[Capt. Caveman]

This is actually a pretty big can of worms because there are lots of subtle shades of meaning difference in the idea of "the homeland"

It's going to mean something different to a people who have been forcibly exiled than it does to a people who have just sort of...dispersed over time. Likewise, it obviously means something different when it refers to a present location (The Department of Homeland Security), than when it represents some distant, perhaps even fictitious utopia (see: cults who believe in aliens coming to take them home, etc.)

I think every culture has a sense of "homeland" but what I think it is you're really asking about is how displaced cultures relate to their "homeland" and mythologize it, make it the reason for living. So really the question would be like "how do displaced cultures create a social reality?"

Am I making any sense at all