Escape from Italy

While the pandemic has held back the Italian economy, it has not prevented our country’s young people from leaving for foreign countries, thus making a particularly high percentage of the so-called “brain drain.” In fact, this figure has never been more significant: according to research by the Migrantes Foundation, young people who have left Italy since the beginning of the health emergency have increased by 85 percent(Rainews).

The sketch of the expat

But who are the Italians in the world? And where do those who leave our country go? 48.2 percent of the more than 5.8 million Italian citizens living abroad are women. The trend sees younger people leaving mainly from northern Italy for Europe, while southern Italians are crowding the empty spaces left in the north. “A growing youth mobility as Italy stagnates in its fragilities and has definitively set aside the possibility for an individual to improve his or her status during the course of his or her life by accessing a certain, qualified and enabling job,” the report states. A topic, that of the social elevator and intergenerational mobility, on which the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella has also spoken out, calling for the opening of a “reflection on the causes of this phenomenon”(Ansa).

• Covid grows Italy’s young emigrants(Avvenire).

Return facilities

“Brain drain,” after all, we have been hearing about for years. According to Istat data, as many as 120 thousand Italians moved their residence abroad in 2020 alone, and a quarter are college graduates. Successive governments in recent years have tried to introduce tools to reverse the trend, starting with tax breaks. The number of workers who have benefited has risen sharply, demonstrating how tax policies may be able to encourage the return of expats. As for researchers and faculty, however, the figure has remained constant over time. Weighing in, Istat pointed out, are such determinants as poor meritocracy in Italian academia, job instability and low confidence in career prospects(Startup Magazine).

• Campania, the flight of college graduates(Republic).