The impoverished region of Calabrialocated in the south of Italiawill pay the best local college students a salary. It will be a progressive salary until reaching 1,000 euros per month in an attempt to stop the exodus to the north in search of job opportunities.
This program, called “merit income“, will offer these payments to Calabria residents enrolled in one of the three state universities in the region. They will have to attend classes regularly, take exams and obtain good grades.
There are another series of requirements to meet. This salary supplement to help you study Any enrolled student will not charge itbut those who do more merit to obtain it from their university stage.
Calabria’s intention is stop the “brain drain” which is occurring in the south, especially in this region, due to factors such as poverty, low wages and less security than in other areas of Italy.
University of Calabria, in southern Italy. Archive image.
Instagram / University of Calabria
The Governor Roberto Occhiutoof the center-right Forza Italia, assured in a post published on Facebook that it is “necessary” to promote policies that help create more jobs and contribute to the development of the region.
Furthermore, he explained that this measure has been taken because “the youth exodus starts at university“, since many students from the area decide to emigrate to other parts of the country where they aspire to have more opportunities.
“We want to do everything possible so that our young talents can stay and study here,” he said.
An example of this drain of talent can be seen in the importation of Cuban doctors to care for the locals, a measure that is maintained in the region. despite US attempts to revoke it.
Washington asked the region this February to break the agreement with Havana, but Occhiuto rejected it. As he stated then, the 400 Cuban doctors present in the region had become essential personnel “so as not to close our hospitals”.
The plan to reward the best students has been approved by the regional council. It will come into force from the next academic year, which will begin in September.
Traditional mafia stronghold
The Calabria region is experiencing several crises at the same time, the result of different factors. From the financial side, it is one of the poorest areas in Europe. According to data from Eurostathas one of the highest levels of poverty in Southern Europe.
The regional Executive has not managed to reverse the trend that has left its average salary just under 16,000 euros per yearalmost half of the 31,000 euros in northern Lombardy, according to the annual salary report.
Calabria is the traditional stronghold of the ‘Ndrangheta at the southern end of the Italian peninsula. This criminal organization is one of the most powerful in Europe, responsible for up to 80% of the cocaine trade on European soil and handling most of the flow from South America.
Calabria’s population has decreased by 6.4 percent in the last decade, the steepest decline of any Italian region. The one of Lombardy has grown by 1.1 percent, according to the Italian statistical agency State.
“This is a concrete investment in Calabria’s human capital, because the future of the region also depends on our ability to retain and develop our best talent in the coming decades,” Occhiuto added.
Criticisms of the measure
This university program has also aroused harsh criticism, since some consider that it is simply putting a kind of “patch” on the situation that is plaguing the region.
Rosa Ferraromember of the leftist Democratic Party and current councilor of Municipality VIII of Roma but of Calabrian origin, he sees “classism” in the initiative.
“We cannot afford to limit ourselves to patching up the situation with a wage that will never solve youth unemployment and that will not address the serious lack of infrastructure cultural and professional,” he noted on his social networks.
“He is the perfect antithesis of Robin Hood,” the website editorialized. Fanpage. Opponents of the plan emphasize that this measure, instead of benefiting many local residents, would end up penalizing them. Since there is no resource evaluation system, it will benefit high-achieving students from the most well-off families.
“Calabria will divert public resources towards those who already enjoy a better economic situation,” they criticize. And that will not alter reality of the majority of the young population, who will continue to live in a region with a serious poverty rate, low salaries and the desire to emigrate to rich areas of the country.
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