Young people continue to leave Italy. According to the report, "Italians in the world 2016” drawn up by the Migrant Foundation and presented today, Thursday, the protagonists are the millennialsYoung people between the ages of 18 and 34 are at the center of the new migratory flows. Over a third of Italians living abroad belong to this age group, which also accounted for the highest number of departures in 2015, accounting for 36,7% of the total 107.529 expatriates (+6,2% compared to 2014) during the calendar year.
This is a migratory flow that is new in its characteristics. For young people, leaving Italy is more than an escape, "it's a choice to cultivate ambitions and nourish curiosity." The type of mobility is also unprecedented: "Their mobility," states the report by Migrantes, the foundation close to the Italian Episcopal Conference, "is ongoing and can continually change because it is not based on a predetermined migration plan but on ever-new job opportunities."
For many, coming from a country where it seems increasingly difficult to enter and move into the world of work, abroad becomes a privileged destination, precisely because of the "better working conditions". In any case, millennials are reported as the "first generation mobile”, with suitcases in hand, always ready to go. Also because, for 43% of them, this status represents “the only opportunity for fulfillment”.
The largest age group, besides those aged 15 to 34, is the one just above, 49, representing 25,8% of the total. Added to those aged 18 to 34, they account for over 60% of expatriates. This figure highlights Italy's main problem: "the inability to prevent the impoverishment of young and better-educated people in favor of other countries."
As of December 31, 2015, the number of Italians residing abroad reached 4.811.163 (Italian mobility has increased by 54,9% in ten years), a 3,7% increase compared to the previous year. Approximately one in twelve Italians has emigrated, while 50% of the diaspora is of Southern Italian origin.
The favourite half of Italians during 2015 was the Germany (16.568) followed by a glueing from UK (16.503), considered an ideal destination for work and study.
Brexit
A goal, however, around which a thick cloud of uncertainty has gathered following the referendum which sanctioned the BrexitThe United Kingdom currently ranks seventh overall for Italian residents, but political upheavals risk profoundly changing the country's current population, which currently hosts 3,2 million European citizens and a total of 8,6 million foreigners.
A future, that of migrants in the United Kingdom, which seems to clash with the country's claim to regain its "full sovereignty", as declared Theresa May, and to act in view of "its own national interests". And which seems to clash, even more, with the position expressed by the Minister of the Interior Amber Rudd, who intends to ask companies to draw up the lists of foreign workersExtra restrictions on workers and students, according to the minister, are necessary "to change the trend."
This uncertain environment is also leading to a surge in requests for Italian citizens to register with AIRE (the Italian Registry of Residents Abroad) to regularize their status in the country. Many of them, however, especially those with established careers, are also considering moving to another country, or even returning to Italy, where Milan, in particular, is being viewed with growing interest. The process of entering the workforce, however, remains even simpler in the United Kingdom.
Among the consequences of a still-uncertain environment, in addition to the rush to regularize one's status, are the postponement of decisions such as purchasing a home or starting a business. The potential shift of the European economic hub to other destinations, such as Frankfurt or Madrid, also prompts foreign workers in the City to exercise caution.
In a world where the issue of migrants, whether from poor countries and war zones or graduates and skilled workers, remains central to discussions in many countries—with authoritarian changes looming in Hungary, for example—young Italians continue to represent a European spirit of free movement, while simultaneously denouncing the lack of opportunities available in our country.
