A few weeks ago a note from Eurostat on willingness of young people to move for work reasons highlighted how the unemployed Italians, on the European scene, are among the least inclined to change residence to find work. Are we the usual refrain of lazy and mammon young Italians compared to their more independent and dynamic European peers? In reality, the Eurostat data outline a composite picture, of which it is worth highlighting some relevant aspects.
In the first place, the mobility of young Italians unemployed within the country, equal to 19%, it is just 1 percentage point lower than the European average. The indicator is instead higher for those with a high educational qualification: in fact, out of 100 unemployed young Italian graduates, 27 are willing to move to another city in the boot, compared to an EU average of 23.
Secondly, the young unemployed Italians willing to move abroad they are ready to go far. In fact, 67% of them prefer a country outside the European Union: among the main member states, this is one of the highest percentages, with the exception of the United Kingdom (81%).
Furthermore, leaving aside the employed, who are less encouraged to travel for work reasons, focusing exclusively on the unemployed risks neglecting the propensity to relocate of a significant part of the youth population, the inactive. This group includes those who are neither employed nor looking for work; therefore, these are young people still engaged in a course of study, but also those who give up looking for work, perhaps because they are discouraged by the difficulty of finding one.
The propensity to move of young inactive Italians is high: 49% of them would move (within the country or abroad), compared to a European average of 39%. Above all, the share of inactive young Italians willing to go outside the Union is high, equal to 26%, about 10 percentage points more than their French peers and 6 more than the Spanish; if we then look at graduates, the percentage for Italians reaches 38%, compared to an EU average of 22%.
Finally, from the mobility of young Italians by area of origin it emerges that the southern unemployed, thanks to the greater difficulty of finding employment locally, are more willing to move elsewhere, preferring movements within the country rather than abroad.
