But I know that doing my doctoral work in Europe would make it nearly impossible to come home.

It seems to be the reverse in France : young researchers from France, studying in the US have a hard time coming back, whereas oodles of French doctors emigrate to the US. That's the situation I know of, in the hard sciences mostly ; It seems it is different in sociology ; because of too different schools of thoughts?

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères