Marzia - I’ll
graduate and immigrate
Young Italians emigrate to other countries just as their grandparents and great-grandparents before them. They graduate and decide to leave. It’s certainly not because they want to - so they seem to be forced into this decision. But by what? Daniela Del Boca,
university teacher of Economics at the University of Turin, brings to light various revealing and true facts about our Country: zero population growth as opposed to China’s 10 per cent. We are not procreating, we cannot find jobs and it’s difficult find some money left in our pockets at the end of the month. After years of sacrifice and study a new graduate finds settling for less truly frustrating and going out for a pizza every once in while often means risking a slight financial setback. Though seemingly rhetoric this is unfortunately the truth. So, what we are witnessing is a phenomenon of “against the current” migration: from a previously rich
Country one leaves to go to a previously poor country… and maybe goes back to Italy on vacation.
The article quotes the testimony of a 31 year old who graduated with honours from the prestigious Bocconi University in Rome to later flee the Italian Finance world because to make a career for yourself, he says “you take your chances playing with friendships,
political liaisons, in an current clan system”. Surprisingly, after graduating Magna Cum Laude in a field that should be in the forefront in Italy, he remained for a long time only an intern. Suddenly, in the span of 12 months he opened a large restaurant, started a trading company as well as other projects in…Shanghai!
Instead in Buenos Aires a young lady of 34 has found a market that considers intellectual occupations grade A – much different from the grade B attitude found in Italy. Not
able to find a full-time permanent position and teaching history of architecture to get by, she was able to find many small restoration assignments until the requests have been increasing without measure. She has also decided to do a documentary on Tango, a passion of hers, also
considered an occupation which is held with much esteem and respect. Just as any job should be deemed.
The examples are many and should lead to reflect on why emigrating to ex-poor countries is becoming more popular as an option. One thing is certain: the heart that livens up a nation that is beginning to come out of its stupor and misery is full of a healthy and irrepressible optimism that affects everyone it touches in a contagious way, young and old alike, at once enthusiastic and industrious. This positive tendency is most probably missing here, in Italy. Even though we haven’t hit rock bottom, the highs and lows of the political and economic worlds should be enough to instil this spirit of enterprise in all of us especially when we think that our young people – over thirty and overly courageous – cannot remain in their homeland to pursue their own creativity. Even though they are considered “flexible and cosmopolitan” the sadness lies in the fact that can proudly say they are Italian, but… but what? There will always be conjunctions and clauses at the end of their sentences if things do not change.
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