Some Americans Who Moved to Europe With US Politics in Mind Are Planning to Come Home After Finding Daily Life Harder Than Expected
by Jerome London · Thought CatalogUpdated 36 minutes ago, October 26, 2026
An American who moved near London in late 2024 is planning to return to the US in summer 2027 after finding that maternity care, household finances and everyday travel fell short of what she’d expected.
She and several other Americans interviewed for an October 20 feature described how jobs, money and belonging complicated moves that US politics had helped make appealing. Some have already returned. Their experiences offer a look at why individual moves unravel, with no survey establishing how common regret is among Americans who’ve left.
The woman, identified by the pseudonym Annie, moved from the southern US after her husband got a job outside London. They were in their 20s, and she was pregnant. Social media had helped shape her expectations of the National Health Service, an active social life and affordable train travel.
She said her NHS maternity care compared poorly with the care she’d received through US private insurance. Lower salaries left less spending money, trains cost more than she’d expected, and coworkers made jokes about her accent and American culture. She also pointed to taxes and the immigration health surcharge when explaining why she rejected the idea that her health care was free.
Summer 2027 is the earliest their employers will let them leave. She withheld identifying details because she feared professional consequences and online backlash.
Another interviewee, given the pseudonym Josh, had already returned to the US after moving to Berlin in 2023. Anticipating the 2024 election result was part of his motivation, alongside feeling stuck after Covid. He spoke German, had lived in Germany before and already had friends there.
Even with those advantages, he struggled to find work and said bureaucracy had become harder to navigate. He missed the ease of American daily life and felt he couldn’t fully belong in Germany. Back in the US, he described himself as happier and said he’d “overreacted” to the political discourse.
Work also figured in influencer Kate Glavan’s decision to leave London. She moved there from New York in late 2024, and sponsorship opportunities subsequently declined as brands resisted paying for content reaching a British audience.
In June 2026, she announced plans to return to New York that fall. She said she missed the city and her family, had an American audience and wanted to work in progressive politics in the US.
Other experiences complicate a sweeping story about political flight and regret. Journalist and consultant Sarah Wood González returned to New York after about 3 years in Spain and Edinburgh. She praised people’s curiosity and education, while preferring the faster decisions and action-oriented approach she’d experienced in American workplaces.
An art director identified as Nick remains in Krakow with his Polish wife and young child. Right-wing populism in the US helped motivate his move, but he described struggling with Polish bureaucracy and culture, encountering right-wing politics there too, and feeling stuck.
These accounts come from a handful of interviews, several anonymous. There’s no count of how many Americans who left after the 2024 election have returned, or a survey measuring how many regret leaving. Other Americans profiled in separate coverage have described life in Europe as safer or calmer and said they intend to stay.
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