(Jun. 18) – “Living abroad has not only advantages. Leaving your country, your family and friends are the other side of the coin. The desire to come back one day is strong”. So speaks Michele Scacchi, an engineer from the region of Liguria who has been living for three years in Germany, in Schkopau, a small town in Saxony-Anhalt, where he works for Manuli Stretch, a company which produces synthetic rubber mainly used for tires. He left Italy to “improve the working condition” and “project to build a more satisfying life”, and today, after getting a stable job and many satisfactions, and “being said that now I cannot be longer considered a young nor a brain drain”, he analyze the phenomenon of new migration with clear ideas: “As a foreigner observer, I see how the number of Italian graduates with a PhD or high specialization has significantly grown in the last two years in this area of Germany.” Concerning his experience, the engineer says: “I graduated in Chemical Engineering in 2004 from University of Bologna. While I was writing my thesis, I have done an internship training at the laboratories of the Polymer Research Centre in Ravenna, where I gained experience on rheological techniques that are used to characterize elastomeric materials (rubber from used tires). After some delusions in the world of work,” adds Scacchi with a hint of bitterness, “I attended a Master Degree in ‘Water treatment, innovative technologies and conventional membrane processes for waste and drinking water treatment’ from the University of Genoa. In 2007-2008, I worked as a consultant in the treatment of wastewater, collaborating with the company SEPRA of Milan.” “After this experience, I moved to Germany in 2009, in Halle-Saale where my wife Silvia lived and worked since the year before.” Scacchi has faced some difficulties at the beginning of his life in Germany: “The greatest were, of course, to find a job and learn German. I attended a course for foreigners to learn their language, reaching soon an average level. And now I work in Schkopau, in a chemical plant, which produces synthetic rubber used mainly in the field of tires. I work, with my colleagues, to optimize operation of the main drying machines used in the finish.” (Gil/Peg)
