THE FAIRYTALE
When you scroll through social media, moving abroad often looks
easy. However, packing your life into a suitcase means
stepping out of your comfort zone.
Suddenly, you start missing the little things you took for granted.
While the professional rewards and personal growth can be rewarding,
your journey demands
immense resilience.
"Isolation, bullying, language and cultural barriers, different
schedules, different schools, and racism are among the small
challenges of daily life. The major ones were when relatives started
passing away. When you wish you could be there, but you have
to be here. A person living abroad is and always will be
torn in two. Last year, my brother was in the hospital for
six months, enduring a very difficult open-heart surgery and a
post-operative coma. I had to stay here for work, but also be there
to help, constantly going back and forth, which was costly both
financially and emotionally. Always divided. I am here and I
miss Italy; I am there and I want to return to the Netherlands".
Luisa. 65 years old.
From Rome to Dublin and then Amsterdam.
If you decide to pack your bags, you need to understand that the
Italian brain drain is not a temporary trend, it has become a
structural shift.
HOW DID IT DEVELOP DURING THE YEARS?
Preceding the global financial crisis and the dawn
of the Great Recession in 2008, this phase is defined by
relatively modest and well-balanced mobility. Outward
migration steadily averages 40,000 individuals per year,
whereas return migration stands at 33,000
Outward migration experiences a sharp upsurge (from 50,000
to 89,000), while return migration persists at
considerably more modest levels (averaging 30,000
annually). The interplay of these two trends drives a
decline in net migration, hitting a trough of -60,000 in
2014 and culminating in an aggregate loss of 170,000
Italian citizens over the period as a whole.
Outward migration reaches unprecedented levels (averaging
114,000 annually), yet the influx of returning Italians
also increases (to 45,000 per year). This dynamic
facilitates a relative contraction in the net migration
gap, shifting from -72,000 in 2015 to -54,000 in 2019
Pandemic shock. Outward migration sustains elevated
levels, compounded by the Brexit effect: numerous Italians
already domiciled in the United Kingdom expedited their
enrollment in the AIRE to secure or validate their settled
status, thereby inflating emigration records. Return
migration also experiences an uptick (205,000 in
aggregate), prompted by public health uncertainty,
culminating in a net migration deficit of 110,000 for the
entire three-year timeframe.
In 2024 alone, over 150,000 Italians officially
moved their residency abroad. Today, the "Italy outside of
Italy" counts over 6.4 million people.
Historically, if you were part of this exodus, you were almost
exclusively from the South, driven by a sheer lack of local
opportunities. Today, the landscape has changed. Europe
remains the ultimate comfort zone, welcoming over half of all
Italian expats.
The real motivation? It’s not that you don’t want to live in Italy.
It’s that as a young professional, you are looking for meritocracy,
transparent career paths, and contracts that actually allow you to
become independent and achieve your goals.
"In Italy, right after graduating in biology, job opportunities were
extremely limited, primarily geared toward teaching. Ever since I
was a little girl, I had dreamed of doing research.
I found an innovative university to do my PhD, with young and
motivated professors. I found the possibility, post-PhD, to receive
offers based on meritocracy and not on the development of good
"political" connections."
Anna. 30 years old.
From Milan to Boston.
Today, wealthy northern regions like are among the top starting points for italians in search of better opportunities.
Go to the next chapter:
What are your chances of finding a job?
