VENICE, Italy – The face of the young sales clerk brightens as she discovers we are English-speakers. When we tell her we are from Canada, she exclaims:
“Canada! I want to move there.”
Giulia grew up on the mainland of Italy a few kilometres from this world-famous tourist town. She lives and works in a midst of a city whose unique and romantic canals have made it the theme of certainly millions of photos, as well as countless stories and movies. Its winding streets teem with a potpourri of visual delights, drawing 100,000 tourists a day during tourist season.
And, yet, Giulia can't wait to leave. She has a cousin in Kitchener, Ontario. And yes, her dream is to put the history, culture and heritage of Venice behind her in favour of the wide open opportunities of Canada.
Like many European cities, Venice is much better at drawing tourists than it is at keeping its young. Venice is sinking, scientists agree, but not just physically; metaphorically as well. Fully 90,000 people have left it for good in the past few years, leaving just 60,000 inhabitants today. Each year, another 1,000 people leave it behind.
But Venice is far from alone in finding that its old world charms can't compete with Canada's rugged allure. On a recent trip through portions of central and Eastern Europe, I was struck by how many people spoke fondly of Canada as a country they longed to move to – in some cases, if only they could.
One day we tripped into the peculiar little Istrian village of Vodjnan, famous in Catholic circles for St. Blaise's Church, which houses the naturally mummified corpses of several Catholic saints. Visiting there was a temptation too macabre to resist for my wife and me.
When the museum curator discovered we were from Canada, his face brightened and he told us how much he would love to visit our country. Sadly for him, the prospects are impossible, on his salary of just Euro250 per month.
A few days later, we traveled to a charming and isolated hill town of Motovun in Croatia, one of the few truffle regions in the world. It is one of the most enchanting little towns I have ever visited – seated high on a hill, and surrounded by a valley that provides wide-open vistas in every direction.
It is incredibly quiet, almost reverential, and I can see in my wife's eyes that romantic impulse that maybe . . . somehow . . . we could dream of a place like this as a perfect vacation home.
But strolling up to the “kastel” at the peak, we engage in conversation with a German tourist, drawn to the region by its bargain rates. He wants to know about Canada and the Rocky Mountains, and tells us how much he would love to visit.
“That would cost me about about $10,000?” he asks. “But there would be four of us, so . . .” He shrugs.
Days later, we stop in a shop in the charming Slovenian city of Ljubljana. There, a sales clerk explains why everybody dreams of moving to Canada, the land of promise. Canadians see our country's faults and frustrations, but to people in many parts of the world, it remains a place of both unspoiled beauty and wide-open opportunity. Old world towns are beautiful and charming, but offer little for young people. Many work long hours for very low rates of pay. Homes are so expensive, many young people will never be able to own one.
A 2007 study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on poverty in Europe found that young Europeans in their late teens and early 20s are at a higher risk of poverty than all other groups except for children and older people. Europe's youth unemployment rate is stuck at a grim 21 per cent, but soars to 25 per cent in Giulia's Italy. Eurostat, the EU's statistical agency, estimates says 44 per cent of European youth have no choice but to live with their parents. Canada's youth rate of 14 per cent is almost rosy by comparison.
The Poverty Site finds that one in seven people in the EU are at risk of poverty, and notes that it is in part caused by social exclusion – “the processes which put people at the edge of society.” The European Youth Forum adds: “The worryingly large percentage of young people among the poor is a yet more striking issue. This is one of the main challenges that Europe needs to tackle urgently, and with resolve.”
Theodore Pelagidis of Bnet News reports around 12 per cent of the working population of the European Union is unemployed, and nearly one-third of those – five million people – are under the age of 25.
“The precipitous rise in unemployment in Europe has caused huge social problems in recent years. The rupture of social cohesion, the marginalization of a large part of the labour force, and the fall in living standards for a significant number of European citizens have shaken the faith of Europeans in the European ideal, of ‘Social Europe'.”
Ironically, while the UK shares in this economic plight, the only person we met in our travels who didn't appreciate Canada was a Brit named Stephen. He didn't care for it, he told us, because it's too close to the United States.
“Have you ever been there?” we asked. No, he admitted, he hadn't.
But for every Stephen, there are a dozen Giulias. And, while her income is tiny by Canadian standards, it seems certain she will find a way reach this country to pursue her dream.
