I grew up very devoted to my "hometown" of Buffalo, New York, in a family that was extremely devoted to it.

Late in graduate school it dawned on me that if I wanted to be a serious academic, I would have to move away, more or less permanently. But I've stayed in the U.S., which makes me a trans-regional (although I've moved more miles that most transnationals within Europe ever would).

I was young when I got my Ph.D., and well-off because of my economics degree, so I didn't have to confront this issue too much: it was easy to "go home" for a month or six-weeks. This probably made me less attached to Alabama (where I was for 2 years), or Utah (for one). But, in Louisiana, we stayed for over 8 years, and those long trips "home" got to be fewer and further between.

We eventually gave up on our love/hate relationship with New Orleans and moved back to Utah. That's about 7,000 miles of moving, spread over 4 job changes, and 12 years.

This is now home. Even though we are not Mormon, and so don't quite fit in, this is the place (for non-Mormons, there is a Utah related pun in there).

Yet, our families in Buffalo still wonder when we will "come home". It's been 17 years now. It isn't going to happen. That concept seems to elude them though - they view our home as where they are, rather than where we are.

The upshot of all this is that I think the longing for home reflects our attachments and level of restlessness. For Teresa, it doesn't seem like you've ever felt "home"; I think this means you are not a transnational or trans anything ... just some sort of resident. On the other hand, the Greek family sounds like a transnational.

Yet, I think the front-end and back-end of your post give a general answer. Bachman suggested that different people don't "grow up" under the same roof. Buf if you go elsewhere to grow up, then you have changed from those you left behind. This makes it very hard for them to be part of a home where you will always feel welcome. So, if moving changes you enough (or the ones you left behind enough), then home is no longer where you started out.