Challenges of coming back from a mobility experience The third and last set of challenges focused on those which occurred when coming back to the home country. Overall, there were two key challenges which were identified by both the German youth with and without the mobility experience (see Figure 54 and Figure 55). Missing out on opportunities was the first principal challenge, feared by 49% of those who did not go abroad, and faced by 21% of those who did. Prolonging of studies was the second principal challenge, feared by 43% of those with no mobility experience, and faced by 19% of those who went abroad. German youth and their peers from other countries did not substantially differ in their assessment of these challenges, in other words, German youth and their peers viewed these challenges very similarly.
Figure 54: Summary overview of challenges occurring after mobility periods, as faced by those who went abroad in 2022 or 2023, among German youth.
Note: Sum of "Strongly agree" and "Agree" options is used as the indicator of the overall preferences. The question read “Did your stay abroad cause any difficulties when returning to your home country?” and it was asked to those who went abroad in 2022 or 2023.
Figure 55: Summary overview of challenges preventing young people from going abroad in 2022 or 2023, among German youth.
Note: Sum of "Strongly agree" and "Agree" options is used as the indicator of the overall preferences. The question read “Were you worried that your stay abroad would cause any of the following difficulties in your life when returning to your home country?” and it was asked to those who did not go abroad in 2022 or 2023.
Lastly, young people were asked about culture shock and reverse culture shock. German young people did not differ in their experience of culture (45%) and reverse culture (47%) shocks in comparison with their peers from other countries. Young people from Germany were, however, more aware when it comes to culture shock, with about 95% of them claiming they have heard the term, whereas about 82% of their peers know about the phenomenon (see Figure 56). There was no difference in awareness of the term reverse culture shock between German and European youth (about 39%).
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