… she felt stuck because she came to learn that even though the job she holds and the life she has built for herself “look great on paper,” she felt trapped. “I miss the no-nights, the empty time I was complaining about.”

Why would someone leave their home in search of a richer life, only to long for the same home they once rejected? This was Miljana’s experience. She left Belgrade, Serbia for Berlin, Germany hoping to find a more meaningful life, yet later found herself missing the life she had tried to move beyond. Her story was documented in a 2023 study by Alexandra Dantzer.

Miljana, a 30-year-old woman with a university degree working in the art world and owning property in Belgrade felt she was past her prime and living in a kind of vacuum there. When she first met Dantzer, she viewed migration as a way to realise her “true potentials.” For her, a “meaningful life” meant:

... a life where I do not feel trapped by the lack of future, or a hamster wheel of the present. A life where I can see the horizon, but where the view is still open enough so I can hope and dream. I still need to be able to predict how my actions will play out. I hope for a healthy amount of control.”

She succeeded and arrived to live in Berlin. After a couple of years, despite living in Berlin with her partner and working as an art teacher with the freedom to travel across continents, she said she still felt stranded. Even though Miljana seemed to be moving towards the supposed “meaningful life” she had imagined, she appeared to be mentally trapped........

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