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Thinking of immigrating to Italy - am I insane? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi all! This is an alt for anonymity. Please be gentle, this is a hard topic for me to discuss.

I'm a progressive United States citizen who is looking to get out. I'm of Italian descent so I'm working on getting Italian citizenship through jure sanguinis, but it's going to take some time, if it works at all (gotta substantiate some relations) and won't extend to my husband until he completes a citizenship test, which he can do after living in Italy for two years.

Here's my big question: is moving to Italy even a good idea?

I know there's a significant element of fascism there, but that seems to be the case to varying extents throughout Europe. I've visited a few times as a tourist and everyone was very kind. I also have a US cousin that lives there as a permanent resident near Napoli and she is very encouraging, saying people will be welcoming. We don't want much, just to make a living and maybe have a kid.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thank you so much for a very helpful and detailed response. We're both planning on working remotely and we'd actually prefer to live outside of the cities. I'm good at learning languages and my husband is bilingual and excellent with accents, so we will work at being fluent in the language of wherever we settle.

In your opinion, can we ever be fully accepted by any Italian community or will we always be "that (hopefully) nice American couple". I worry because we're missing all the cultural touchstones gained from growing up in Italy. We've been advised to be persistently nice with neighbors and that bigger cities will have English speaking immigrants we can meet up with, but we really want to integrate, acknowledging it'll take time and effort. Do you think that is possible?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

We’re both planning on working remotely and we’d actually prefer to live outside of the cities.

Meaning you already have jobs lined up for this? Remote work in Italy is not uncommon but not super common either, and usually it's not full remote. Be aware that many areas of Italy have poor connection speeds.

can we ever be fully accepted by any Italian community

I don't see why not. Maybe focus on being yourselves rather than what you want to be seen as! Of course making new friends as adults always presents challenges, anywhere, but Italians are known to be friendly and outgoing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Meaning you already have jobs lined up for this?

Yeah, we already work remotely. My employer is fine with my working anywhere in the world. My husband's employer isn't, but he's working on new employment. We can survive on my income alone.

Maybe focus on being yourselves rather than what you want to be seen as!

Thanks, that's the plan! We're both friendly and outgoing, I think more than most Americans, so I'm hoping that helps.

Thanks again for the info and your encouragement. We experienced a lot of xenophobia when we previously asked on Reddit, so this has been really refreshing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

If you need anything else let me know! Godspeed.