Migration of Women to Eastern Italy: Towards an Adriatic model?

Abstract

In this piece of research, the presence of foreign women is investigated in a central area of the Italian Adriatic, the metropolitan area of Chieti-Pescara, in the Abruzzo region. It is an urban territory with around 300,000 inhabitants, in which women exceed 50% of the total number of foreigners and migratory flows started late compared with the rest of the country. The research seems to indicate the existence of an Adriatic model of women's migration, which can be considered as a sub-type of the Mediterranean model. The Adriatic model is characterized by a greater presence of women coming from the former Soviet Block and former Yugoslavia countries, with a high level of education and a high inclination to arrive and stay on their own, free from partners and children. The presence of foreign women is influenced by global and geopolitical changes that have come into existence in the last ten years. It is especially motivated by economic reasons; however, the search for autonomy and independence is not a factor that can be ignored. The women have on average important professional experience, but they carry out domestic assistance jobs. They are mainly single women, who have left their partners and children in their country of origin. They belong, therefore, to those trans-national families to whom they contribute with their remittances. Their standard of living is not high, due to their low incomes and necessity to save.