Ukraine and Italy Exchange Lifestyles Illegally

The Day has already written about Ukrainian job-seekers who leave their families, homes, and workplaces to go to other countries in search of work and pay (some, however, seek only pay). Once abroad, they become illegal aliens, outlaws, for a as long as months or years. The situation has really not changed today. This problem, like many other problems of ours, instead of being solved, are in a permanent state of being discussed by the government, Verkhovna Rada, the media, and the Presidential Administration. But what can possibly change when many people did not and still do not have an opportunity to earn a more or less decent living on their own turf? Thus more and more waves of illegal migrants spill over the nation’s border, looking for a job, while there is, so to speak, a boundless ocean of work to do at home in Ukraine. This is the bitter dialectic.

A certain appraisal of the situation and my conversations with job-seekers show that the Italian market, at least in Rome, is beginning to be overflowed with cheap labor because the demand for housemaids and patient- sitters is dwindling, as are their wages. While the wages recently fluctuated around $500 a month, now they are far lower. Rome’s Madonna on the Mount Square, tiny like a classroom and well-known all over Western Ukraine, is filled from dawn to dusk with unemployed women who hope to get any kind of an offer or address from a friend or an agent. Some women are in utter despair: they have been there for weeks, the jobs offered are all unacceptable, and the money they brought from home is running out. You have pay for food and $5 for a night in a flophouse, as well as tip those who supply addresses which might well be fake.

The illegal job-seekers often have to accept aid from Catholic charitable organizations, eat in church soup kitchens, which provide meals to thousands of the homeless from all over the world. These places furnish the international migrants not only meals or shelter but also moral support. The women note with special gratitude and surprise the respect which the employees of these establishments show to an individual, no matter what rung of the social ladder he or she is on.

In Rome, Ukrainians compete for each job with the Filipinos, Poles, Turks, etc. And although our Roman community is convinced that the Ukrainians are the best and most desired workers, Italian employers often think otherwise and give preference to the Filipinos because the latter, unlike ours, have a knack for serving loyally and even gratefully. Just the contrary, many women hate those they work for, consider themselves far superior to them and their work humiliating even when they attend to the sick. This mainly applies to educated Ukrainian women.

This phenomenon, forced life and employment in Italy, is, however, gradually showing some positive signs, too. A new type of person is being formed: a woman who has found a job one way or another, lives in a European capital, has learned the language and adapted herself, bitterly and with difficulty, to living in the Babel called Rome. This is primarily the case of young, energetic, and educated people. Such women not only feel despair and a desire to go home as soon as possible but also become aware of some advantages of a new and unusual way of life, assimilating the Western style of work and communication. One person of this kind once said to this writer, “I will go back home as a really modern and really educated human being because I know the language and had a glimpse of Western culture. In addition, I will have the money to launch a business of my own. We will see then that the person who stayed home lost and the one who went through the mill has eventually won.” This is not an isolated example. I remember coming across two job- seeking compatriots one Sunday in a picturesque place on a historic hill, who were carefully studying the map of Rome, “We’ve come here to sit a little and see the city.”

Another telling phenomenon is that the job-seekers show considerable interest in Italy’s political life: of course, as far as this life can influence the destiny of illegal workers. On the eve of and during the latest Italian elections the Ukrainian women closely watched the election campaign and results, read newspapers, and discussed things, for their destiny in that country depends to some extent on which party comes to power.

During a reception at the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Borys Hudyma told journalists that the situation with Ukrainian illegal migrants remains complicated. An affluent country (average $20,000 per capita income), Italy lures many people from various countries. Among them about 8,000 registered Ukrainians (mostly females) and another 90,000 who stay here illegally. The Ukrainian job-seeking diaspora is by no means the largest in Italy, with almost 1.5 million registered foreigners alone residing there. The consular section of our embassy in Italy, he said, is constantly under stress, daily receiving dozens of women who need help in one way or another; in extreme cases the consulate has to turn to the Italian police. It is noteworthy that, although all our illegals are under Italian police supervision, not a single Ukrainian who has no residence permit has ever been deported from Italy (except, of course, for criminal elements).

It would be possible to legalize those who arrive in Italy, the ambassador says, only under a bilateral agreement still awaiting signature, one which would set out the quota of Ukrainian immigrants allowed to enter the country. However, this long-awaited agreement is unlikely to radically change the situation. For it is obvious that there can be no quota of 100,000 (I will remind that there are now about 100,000 Ukrainians in Italy) because Italy’s unemployment rate is running at 10%. On the other hand, the country needs labor input. Southern Italy lacks high skilled workers, while the North requires seasonal harvesting workers. This provides certain prospects for our job-seekers.

The demographic situation in Western Europe is today changing in favor of immigrants: Europe is aging with mortality notably exceeding the birth rate. For example, Germany is going to face in 10 to 20 years a very serious problem of maintaining pensioners, and even now the number of people who retire is only a little below those beginning to be gainfully employed. Some Western countries have begun amending their legislation and easing foreign immigration and employment rules in order to attract an inflow of a young workforce from other countries. It goes without saying that this policy of the developed countries will result in a still greater drain of young brain and muscle power from such countries as Ukraine unless we have managed by that time to set in motion our own economy.

One more touch to the illegal situation is that the Italians are almost completely ignorant about Ukraine, its history, its current situation, its politicians, or its church situation. For instance, they do not know that Ukraine is the world’s largest Orthodox country. Often it is the Ukrainian women who stay with and work for Italian households who are perhaps the only source of information about us. This is one of the reasons why the legitimate Ukrainian diaspora of Rome takes a dim view of illegal migration to Italy: they blame the illegals for creating a distorted image of Ukraine in the eyes of Italians. For example, a priest, Doctor Ivan Muzychka, maintains that all the Italians know is that Ukraine is a strange state from where women, mothers, sometimes even grandmothers, go abroad looking for hard work, while their husbands relax at home, waiting for their wives to come back in order to feed, clothe, and shoe them. Moreover, Father Ivan says, the Ukrainians are distinguished for dumping — willingly, with pleasure, and under any pretext — at their own country, including the government, politicians, and everyone else, which, for example, the Poles do not do.

History shows that continuous flows of people — builders, scientists, artists, actors, etc. — in various global directions promote the development and reciprocal influence of cultures, create tolerance, and reduce xenophobia. More polyglots appear, and this contributes to greater mutual understanding among the people. If only these flows were not so unidirectional.