Cartoline dall’ altra Italia – To Dublin with no regrets (except for healthcare)

Next stop Dublin for this week’s instalment of “Cartoline dall’ altra Italia”, a web series created by 9colonne with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation-Directorate General for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies. Alessia Scarpellini has been living in the Irish capital for two years now, working for a major tech firm that deal with online advertising. Born in Pisa in 1989, after completing a degree in economics, Alessia was on her way: first to Paris, then to India and finally to Dublin, where she says she felt immediately at home: “The Irish are the most welcoming people I have ever known. You never feel like you don’t belong in this country”. Nevertheless, “if feeling at home is one of the island’s strong points, one of the difficulties an Italian who moves there to live might run into is the lack of some public services, such as healthcare. I have come to appreciate public healthcare, which is something that’s missing here. I wasn’t used to seeing, for example, advertisements for health insurance; for me, healthcare was something I was guaranteed as a citizen; here, on the other hand, you pay for everything”. Her plans do not include a return to Italy in the near future: “I’m happy living abroad, where I feel much more appreciated, both as a person and as a professional. But I don’t think I’ll stay in Ireland. I love to travel, so I think I’ll be moving on. I’d like to see more of the world before settling down”. Alessia tells her story to “Cartolina dall’altra Italia”, which each week goes in search of the new Italian emigration, contacting young Italian nationals who have decided to live abroad for whatever reason, keeping the lines of communication with Italy open through their testimony. Watch the video interview on the 9colomme.it website or on the Nove Colonne Youtube channel.