Young Italians Are Leaving Italy
More and more Italians are leaving their country because they cannot get a job. One in every three Italians say they are willing to go abroad, sometimes even to other continents to get work. Currently, about 300,000 young Italians may be living abroad.
Although emigration has always been a topic for Italians, especially for those who left the country at the beginning of the twentieth century, more and younger Italians think leaving their home country is the only way to escape economic hardships. These young Italians, however, are not poor farmers and laborers but bright university graduates and other talented youngsters.
Many of them want to go to richer places, like Scandinavia or Germany, but they are also prepared to go elsewhere. Most of them describe a feeling of unhappiness and frustration. They are not sure which direction their country is heading and feel no longer proud of being Italians.
Many also leave because they think that getting a good job is possible in other countries where all doors are open to you if you are young and dynamic, whereas in Italy everything is dull and old-fashioned. Italy’s economic system is largely based on family structures and the elderly who don’t want to give up power. Corruption is also a nightmare that simply won’t go away.
The Italian government is aware of the problem and says it must create new opportunities for its younger generation. But even if starts working on a new style economy right away it may take years before things in Italy really change. The government has already passed laws which will make it easier for doctors, lawyers and other academics to start a career in Italy.
Many economic experts claim that Italy is doing a lot for its older generation but very little for its youth. It spends little on housing, child care but a lot on pensions. The Mediterranean country is stuck deep in the economic crisis focusing around the Euro. Its credit ratings have gone down to A- and the government is struggling to repay its debts.
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Words
- abroad = another country
- academic = a person who has gone to college or the university
- although = while
- aware = to know about
- based on = comes from
- bright = intelligent
- career = a job that you have been trained for and that you will do for the rest of your life
- century = a hundred years
- child care = looking after children
- claim = to say that something is true
- corruption = to misuse your power and do something that is illegal; or to take money to do someone a favor
- create = make
- credit rating = how likely another company or bank thinks it is for you to pay back your debts
- currently = at the moment
- debt = when you have to pay back money to someone
- describe = tell, explain
- dull = boring
- dynamic = full of life; things change very quickly
- economy = the system of buying and selling goods in a country
- elderly = older people
- elsewhere = somewhere else
- emigration = leaving your home country and going somewhere else
- escape = get away from
- especially = above all
- focus = concentrate , center
- frustration = to feel bad or angry at something that is not the way you would like it to be
- government = people who rule a country
- graduate = someone who has finished school or a university
- hardship = something that makes your life difficult; the situation of being poor
- head = move, go
- housing = the construction of new homes and houses
- however = but
- laborer = someone who works with his hands
- law = rules that a country has
- lawyer = a person who has studied law
- little = not enough
- Mediterranean = area between Europe and Africa
- nightmare = something terrible
- old-fashioned = nothing changes; everything is always the same
- opportunity = chance to do something
- prepared = here: willing to
- proud = to have a high opinion of
- repay = pay back
- stuck = caught
- whereas = while
- youngster = young person