Book review: Maddalena Tirabassi and Alvise Del Pra’, Il mondo si allontana? Il COVID-19 e le nuove migrazioni italiane

Reviewed by: Matteo Brera , University of Western Ontario, Canada Further to Del Pra’ and Tirabassi’s publication of La meglio Italia: Le mobilità italiane nel XXI secolo (Turin: Accademia University Press, 2014), Il mondo si allontana? promises to be another key addition to the scholarship on contemporary Italian diasporas. Indeed, it offers a first-hand impression of the state of the new Italian mobilities, including the efforts put in place by individuals, communities, and political entities to adjust to the “new normal.” The first section of the book elaborates on the results of an online questionnaire answered by 1,115 Italians residing in 57 countries, including both “traditional” destinations such as France, Germany and Switzerland and “newer” ones such as China, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. The second section includes contributions by politicians, academics, public servants, and members of associations who reflect on the future of Italian mobilities in the age of the Coronavirus. This snowball sampling conducted mainly through Facebook (the social media platform that traditionally hosts groups connecting Italians abroad) returned the profile of an older (30–39 years of age), highly educated, stably employed interviewee who emigrated more than three years prior to 2020. Keeping in mind the limits of an online questionnaire circulated in a relatively short time span and mostly through one social media (which somehow excluded younger age groups), the canvassing revealed how this portion of new Italian emigrants weathered the storm with minimal consequences for their professional lives. Many of them kept working; some of them in the traditional way (15%), while several respondents moved to smart working (52%). Access to social security meant for some of the interviewees the possibility of benefiting from paid leave, emergency payments, and furlough programmes (11%). A bleaker picture emerged, however, regarding those employed in the most heavily hit hospitality sector, where several respondents lost their jobs (6%). One of the most significant findings of the inquiry is that several respondents confirmed how their migratory choice has not been affected by COVID-19. Some of the responses, however, suggest that the rationale for choosing future countries of destination in the post-pandemic era will be defined by new variables such as the quality of national health services and their specific provisions. Forum Italicum 1–2 © The Author(s) 2022