University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1909); Turner, V. (1969). The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Aldine.
Living in liminality is described as central to the global nomad experience — an in-between state in which what was is no longer, and what will be is not yet — arising from the combination of frequent geographic transitions and multiple cultural influences during formative years. Schaetti, B.F. & Ramsey, S.J. (2000). The global nomad experience: Living in liminality. Mobility Magazine.
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