Emigrate. Italians on the run. Expat life.
You don’t know what it means but you can learn it quickly.
Who would have said that one day I have been part of this? Well, I do, because I’ve always been fascinated by living in another country. But I never thought I would have become an expat with a family to care of.
In Italy this is the time when young people are struggling to find a job and when they have got it, it is hard to find one for permanent. In reality the young people are not only one that are making the decision to leave Italy, most of them are managers looking for an advance in career as feeling stuck in companies where too often nepotism is the law.
I don’t hide it, London is the city of my dreams, since the first time I came here to study English. So, when it comes to have the opportunity to move here, this city has certainly played an important role in the decision.
But if the decision to emigrate abroad is in itself a complex choice
When it involves other people, your children, your affections, is never an easy choice.
You can’t be sure that you’ve made the right choice. I have been living here in London for a year and a half and I still don’t know. Looking for a better job is the reason usually, but it’s not just personal ambition, it’s even more about wanting to give your family a better future. That’s what we thought when we decided to move here in the UK, the opportunity to face up a multi-ethnic environment and to believe that opportunity means meritocracy here.
FROM THIS POINT OF VIEW, LONDON GIVES YOU CHE CHANCE TO MOVE UP, BUT AT WHAT PRICE?
The price is high, although technology fortunately helps so much. But it’s not exactly the same thing that you can go to your mom to take a coffee whenever you want, calling her five minutes before arriving when this implies to book a plane and arrange it on time.
I’s also about the importance of having the grandparents close, and what a sense of guilt we have to cope with for taking their grandchildren away from them. And then, if you’re like me, that all of your dearest friends have children of the same age of yours, it means losing birthdays, dinners, parties and evenings in company.
Being an expat means to work, to adapt, to learn a new language or to improve it, because if you think you know English when you come here you realize that you actually speak it very badly.
Related:
The English mom doesn’t disappoint the most traditional stereotypes. She can go around with three, four children together with grace and comfort, she doesn’t scream and keeps the calm, has an easy approach on everything.
In all seriousness, there is no better mom than another, but certainly expat moms have a lot of concerns and let’s say it, more blows. At the same time I must say it triggers a solidarity that I didn’t imagine, because the other moms I’ve met here have become in little time my friends. Living this experience creates a very strong bond.
[bctt tweet=”“The ideal place for me is the one in which it is most natural to live as a foreigner.” – Italo Calvino ” username=”mumwhatelse”]
Which kind of advice can I give to an another mom who is thinking about moving abroad? I suggest to consider many factors before taking any decisions, both practical and economic sides as the cost of living (transport, rent and education) to those obviously personal and personal. Everyone has a personal history, and it is vital that you and your partner are both convinced. Because when you’ll meet some inevitably difficulties, it is important to be on the same page.
Emigrate, it’s not a picnic, but how much can you growth when engaging with a different vision of the world?
It will take a while, after the love-at-first-sight phase with the new life, there will be necessarily one when you realize that Italian people think very often that the green is always greener on the other side.
I think the bet is called integration, recognizing the importance of our roots, embracing the new with a bit of irony.
With love,
