It is a well‐known fact that the south of Europe is not going through its best moment. Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece are suffering from a deep economic crisis that has been provoking social changes beyond boundaries over the last few years. So far nothing new as we are already tired of listening to news about bailouts, European leaders meetings, austerity debates and so on. It is supposed to have started in 2007, which means we have already spent eight wonderful years hearing about cuts in social services.

Likewise, it is obvious that this situation affects everyone differently depending on their place of origin. If you have been so unlucky as to have family roots in one of these paradises around the Mediterranean Sea, you have probably found yourself in one of the following situations: scraping out a living in your hometown or packing suitcases.

In 2014, at around 80,000 people left Spain, and the United Kingdom was the preferred country to land and start again; most of them from 25 to 35 years old with a high level of education. Given the situation in the motherland, improving their level of English and therefore job opportunities was the main reason for making such a decision.

We have been called ‘The lost generation’ since we have seen our job prospects running towards a dead end, which obviously has changed the traditional social structure all around the south of Europe. But it is not just the fact that we enjoy making a living miles away from home, it is, as some politicians said time ago, also about ‘the adventurous spirit of the traveller’.

Oh yes, people cannot help loving the exciting life style the vast majority of immigrants from the south in their twenties are experiencing abroad. I cannot blame them. Who on earth would not like to leave their university title on the wall and go somewhere around Northwest Europe to work as a housekeeper or barback just to improve the necessary language skills for a proper CV? Jobs that, by the way, we didn’t even know existed.

I am from one of those countries, specifically from one of the lands ranked on a list by The Guardian as one of the best places to live. I have spent little more than two years in the United Kingdom, disconnected from my loved ones and losing track of what is going on in Spain. But now, after all I have experienced and learnt, it is high time for me to go back.

The feeling of belonging is probably the main reason for this decision as no matter how well integrated you find yourself abroad, there will always be something or someone that makes you feel like a stranger. What is more, you don’t even need to pronounce a word before being asked where you are from. It is said that every crisis offers opportunities and it has happened to us that we have become wiser in others customs and habits. In other words, now we know much better our European neighbours and… is not that what the main world leaders want?

Among the foreigners I would mainly distinguished two types: the ones who maintain their social life as if they were still in the motherland, hanging around with fellow citizens and picking up some words just to get by; and, on the contrary, the ones who try to avoid the majority of compatriots and take advantage of living in others’ land.

But, in the end, all of us have had, at least once, the same feeling that makes you feel a bit homesick; as well as embarrassed in many occasions, because of the way decisions are made in your own country or how ignorant are those who made those decisions in the first place

Two years on, I have talked to fellows of both groups and seen many of them leave. It seems that, no matter how bad is the situation of the original place, most foreigners decide to pack up again and go back home. There are obviously exceptions.

I do believe the kind of jobs and the stereotype in which you are fitted are the main barriers abroad. Hospitality and retail are the range of job prospects for almost everyone. Complaints and comments about work conditions are all always the same and monopolize conversations over and over again. It has been sometimes quite repetitive listening to what someone needs to say after considering me as an acquaintance in the matter as we are from the same country.

As I have said, I have come across many people with different backgrounds and opposite visions but most of them had got, in one way or another, a sort of lack of self-­esteem after having an annoying customer looking down at them or maybe just one of these days in which everything goes wrong and they wish they could express themselves in their own language and manners.

Now, when I go to a restaurant, café or somewhere shopping I can see several of these examples among the staff, the same story is repeated everywhere and everyone has their own peculiar one.

I have ended up not liking Spaniards as much as I had before and repelling English speakers at the same time. I hate the fact that our politicians live totally unaware of this scenario as they just talk about numbers, rates and fluctuations. I do not feel comfortable here but neither there; something that happens to many foreigners after having moved constantly from one place to another.

But this is what our generation is supposed to be enjoying to the full, travelling, or am I wrong? Well, I believe there is not an answer but it cannot be denied that it all depends on what you mean.