Young people continue to leave Italy. In the data of the report “Italians in the world 2016” edited by Migrant Foundation and presented today, Thursday, the protagonists are the millennials, young people between 18 and 34 at the center of the new migratory flows. Over a third of Italians residing abroad belong to this age group, which is also the one that recorded the highest number of departures in 2015, 36,7% of the total of 107.529 (+6,2% compared to 2014) expatriates in the calendar year.
It is a migratory flow that is new in its characteristics. For young people, leaving Italy is more than an escape, “it's one choice to cultivate ambitions and nurture curiosity”. Even the type of mobility is unprecedented: "Their mobility - reads the Migrantes report, the foundation close to the Italian Bishops' Conference - is ongoing and can change continuously because it is not based on an already determined migration project 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 half, precisely in light of the "better working conditions". In any case, millennials are reported as, the “first mobile generation”, with suitcases in hand, always ready to leave. Also because, for 43% of them, this status represents "the only opportunity for realisation".
The largest range, in addition to that between 15 and 34 years, is the one just above, which reaches 49 years, 25,8% of the total. Added to the 18-34 year olds they make up over 60% of expatriates. A fact that highlights the main problem of Italy, namely "the inability to avoid the impoverishment of the young and more prepared in favor of other countries".
The count of compatriots residing abroad reached 31 as of 2015 December 4.811.163 (in ten years, Italian mobility has increased by 54,9%), a figure which is 3,7% higher than the previous year . Approximately one out of twelve Italians has emigrated, while 50% of the diaspora has southern origins.
The favorite half of Italians during 2015 was the Germany (16.568) followed by a paste from UK (16.503), considered an ideal destination for work and study.
Brexit
A goal, however, around which a dense cloud of uncertainty has gathered following the referendum which sanctioned the Brexit. At the moment the United Kingdom is in seventh place overall for Italian residents, but the political landslides risk profoundly changing the configuration which, at the moment, 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 stated Theresa May, and to act in view of "their own national interests". And that seems to clash, even more, with the position expressed by Interior Minister Amber Rudd, who intends to ask companies to draw up the lists of foreign workers. Extra brakes on workers and students which, according to the minister, would be necessary "to change the trend".
A context of uncertainty, which is also leading to a boom in requests for registration of Italian citizens with the Aire (Italian registry office residing abroad) to regularize their position in the country. However, many of them, especially those with a career already underway, would also be thinking of a move to another country, or even a return to Italy, where Milan in particular is watched with growing interest. The entry step into the world of work, on the other hand, remains even easier in the United Kingdom.
Among the consequences of a still uncertain context. in addition to the rush to regularize one's position, there is also the postponement of decisions such as buying a house or starting a business. Even the possible shift of the European economic pole to other destinations, such as Frankfurt or Madrid, invites foreign workers in the City to exercise a certain caution.
In a world where the issue of migrants, whether they come from poor countries and areas at war or whether they are graduates and skilled workers, remains at the center of the discussion in many countries, with the authoritarian changes at the gates in Hungary, for example, young Italians continue to represent a European spirit under the banner of free movement, denouncing at the same time the lack of opportunities available in our country.
