My fielwork is going on. So far, I have met nine representatives of Italian institutions, associations and organizations. The meetings took place mostly in London, except one at Gatwick airport and one in Milan.
Since I started interviewing people in the half of March, I have realized that the Italian presence in London is much more spread than I though, and I am not talking just about the size of numbers, but also about the quality and the impact of their presence. So far, I came to know representatives of the Italian trade unions who deal everyday with issues related to the different pension systems and to other aspects related to the experience of working abroad; young professionals who are involved in the activities of Italian political parties abroad and make a great effort to live their professional life in the UK context and at the same time are informed about what’s going on in Italy; and other people who simply prefer to spend their free time to organize events for the Italians living in London. A whole complex universe then, partly invisible, but that is becoming clearer day by day, meeting after meeting.
Recently I have been experiencing a strange feeling: whenever I go to London, I feel like I am going in a place closer to Italy. Maybe it is because now I am conscious there are between 100.000 and 200.000 Italians living there, maybe because I am paying more attention to every sign of Italian presence I notice, maybe because during these meetings I speak my native language, or maybe simply because I meet people from my country who are living abroad, like me. Probably this feeling is due to a mix of all these reasons: I will think more about this, while my research will go on.
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