Barcelona is one of the European cities with the highest presence of international talent, and the Italian community is the best example of this. In 2026, 54,036 people of Italian nationality are registered in the city, making it, for several consecutive years, the largest foreign nationality in Barcelona. This figure is complemented by between 20,000 and 30,000 residents born in Italy.
The Italian presence is not concentrated in a few neighbourhoods: according to the latest municipal data, Italy is the most numerous foreign nationality in 149 of the 233 census areas of the city, a figure that reflects a community fully integrated into the urban and social fabric of Barcelona.
Young people arriving for job opportunities, couples deciding to start a new life, entrepreneurs attracted by the digital ecosystem, or professionals seeking a more Mediterranean lifestyle: Spain, and specifically cities like the Catalan capital, represents for many the promise of a positive change, explains Luana del Monte, Italian psychologist in Barcelona. What rarely appears in the statistics is the emotional cost of that change: the feeling of uprooting, nostalgia, or the difficulty of truly feeling at home even years after arriving. Emotional adaptation, the therapist points out, rarely receives the same attention as the change of residence.
Emigrating by Choice Does Not Eliminate Grief
For years, migration was primarily associated with economic reasons. Today, the profile of the European expatriate has changed: most move seeking a better work-life balance, professional growth, or simply a different life.
The problem arises when the initial excitement gives way to a difficult-to-explain feeling. Many expatriates describe a contradictory feeling: they have jobs, speak the language, and have built a social life, yet they still feel out of place. Psychology refers to this process as migration grief: a reorganisation of identity, relationships, and sense of belonging that does not always manifest as evident depression. Instead, it often appears as persistent anxiety, nostalgia, emotional exhaustion, or the feeling of living between two worlds.
The Loneliness of Those Who Seem to Have Adapted
One of the most common mistakes, Del Monte explains, is confusing social integration with emotional well-being. Her practice in Barcelona often sees Italian patients who have been in the city for ten years, have friends, and speak perfect Spanish, yet still carry a deep loneliness. Uprooting, she points out, does not always depend on mastering the everyday language, but rather on the difficulty of expressing what is most intimate.
This phenomenon is especially common in international communities like the Italian one, where many professionals conduct their work life in Spanish or English, but continue thinking, dreaming, and remembering in their mother tongue.
Why Does Language Change Therapy?
Various studies in bilingual psychology have observed that autobiographical emotions are recalled with greater intensity when evoked in the language in which they were experienced. It is not just about vocabulary: the mother tongue is closely linked to affective memory, childhood, and the construction of identity.
For those living abroad, this difference can be crucial during a therapeutic process. “Many people maintain a perfect conversation in Spanish, but when they talk about a loss, a fear, or their childhood, they spontaneously seek out Italian. The mother tongue reduces filters and allows access to much deeper emotions,” explains the psychologist, who has been working in Barcelona for twelve years.
The Case of Italians in Barcelona Reflects a Global Reality
Although the Italian example is particularly visible due to the size of its community, the phenomenon affects thousands of expatriates of any nationality. French, Germans, Argentinians, or Brits share the same challenge: building a new life without losing the connection to who they were before emigrating.
In this context, more and more people are seeking professionals who can understand not only their language but also the cultural codes that accompany certain experiences: the guilt of leaving family behind, the nostalgia for celebrations, educational differences, or the pressure to prove that the decision to leave was the right one.
Speaking from Where Emotions Are Born
The mental health of expatriates is becoming increasingly relevant in major European cities. A decade ago, the conversation revolved around work integration; today it also includes psychological well-being and the need to create spaces where people can feel understood without having to constantly translate.
Because emigrating transforms life, but it also transforms the way we relate to ourselves. And sometimes, the path to feeling at home again begins simply by speaking in the language in which we learned to name our emotions.
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