on the outside, looking in

alternative on the outside looking in

1. idiomaticExcluded from a group, process, or opportunity, and feeling downhearted as a result.

   Won't you take me back again? I'll be waiting here till then / On the outside looking in

   1964, “I’m On the Outside (Looking In)”, performed by Little Anthony and the Imperials

   3 more examples

   "In a sense, I've always felt on the outside, looking in," Mr. Douglas says. "It's my background, damn it. My father was an illiterate Russian immigrant, a ragman, the lowest rung on the economic scale. There were six sisters and my mother; I was the only boy. To be a young Jewish boy in a town—Amsterdam, in upstate New York—that was quite anti-Semitic."

   1988 August 24, Mervyn Rothstein, “Kirk Douglas And Anger”, in New York Times, retrieved 02 Aug 2015

   A recurrent theme of Theroux's books is this sense of being an alien, on the outside looking in.

   1997 May 18, Marianne Macdonald, “Who is Paul Theroux?”, in Independent (UK), retrieved 02 Aug 2015

   While China's economy soars, hundreds of millions of migrant workers and rural peasants have been left on the outside looking in.

   2007 August 2, Ishaan Tharoor, “India's Democratic Advantage”, in Time, retrieved 02 Aug 2015

   Synonyms: alienated