“As a student in Denmark, between scholarship and part-time, I took about 2 thousand euros per month, and after a year from the first job I could afford a rent of 1200 euros. If I returned to Italy today, I would probably be considered a young woman in her thirties and not an experienced professional “. Valentina Camilletti, from the Marche region, is an example of the Erasmus generation: after an experience at Copenhagen Business School in 2013 she decides to return to Denmark for a master in diversity and change management and, while still a student, finds her first job in the Maersk commercial company. Today he works in the headquarters of Lego, a Billund, the only non-Danish member of her team: “I left a permanent contract for a life project with my partner, in Italy I would never have done it!”.
When she explained that she wanted to continue her studies in Europe they told her “where do you think you are going with this European mind? you’re still a little girl“. But with his first job he received a triple figure compared to what he would have taken in Italy. “My studies at CBS concerned a discipline close to the field of human resources which manages, on various levels, theinclusiveness within the company; passing from the sustainability of the management of environmental risks, to remunerative gender equality. In Italy there was no such thing“. During the first semester of the second year he joined an important commercial company: “Although I had a student contract here, I don’t have to spend time making photocopies: you have to learn fast“, He remembers,“ but in return they give you a certainty almost immediately autonomy and flexibility. There is no need to stamp a time card but the times are never really fixed, at least in the private sector, as a certain rhetoric might suggest, but when I needed days for me no one has ever denied them to me “. And working flexibility gives you security if you have to make a personal choice: “I moved to a new city, leaving Copenhagen, to follow a life choice with my partner, leaving an indeterminate for a given, because you have some confidence to get it back”.
The Nordic mentality of the welfare state is still rooted, although there is a change taking place with the new generations. And there is no shortage of disparities. “There is a gender wage difference here too, albeit to a lesser extent than in Italy – explains Valentina to Fatto.it – but companies like Maersk or Lego constantly carry out internal analyzes to solve these problems. However, in general, women still receive a slightly lower salary ”. One of his duties is precisely that of file such differences within the company: “In my case it happened that Danes were promoted more easily than foreigners. This happened to me too. After a couple of years in Maersk I pointed this out and they adjusted the salary, but it was possible thanks to the Danish colleagues who pointed it out to me ”. Lego, where he works now, although it is an international company, has recently begun to change mentality regarding internal communication: “I am the first of my non-Danish team, and we are managing to pass the concept that when you are in an official situation you must speak in English. – then explains -. I speak Danish but it is not a linguistic problem: the opening of a company and not clinging to circumscribed dynamics are important messages for those outside. One thing that we should also improve in Italian companies “.
Than in Denmark the cost of living both famously alto, as in other Scandinavian countries, it is well known. “Spend at least one third of the rented salary, you don’t go out for dinner several times a week, if you go to a medium-high restaurant you go there at most once a month – says Valentina -. I think it’s to keep the wages of those in humbler jobs so high, because they earn well too. A kind of equalization of income: if you enter a Dane’s house you will see the same set of dishes as the neighbor even if one is a worker and the other is a lawyer ”. They call janteloven, a custom according to which the individual who tries to differentiate himself from the group is viewed negatively. In short, we must not push it too hard. “You also see it in aesthetics: they often wear dark colors, same brands of clothes, electronics and so on. But the younger generations try to move away from it, they tend to be more individualistic ”, says Valentina.
The fourth wave coronavirus has not spared even the virtuous Denmark – where covid tests are free – which with its 77% of vaccinated with full cycle reached 45,983 infections between 5 and 11 December, although the deaths were fewer by one third of the January peak. “I got covid last year, I haven’t been to the hospital but I had long covid aftermath. Here – he confesses – maybe one thing I miss about Italy, paradoxically, it is our health. With us, a general practitioner can devote more time to you and you can ask him for more things, while here, since the doctors are also paid on the basis of performance, if you ask for an appointment for one thing and want to ask for an opinion for another, you have to resume the appointment ” . Some stereotypes, however, are true: “In our country I miss the openness and warmth of the people, here they take a while from this point of view. After years, in addition to the lack of family and friends, you realize that you have missed many important moments in the life of the people you care about most”.
Valentina remains confident about the future, including for our country: “That the pandemic has speeded up a process of change is undeniable. We are much more connected, the generations today are different from those of our parents – he says -. But Italy for now is not a country for young people or women. Here there is no hierarchy whereby if one is older he has the right to walk past you or is considered more. As long as I want to focus on work, I will not return to Italy unless things change “.