Maria Catenain order to ensure the future of his girls, he gave up the fifth of his salary. Giuseppeinstead, he had to ask his son Marco to give up the university that was the dream of his life and for which he had studied all summer by passing the entrance tests. Sandro is grateful that Alice, who has just graduated from England and intending to stay there, has in the meantime decided to go home looking for a job remotely. Leopoldo and Paulo, on the other hand, in order to stay and study in Bologna – where finding accommodation at non-stellar prices is almost impossible – have adapted to living in an occupied house: three in a room and mattresses on the floor.
They are stories of heavy sacrifices and painful renunciations, of lives up to some time ago serene precipitated quickly in the group of penultimate ones, of broken dreams on the rocks of survival, but also of anger and the desire to win at any cost. These are the stories of families of the so-called middle class, mono but also two-income, so to speak well above the poverty line that forces you to deal with what to put at the table, but which now – crushed by the costs of bills, rents , from the price list – they find themselves at a crossroads never imagined until recently: tighten their belts until they get into debt and give up everything in order to give their children the opportunity to study abroad, in Italy or abroad, in a university in able to guarantee them an easier future. Or, rather, raise the white flag and make them go home. And they are the stories of young people who – aware of their parents’ economic difficulties – adapt to a hard life away from home, sleeping in makeshift accommodations, and even taking on two or three evening or part-time jobs in order not to give up their project.
Studying outside costs too much
It is certainly no coincidence that, after 5 years of continuous growth and after two years of pandemic, the number of enrollments at the University has dropped by 3%. The return of face-to-face lessons and the severe increase in the price of rents, bills and transport, has led thousands of young people to give up enrolling. And off-site numbers are falling more significantly. Of the approximately 1.7 million Italian university students, those who move to study elsewhere are now less than 500,000, about 100,000 fewer than in the last official survey of 2018. It is mainly freshmen who give up, who enrolls in another university look as close to home as possible. The scholarships are too few and too low, the places in public studentships are absolutely insufficient (just 40,000), which should become 100,000 in 2026 thanks to the Pnrr. And those who really want to go outside, choose the intermediate way: three years at home, specialist or master outside.
The assignment of the fifth
“Ah no, no shopping”. In her kitchen a Pattiin the province of MessinaMaria Catena Cassarà, 61, regional employee, scolds with a smile the eldest of her daughters, who has decided to return to Sicily after graduating fromSussex University and who – with ease – goes to visit her on her way back from the supermarket, leaving her a shopping bag on the table. “I have three daughters, Valentina, Giulia and Gloria, and to get them all to study abroad I sold two houses. Then my husband, who was in the insurance sector, lost his job and I decided to sell the fifth. salary in order to continue to allow them to build the future they dream of. I work eight hours a day in the Tourism service of the Sicilian region and my paycheck is 1,300 euros. The last electricity bill arrived was more than 200 euros, and it was still summer. The oven does not turn on anymore, we don’t talk about holidays at all, luckily we are on the sea and live in our own house. And as soon as the youngest has finished the master in Economy, I hope he can find work immediately. Investing in children is the last thing I would give up. “
The Dams and the vanished dream
Giuseppe Melianurse at the hospital of Mazara del Vallo, where his wife also works, she still cries when she tells of “one of the worst days of my life, when I had to say to Marco:” My son, have you seen, we have tried everything, there is nothing within our reach, I and your mother we can’t afford to support you a Bologna with these prices “”. The Dams in Bologna, the dream of Marco, the family artist, the passion for painting that he expresses on canvas, in the murals with which he colors his city. He had already studied hard before graduation to gain access to university. And he had made it. Never, never would he have thought of having to abandon due to the impossibility of finding decent but sustainable housing for the budget of a family in any case with double income. “I left with my son for Bologna, we turned to everyone, acquaintances, real estate agencies, university groups, social networks but we only found crazy requests, 5-600 euros for a bed in a triple room or in a cellar, scams, sureties , subletting beds. One day Marco replied to an ad asking the height because it was a mattress in an attic one meter and 65 centimeters high. Isee above 22,000 euros, we did not qualify for the call for applications for housing in public student residences. Unbelievable what a college town like Bologna is unable to provide an acceptable offer. I have another son who studies in a college in the United States and with 600 euros a month he has a course of study, room, sport, assistance. In Bologna, overall, we would have spent at least twice as much. “In the end Marco he withdrew his application for registration at Dams and went home depressed also because it was too late to register for Palermo. “He remained locked in his room for days-reveals the father-I proposed to take a sabbatical and try again, but it was the hardest thing I had to ask him”.
Out of office in occupied houses
Six shared rooms, at the moment 15 live there but you can still squeeze them. A large kitchen with a common table, a meeting room. A makeshift accommodation was recovered in “Vacant House”uninhabited building owned by Common, in the center a stone’s throw from the university faculties, inside the walls where to find any bed (which you can’t find anyway) it takes at least 5-600 euros. But the mattresses on the floor, the chairs that act as a wardrobe and bookcase, the shared bathroom are the only solution Leopoldo, Paulo, Luca have found to continue attending the faculties ofAlma Mater to which they subscribed. “And it’s not that bad, I also have a raised bed under the mattress and the people of the neighborhood welcomed us here with great sympathy and helped us to furnish the house in some way, they even help us to do the shopping”, he says. Leopoldo, 19 years old, freshman of Economy. “My father is a carpenter and small crafts, he does not have a fixed salary, my mother is unemployed. I started looking for a house in May, I only saw prohibitive things, nothing less than 5-700 euros or only short rents for 50- 60 euros a night for a sofa. I understand they asked you 10 euros a night, but why should I stay at someone else’s house on a sofa for 50 euros a day? I’m from Florence, I could commute, that’s true. I did for two, three weeks: flixbus or train, wake up at 5 to be in class at 8, 250 euros per month of transport. Then they occupied “Casa vacante” and I decided to stay here, at the end occupy also has its political value “.
Competition from Airbnbs
A “vacant house” also came to live Luca Torini21 years old, of Padova enrolled in Political Sciences. With Tiziano Ghidelliis the “politician” of the group, the face of the collective Luna. “The theme of the house is equivalent to the theme of renunciation and the right to stay. Bologna it is leveling up on private luxury student residences, from 800 to 1,000 euros. The city is thus outsourced to private individuals who decide who can stay and study here and who cannot. There is a process of expulsion of students, an interruption of previous leases and evictions. Many young people, even children of families with two incomes, no longer have the right to citizenship in what used to be a university city par excellence and today has 4,000 apartments on Airbnb “.
Double employment plus lessons
And then there is Paola, 21, from Cosenza. “No photos and no surname – is the student’s premise – because mine are down in Calabria They do not know. They have a small bar and the bills are ruining them. They can’t give me more than 200 euros a month and with the scholarship of 5,200 euros a year now I can’t even pay for my accommodation anymore. The owner terminated the contract and asked us for an increase of 150 euros each, I would have had to pay 600 euros for a double bed in the suburbs. Plus the cost of the means and what it takes to survive here, impossible. I found a triple room outside Milan for 500 euros and I took two jobs: in the afternoon I babysit and try to study, hoping that the child sleeps. And in the evening, from Thursday to Sunday, I work as a waitress in a club. Except that I go to bed late at night and I am afraid with these rhythms of slowing down the deadline for exams. And I can’t afford to lose my scholarship “. Paola wants to become an interpreter.” And, you can bet, I will succeed “.