Why did you move abroad? Why in Berlin?

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My lack of job satisfaction after graduation has to be related to a general indifference of the Italian society towards young people and their future: I got tired of working to be able to afford only the expenses. So I moved to Berlin.
The decision came from the well-known liveability of the city and the fact that it is very very cheap. It is a city in constant evolution that gives space to artists and to people in general to express themselves without being judged too as it happens in Italy, especially in Milan. It 'a free city, where there is entertainment, where there is work and where old things are not thrown away.

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Is there any characteristic, you can identify as peculiar of your country, you miss?

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Of Italy I miss the warmth of the people.
People there are talkative and have fun on the streets, on the buses, on the trains. It's hard to feel alone in Italy as normally there always is someone you can have a chat with, even though this characteristic is unfortunately a bit less frequent in northern Italy.
I also miss good food: when I go back to Italy I eat anything.

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If you look back at your life in your country, do you see improvement that justify your moving abroad? Or, do you see improvement chances?

Surely there is an improvement. I have a job where I am employed and I have a supervisor and then I have my cafe, where I with my boyfriend are the bosses and can develop our ideas.
When I have time I can go out because my salary will allow me and I live in a city where nothing is lacking and where after 4 years you can still get surprised for what happens.

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Do you feel integrated in the German society? In the Berliner one?

I feel I am integrated both into German and Berliner society.
I must say that the “Integrationskurs” financed by the State is perfect: it gives you a basis knowledge of the language while the “Orientierungskurs” explains you history, laws, and how it works in Germany with school, politics, etc. …all these things are the basis for the integration and are what unfortunately is missing in Italy where foreigners are left abandoned.

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What does the work represent and mean to you?
 

The work is a very important part of our lives. My family taught me that every job is respectable and in life you have to work always and hard. We have to earn with work anything we have: only in this way we can make the most of our free time and feel we really deserved it.

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What does this specific job mean to you?
 

The call center job has given me the possibility to work in Berlin from the beginning even without any knowledge of the German language and I think it can represent a great opportunity for foreigners.
At the moment it is one of my two jobs as in the time I have free I work in the cafeteria that this job gave me the possibility to open and to run with no debts.

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Has anything changed of your approach to work since you work in a Call Center?

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My conception of work has not changed: as I said, business is business. Of course there are works where the commitment is minimal, others where you earn very well, others more fun... there are those who work in a call center and who do not even have a job.