THEAvorano and live in our homes, assisting our affections night and day. To carersmore and more fundamental workers for our social structure, women who leave their loved ones to come to wash, feed and also endure ours, we dedicate a small deepening on the occasion of this May 1st. To try to tell their stories of emigration and adaptation, solitude, suffering and resilienceand their lives that flow among ours.
Women, foreigners, sun. May 1 of the carers, who they are
«Of the 833 thousand regular domestic workers, to which another 48% of irregular must be added, 88% are women»Explains Lorenzo Gasparini, secretary general of the National Association of Domestic Employment Families Dominate. “AND 7 out of 10 are foreign, for half of Eastern Europe, and for the rest South American, Philippines and, growing, North African». These data concern both diets and family assistants, category, the latter, which is coming to overcome the first one, cause – of course – aging of the population.
In the Italian system, so strongly supported by the welfare of families, we spend in total 13 billion euros to pay their work, regular and irregular. So much in total, just for each of the employers. But little (about 1100 euros per month, plus some allowances and food and accommodation) if we consider what the carers do. “We consider that they live where they workin a total overlap of private and working life. Who work even at nightwitnessing often sleepless elderly, not self -sufficient and suffering, enduring a load of responsibility and effort substantially constant ». Francesca Alice Vianello, professor associated with sociology of economic processes and work at the University of Padua, author of the book, explains this The work that wear And Migrating sun. Transnational bonds between Ukraine and Italy (FrancoAngeli).
Carers, icons of empowerment
I am Women emigrated alone, “Empowerment icons”continues Vianello: they are the source of income for entire families remained in the country of origin. For their children, but also for their parents. “They leave their elderly parents to come and look after oursas if they were theirs: hence that transfer of love that takes place in our homes ».
But, as emerges from the interviews collected in the book Long journey towards dignity. A social investigation into workers and domestic workers in Italymost of them emigrated to the children. The “migration takes on the meaning of a ‘maternal strategy'”. The desire to guarantee children a better future constitutes the main one motivational factor to face the initial separation, departure and loneliness.
Maternal strategy and sacrifice for children
And the children who remain at home are often children: a lot has been talked about ‘Left Behind Children’, and “White orphans”, victims of a temporary abandonment by their parents, emigrated to another EU Member State for economic reasons.
“But often they are also teenagers,” clarifies Vianello: “The average age of the carers is in fact around 55 years of age. They are mothers who leave to guarantee them higher education. Vedove or separate, or wives that leave grandparents and fathers the task of dealing with their boys ».
A specific category of carers, specifically investigated by Vianello, is that of workers from the former Soviet Union. Half -age women already That, in the nineties and two thousand, following the dissolution of the USSR and the neo-liberal policies adopted by the new independent states, they suddenly found themselves unable to land the Lunario and undertaken international emigration.
Loneliness and burnout risk
I am therefore women who work at the expense of their emotional ties in the places of origin. «Sun women: the encounter with the elderly who take care is configured as often as themeeting between two solitudes»Explains Gasperini. “It is not always transformed into an emotional bond, it is always a heavy load, or very heavy, for the worker”.
Among the work evils of which very carers suffer the main is psychological, and it is burnout. «The load of responsibility, the coexistence with the assisted, suffering in the body and in the spirit, the sacrifice for families: it is a deadly cocktail. All those I have spoken to suffer from it, “says Vianello,” and only those who come to the Stramo talk about it with the careful doctorsand the psychological support offered to them by trade unions and trade associations is little compared to the needs ».
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myslam7meig
The Italy Syndrome of the Eastern European caregivers
To the enormous psychological distress that affects many carers has dedicated a documentary Ettore Mengozzi. Italy syndrome, Winner of the Biografilm Festival 2024, he talks about Eastern Europe carers but, as the director said «He also talks about us and the price we ask to these women who come from thousands of kilometers away to take care of our elderly while their children grow alone ».
The title comes from Name given by two Ukrainian psychiatrists to the symptoms of psychic discomfort they found in many carers returning from Italy. Insomnia, anxiety, depression, panic attacks and in the most serious cases hallucinations and suicidal instincts.
At the Sidrome Italia Instead, he dedicated a beautiful comic, published by Beccogiallo, Tiziana Francesca Vaccaro.
Italian families, employers with responsibility
Then there is the theme of Italian families: «They are employers in all respects: It is their responsibility to protect their employees. But often they are not aware of it, e exploit them. Maybe taking on a caregiver with a regular contract they feel they had made their duty, and they come to ask for a unsustainable availability, They delegate everything and then disinterest. While, of course, family assistants have the right to rest, in Saturdays and free Sundays, to the holidays. “Yes,” recalls Vianello “the consolidated security text excludes domestic work from a whole series of checks and controls that are worth for other workplaces: it is an exceptional condition”.
Families arrive atThe low cost welfare of the carers like the only solution. It is a consequence of the chronic deficiency, in Italy, of services of long term care. In this story, of course, the great absent is the state. What, at least, could help, would be the possibility of deducting at least 30% of the expenses incurred, explains Gasperini.
The pension of the carers, a small small mirage
The hiring costs and the salary, which also seem onerous for families, include minimum contributions for workers for pension purposes. “The carers in our country are aging: mOlte, after paying their studies to the children, remain in Italy for reach the minimum requirements to access the Italian pension system. But with the advance of the age they appear physically weak and They are increasingly precarious: the youngest ones are preferred, considered stronger.
Then, and also those who managed to snatch regular contracts, after a life of work they discover they are entitled to minimal pensions. Some make it enough and return to their countries but, Vianello explains vianelloothers have taken root In Italy and remain here: new retirees at risk of poverty, And with a reduced possibility of accessing that family welfare so crucial in Italian society.
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