Of mentalità and raccomandazione: comparing the emigration and internal migration of Italian graduates

Migration occupies a key place in Italian history. This study looks at the current phase of Italian migration and compares the motivations and characteristics of recent Italian graduate emigrants and internal migrants. Two samples were interviewed: 36 Italian graduates in the London area, coming from all parts of Italy; and 24 graduates from southern Italy, interviewed in Milan and Rome. Analysing the interviews, two terms which surfaced regularly as push factors for migration were mentalità, meaning the Italian "way of doing things", at a range of levels from national politics to family relations, and raccomandazione, the necessity to have a strong "recommendation" from a person in power in order to get a job. Whilst both types of migration were driven essentially by economic and employment factors, the internal movers saw their relocation as a "forced" move, whereas the emigrants saw their migration to the UK as an adventure and a route to self-realisation. Both groups were highly ambivalent about future moves, especially return migration.