Di Lindsay Cas

(al più presto lo tradurrò in Italiano)

Although I have lived in Italy for several years in the past, I have never actually worked here or applied for a job, not until this year that is.

I first came to Italy in 1999 to study and stayed until 2003. The country and people fascinated me, and I soon fell in love with the Italian approach to life, however, I also quickly understood that Italy was not going to offer me anything promising after graduating, unless I had enough money to sustain myself long enough until a good opportunity came along, or used the few connections I had, and so I opted to go back first to Belgium and then move to London instead, to chase the best working opportunities in a way I had been brought up to believe they should be given and found, that is purely based on talent and achievements.

Six years later and with several valid working experiences on my curriculum, I longed to come back and live here permanently and so I shipped my goods from London and moved back to one of the many lovely places this country cherishes. Most Italian people I know declared me nuts. They told me that I was going back to a country where there are no opportunities and I was just to become another name on the extremely long unemployed list, or that, if I did find a job, I would get paid little money and also little respect, Italy just doesn’t deserve people putting up with this.

Many young Italians are forced to live abroad, because of this situation. Most of them are extremely talented and intelligent and none of them would hesitate to come back if only they had the right opportunities available to them, and if they thought that politicians would take the problem at heart, and actually do something about it, not just the working situation but the entire concept of Italian society in the 21st century. Most of them also do not want to burden their parents any more than they have to and so they prefer to make their own way, while the ones that did stay along in Italy are probably fully or at least partially financially backed up by their parents who still have some savings left being the last generation that can still enjoy some kind of financial security through pensions or family inheritances.

The problem is not that Italy doesn’t have working opportunities but the access to them is very limited. Unless you know someone who knows someone who needs someone, your talent will go to waste and as it is usually so, the people who get a job because they know someone who knows someone who needs someone, rarely are the most talented, and the jobs that do reach the Italian job market in a democratic way, tend to be either leftovers or opportunities that are actually “non-jobs”. If the country itself is in a mess and not taken serious internationally, it is precisely because of this: there is no real or honest talent at the top.

Another core problem is that in the last couple of years, the Italian government has approved laws that make it very easy to abuse workers who do apply for jobs in a normal way. The approval of the Biagi law of 2003, approved under the Berlusconi government and never revised by any of the other political parties that rose to power after, was another blow. Although this law might work in a place like London where there is hardly ever a lack of job opportunities and as such, people would not be in and out of jobs for a very long time, it can’t work in Italy where the opportunities are simply extremely limited and the system is utterly corrupted. Since then, employers have the right to offer their employees an unlimited amount of temporary contracts, leading to a situation where it has become very rare that contracts are or become of indefinite duration. The consequence for young workers is tragic. If they do manage to get out of unemployment to get a contract, it will be temporary. It means, that they will have to accept not just the uncertain terms of the contract, but the employer will put further pressure on them by paying them very little and having them work very long hours. Furthermore, companies when they can prefer female workers who not only cost even less but also can be professionally objectified and please the customers with their looks, achieving a better image and potentially better results for the company.

None of my friends who do have a contract can think about their future like buying a house, starting a family or changing their job for a better one, and complaining means risking the only security they have because they could get fired from one day to the other, considering that for every Italian leaving there are about 300 or more waiting to accept the same terms and conditions.

A third problem is the Italians themselves, and their lack of either will or confidence to oppose to this situation. It has become impossible for them to believe that something can be changed because they have grown up in a situation where honesty simply doesn’t work, while desperation does. So the very rich sit back and relax and enjoy their safe comfortable lives where finding work is easy and contracts are fantastic, while the ones who do understand the problems but have connections don’t take an actual stand, and the majority that’s left, is either forced to live the uncertainty of worrying how to feed themselves or corrupt themselves in one way or the other, whether it is by breaking the law or using their body to get somewhere.

So you say, why do people not change this situation? As much as Italians find unity in their food, sun and sea, there is no unity in the way they judge their country and its actions or is there any true reflection left in the majority of a population that once thrived on its intellectual and cultural heritage. Years of media manipulation that has turned the power of thought into an alleged power of purchase have caused a situation where no one cares or believes anymore, and most of them have been carefully mastered to believe television rather than reality. The truth is that reality bites. It is easy for us who have not grown up in this system to judge but it is fundamental to understand that if Italians were to actually change something, it would imply a revolution. A revolution that starts within all the Italian people, before it would be even possible to consider getting rid of all the political parties, all politicians and their related mafia connections, left, center and right. It would need Italians starting to believe that they can really change the situation, right at the basics, whether it is the relationships between women and men, or the one between slaves and masters.

It would require Italy to finally get out of the feudal middle age concept of society and enter a new dawn of emancipation, equal rights and true social democracy, standing up against the powers that be, from the Church, to the mafia, and the political and social system.

This cannot be done without intellectual reasoning, anarchy, and probably violence, and as much as many Italians want this change, a part from being very peaceful and tolerant up to the point they are too lazy to get into a real fight, they are also terrible cowards with a lack of confidence that actual change can be achieved. Believing in mafia is a mental process, and if it exists, it is because people allow it to persist.

So you ask where does that leave me and why I am still here? Like me, the new generations of immigrants in Italy, don’t suffer the feudal, catholic mafia or macho heritage nor are they afraid of taking on the challenges that this country faces us with. We are here because we want to give our contribution to positive change, hand in hand with our Italian friends, change is coming and we are part of it. Writing what I wrote, it probably makes me more Italian to Italians than to foreigners, the bottom line is that I love this country and I want it to have a future, even if it is against all odds, and even if I will have to suffer because of it. A fundamental part of the change will also depend on those Italians who today are abroad and have turned their backs on their own country. Italy needs all of them to come back, because it is this generation of Italians that has gone missing and the hole they left can just not be filled with immigrants alone, first because they were born here and their talent is needed here, second because they have the education and skills that can change people’s mentality, third because they have the international experience to realize what is wrong with this country not only on an intellectual, but also on a pragmatic level, which means that like me, they will probably not take the shit they would have taken 10 years ago anymore.

Why I wrote this article…another typical job announcement: company in the center of Italy looking for FULL TIME office SALES CLERK, TEMPORARY CONTRACT, needs to be female and good looking, needs to have 2-3 years of experience, will pay 800 euro a month. Send CV with pic, CV’s without pic will be thrown in the trash.

Total of (DESPERATE OR SUPERFICIAL) people who applied so far: 40.

My reply to this: FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING DISGRACE OF A COMPANY. THIS IS WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS AND I AM NOT TAKING YOUR SHIT!

Now, let’s have an espresso.