I find my cherished viewpoints and values always confronted with alternative ways of seeing the world and responding to it. I can see things better from multiple angles. Living outside one's homeland for a few years moves you to the margins of your home culture, too. That is a loss because that easy sense of belonging is gone forever. Emotionally you can't go home again.
Walls are a natural part of human life.
We all want our privacy. We all psychologically subscribe to different groups of member ship in order to anchor our solidarity, intimacy and pride. Ethnic walls, religious walls, racial walls, are sometimes better left intact. They normally are insurmountable if we want to break them or climb them. But that doesn't mean there are not doors to go through.