What do the figures on returning home to Çorum reveal? We explore the expectations, reverse culture shock and adjustment of people moving back from big cities.
For someone who has lived for years in Ankara, Istanbul or Izmir, the word "memleket", meaning hometown, is often more than a place name. It means the streets of childhood, holiday mornings, a grandmother's house and a life that seemed as though it would never change. When you finally decide to go back to that dream, however, things may not go as smoothly as you expected. According to TÜİK's (the Turkish Statistical Institute's) 2025 Internal Migration Statistics, 1,161 people moved to Çorum for the reason of "returning to family or hometown", while only 298 people left the province for the same reason. Returning home to Çorum was the largest item on which the province made a net gain in its migration balance. In this article we look at the story of those who return, first through the figures and then from a psychological point of view.
Returning Home to Çorum: What Do the Numbers Say?
Çorum has been a province that people leave for many years. According to TÜİK data reported in the local press, 15,597 people moved to Çorum from other provinces in 2025, while 17,208 people left Çorum. The net migration loss was 1,611 people. One item in this table stands out:
- Returning to family or hometown: 1,161 people arrived and 298 left, a net gain of +863. This represents about 7.4 per cent of all migration into Çorum. Roughly speaking, one in every 13 people who move to Çorum arrives saying, "I'm going back home."
- Retirement: 100 people arrived and 56 left, a net gain of +44.
- Finding a job or starting a business: 1,203 people arrived and 1,840 left, a net loss of −637, the largest loss.
- Better housing and living conditions: a net loss of −605.
In other words, people mostly leave Çorum for work and living conditions, but a significant share of those who come back return because of their ties to home.
The relationship with Ankara sums up this balance well. According to a news report citing the Ankara Chamber of Commerce's compilation of TÜİK data, 8,386 people moved from Çorum to Ankara in 2024 and 3,486 moved from Ankara to Çorum. So for every five people who go to the capital, about two come back. The movement of people returning home to Çorum can therefore be read as a small but meaningful counter-current: departures still dominate, but returns are a constant.
To understand the scale behind these returns, we also need to look at Çorum's population living elsewhere. According to Çoban's (2016) study based on TÜİK data, in 2013 about 6 in every 10 people officially registered as being from Çorum were living outside the province. In 2025, 438,640 people living in Ankara were registered as being from Çorum, making them the largest group of people from a single home province in Ankara.
The Limits of the Data
The category "returning to family or hometown" does not cover retirees alone. It may include young families moving their home to Çorum as well as middle-aged people returning to care for an elderly parent. TÜİK does not publish the age breakdown of this category at provincial level. In addition, the "province of registration" shows where a person's civil registry record is held. Someone born and raised in Ankara as part of the second generation is still counted as being from Çorum. For this reason, the number of people from Çorum living elsewhere describes the size of the hometown network, not the number of people who migrated. There is no separate provincial data on summer returns or on permanent return at retirement.
Who Returns, and Why? A Sociological Reading
The figures do not show the "why" behind each return, but several possible factors stand out.
Ageing parents. Çorum has a median age of 41.3, compared with 34.9 for Turkey. Around 18 per cent of the population is over 65. In 46.8 per cent of single-person households, an older person lives alone. For adult children in big cities, a parent growing older may be one of the strongest triggers for deciding to return.
The cost of living and big-city fatigue. Many people who went to Ankara or Istanbul went for work. As rent, transport and traffic pressures grow, a calmer life can become attractive, especially for those who can work remotely or who have retired.
Chain migration in reverse. Çoban (2016) explains why people from Çorum prefer Ankara in terms of geographical proximity, job opportunities and "the solidarity among people from the same hometown built by those who went before". The same network works for returns too: for someone who still has relatives, a house or a field back home, returning is a more concrete option.
Taken together, these factors suggest that returning can be read not as a "retreat" but as a transition into a different stage of life.
Reverse Culture Shock: The Psychology of Returning Home
The challenges of adapting to a new place have long been recognised in migration psychology. What is talked about less is that going back to a familiar place also requires a similar process of adjustment. This is called "reverse culture shock". A person returns to a setting they believe they know, but both they and their hometown have changed.
The Distance Between Dream and Reality
Years of longing built up while living away tend to idealise the hometown. Imagine a teacher who has worked in Ankara for thirty years, retires and returns to Çorum. The neighbourhood in her mind is one where her childhood friends live and where people chat on doorsteps in the evenings. When she returns, she finds that some of her friends have moved away, some have passed away and the neighbourhood has filled with apartment blocks. This encounter can produce a mixture of disappointment, bewilderment and grief.
The "Neither Here Nor There" Feeling
People who return sometimes feel they do not fully belong in either place. In the big city they were seen as "from Çorum"; back home they are seen as "the one from Ankara". Their habits, way of speaking and expectations are now a blend of two worlds. This in-between position can bring loneliness at times, and at other times a feeling of "I can't explain myself to anyone".
Social Visibility
In a big city a person is relatively anonymous. In a small city, what you wear, who you meet and why you came back may be talked about. For some people this visibility means warmth and security; for others it is experienced as pressure and a loss of privacy.
Failure, or a Conscious Choice?
Leaving for the big city is often told as a success story: "He studied, found a job in Ankara and settled down." Within this narrative, returning can look to some people and those around them like "he couldn't make it". People who return after losing a job, a divorce or financial difficulty in particular may internalise this view and feel ashamed. Yet returning can also be the natural outcome of changing values and priorities. Choosing to be close to family, to live at a calmer pace or to accompany ageing parents is not a step backwards but a choice of a different direction. How a person explains their return to themselves largely determines how difficult the adjustment will be.
Returning home means getting used not to the place you left behind, but to what that place has become today.
Returning as a Family: Spouses, Children and Elderly Parents
A decision to return rarely concerns just one person. Each member of the family experiences the change differently.
Different expectations between spouses. The spouse who most wants to return is usually the one whose hometown is Çorum. The other spouse may have to leave behind their own social circle, work and routines. If this imbalance is not talked about, it can turn over time into the resentment of "I came here for you". If such tensions persist, couples therapy can help you find a shared language.
Children and young people. For a teenager who grew up in a big city, moving to Çorum means changing schools and losing a circle of friends. What is "home" for the parents is an unfamiliar city for the child. Listening to the child's sense of loss without belittling it makes adjustment easier.
Growing close to an elderly parent again. Adult children who return to care for a parent begin living in the same city, perhaps in the same house, after many years. Old roles easily come back: a fifty-year-old may feel like a "child" again in their mother's presence. This can be a source of both tenderness and friction.
Those who return while working remotely. In recent years there are also people who keep their jobs in a big city but move to Çorum, so that their bodies are back home while their working lives are in another city. Although this can be financially advantageous, it may bring new challenges such as feeling cut off from colleagues, being alone in front of a screen all day and finding it hard to mix with the local community. For these people, the experience of returning home to Çorum can mean a daily life split in two.
Practical Suggestions for Returning Home to Çorum
If you are thinking about returning, or have just returned, the following suggestions may make the adjustment easier:
- Write down your expectations. List concretely what you hope to gain from returning: more family time, less stress, a lower cost of living and so on. Then ask yourself which of these are realistic.
- Plan a trial period. If possible, try living in Çorum for a few months before making a permanent decision. Summer visits do not reflect winter life.
- Build a new social network. Rather than relying on old friendships, be open to forming new connections. Hometown associations, volunteering, adult education courses and neighbourhood activities can be good starting points.
- Talk about roles. Have open conversations about caring for an elderly parent, sharing responsibilities with siblings and the arrangements at home. Unspoken expectations are the ones that cause the most conflict.
- Don't cut your ties with the big city. Video calls with old friends and occasional visits help you preserve part of your identity.
- Give yourself time. Adjustment usually takes months. Regret or disappointment in the early period does not mean the decision was wrong.
For a more detailed look at the decision itself, you can read our article on the decision to return home, and for the general framework of reverse culture shock, our article on reverse culture shock.
When Should You Seek Professional Support?
It is natural to feel restless, undecided or lonely from time to time during the adjustment period. However, speaking to a specialist may be helpful in the following situations:
- If, months after returning, you still feel constant regret and a sense that "everything went wrong"
- If you are experiencing marked changes in sleep, appetite and energy levels
- If you don't want to leave the house and are avoiding people
- If you are constantly arguing with your spouse or family about the decision to return
- If thoughts of hopelessness, worthlessness or that life is meaningless have intensified
If you have thoughts of harming yourself or there is any immediate risk, call 112 (emergency services) without delay. The presence of these signs does not in itself mean a diagnosis, but it may show that you need support.
How Is Returning Home and Readjustment Addressed in Therapy?
In therapy, the experience of returning is usually approached as a period of transition. Some of the areas that can be worked on are:
Recognising the losses. Although returning may look like a gain, it also contains losses: the job in the big city, friends, independence and familiar routines. Allowing yourself to grieve these losses makes room for the new life.
Examining thought patterns. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) helps you notice catastrophising or "all-or-nothing" thoughts such as "I shouldn't have come back, I've ruined everything" and develop a more balanced outlook.
Redefining identity. The question "Who am I, where am I from?" comes up again with a return. In therapy, a personal narrative can be built that holds the experiences of two cities and two periods of life together.
Boundaries in family relationships. Living close to an elderly parent or relatives again calls for boundary-setting skills. In therapy, these conversations can be thought through and rehearsed in advance.
In Çorum, alongside face-to-face sessions, online sessions can also be an option for those still at the planning stage of their return and still living in another city. If you are curious about the other side of migration, you may also want to read our article on why people leave Çorum.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it normal to feel regret after returning home?
Yes, it is very common, especially in the first few months. Missing your old life and finding the new routine strange are natural parts of adjustment. If the regret does not ease over the months and is affecting your daily life, talking it through with a specialist may help.
How long does reverse culture shock last?
There is no fixed timeframe. It depends on how long the person lived away, whether the return was voluntary and how quickly they form new social connections. Many people feel noticeably better within the first year, although some feelings may last longer.
My spouse wants to move back to their hometown but I don't. What can we do?
It is important first to listen, without blame, to why each of you does or does not want to move. Discussing concrete concerns one by one (work, school, social circle) and looking for interim solutions such as a trial period can help. If conversations reach a deadlock, seeing a couples therapist can make it easier to reach a shared decision.
I came back to my hometown for my elderly mother but I feel lonely. Will this feeling pass?
Loneliness is common among people who return to provide care, because most of the day is taken up by caring responsibilities. Creating small pockets of time for yourself, building new social connections and sharing the caring load can ease this feeling. If the loneliness deepens into hopelessness, consider seeking professional support.
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Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
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