For all the stories of American families who’ve bid adieu to the United States to give their kids a different upbringing in France, decamped to Italy for a better lifestyle or made the move to Portugal to afford health care and retire on the cheap, there are plenty of Europeans who’ve crossed the pond and made America their home and say they’ll never return to the European continent to live again.
Since CNN Travel regularly features expats “living the dream” in Europe, we decided to find out what the experience has been like for some of those seeking opportunities on the other side of the Atlantic.
We spoke with a handful of Europeans who are embracing American life about what brought and ties them to the United States. Here’s what they said:
Florian Herrmann, 44, originally from Munich, Germany, first came to the United States in 2006 as part of a university exchange and internship program in California.
When that ended, he returned home to Germany before being recruited to work for a small family business in Wyoming.
“I was always a career hunter, super career-focused,” says Herrmann, who eventually started his own tourism marketing business in the United States, Herrmann Global. “Everything changed for me when I came to America. People told me the sky is the limit, if you see it you can do it.”
He finds the American spirit of “supporting the underdog” particularly powerful. Herrmann, who is still a German citizen, says he plans to pursue US citizenship when the option for Germans to have dual citizenship becomes easier.
“The mentality here is ‘Let’s give it a try.’ And if it doesn’t work, they say, ‘Well, you did it and now you know it didn’t work,’” he says. By comparison, failing at something as an entrepreneur in Germany is something you “carry on your shoulders,” he says, and usually means less opportunity in the future.
Herrmann, who lives with his American wife and their two kids in Lander, Wyoming, a small town that’s home to less than 8,000 people, says he feels fortunate to live in such a tight-knit community with a can-do, “cowboy mentality,” too.
“Small town America is still absolutely amazing,” he says. “There’s a support system I just don’t see happening anywhere in the world. You know the police officer, the people from the courts, the neighbors. My friends will visit from Germany and see me waving to a police officer and wonder what I’m doing.”
Although Herrmann loves the wilderness of Wyoming, he admits it can feel isolating at times. And while he would consider moving back to Germany for a year or two, he doesn’t think he could ever return there long term.
“I have become too Americanized. I love my life and the way I live,” he says. “When I go back, I think, ‘I really couldn’t live here anymore.’”
“I know that I will be buried here,” he adds. “I feel like an American. This country has done a lot for me, and I’m committed and thankful.”
Gabriele Sappok, 54, founded Imagine PR in New York City in 2006 after leaving Stuttgart, Germany, to live with her German boyfriend (now her husband and business partner). The optimism of American life is what inspires her most.
“I love my home country, but the general vibe in Germany is the glass is half empty versus here, where there’s this innate optimism that I cherish and love,” says the German citizen who has a US green card.
When she’s back in Germany, Sappok says Germans complain about how Americans will casually ask how you’re doing “without really caring,” she says.
“I explain to people there that it actually makes my day when people ask how I’m doing in the US, it’s a gesture I appreciate,” she says, adding that there’s a huge cultural divide between Europe and the United States, not to mention within Europe.
“In Germany, it’s almost like it’s expected not to be happy-go-lucky all the time because then people doubt your sincerity,” Sappok says. “You have to have a certain level of cynicism and criticism because that’s what makes you smart.”