HI GUYS I JUST GOT MY ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP AND I WANT TO RELOCATE TO THE NORTH OF ITALY IN 2009,I KNOW A LITTLE ITALIAN BUT I LEARN FAST. "i speak Portuguese witch is little similar"
I NEED SOME INFO ON COST OF LIVING AND WAGES FOR A CARPENTER/ELECTRICIAN ?
DO I NEED A DEGREE OR A ESPECIAL PERMIT TO WORK AS A CARPENTER OR ELECTRICIAN IN ITALY ?

THANKS !!!

Ciao henrickmgr. If you speak any where near fluent Portuguese then Italian will be extremely facile per te. I worked with a lot
of Portuguese speakers when I taught ESL at night. Their names are similar or the same as Italian. Alberto, Alfedo, Ana, Antonio,
Cecilia, Gloria, Isabel, Lucia, Maria, Mario, Paulo, Ricardo, Rosa, Regina e cosi via.

Por favor, carne, agua, animal, motor, medicina, minuto, problema, mapa, parte, folosofia, regular, totalmente, naturalmente...
you can go all night with words like this similar and the same in Italian and Portuguese.

I met many Portuguese speakers in Italy last year. They all spoke
fluent Italian.

You should have few problems in Italy with your Italian citizenship.

What northern Italian city are you going to live in? May I suggest Vicenza, Verona, Bologna and Siena among others.
I lived in Vicenza per due anni and loved it. It's a great little big city. Very friendly people.

Vicenza, a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base
of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately 60 km west of Venice and 200 km east of Milan.
As of 2007, Vicenza had an estimated population of 119,038. Vicenza is the third largest Italian industrial city by export.

Ci vidiamo in Vicenza this coming summer 2009.

hi Villa how are you ?
Yeah I'M a born Portuguese speaker !!
i was born in Brazil!! my grandfather is Italian i got my Italian citizenship Thu him !!!
but tell me is it hard to find a job in construction ?

tanks ?

Non lo so essatamente ma if you'r an English speaker anche then you might be able to get a job
with the Americans in Vicenza or Verona where there are U.S. military bases. If you hook up
with them then you could buy things at the military PX exchange or have them buy you cose.
They have everything from groceries to all kinds of electronic stuff, TVs, radios e cosi via.

Villa, what you just told him is very illegal to do and if he would ever get caught doing that, he would be in deep kimchi.
Even if he did get a job with the military, he would not be eligible to use any of the stores on base.

thanks for your reply guys !
I'm gonna live in Mantova, i have same friends that visited there before and they loved it. is mantova a expensive city to live ? or its affordable ?
do you guys know if its easy to get a job in construction "carpenter or electrician" or I need a especial permit to work ?? I,m asking because i worked as a carpenter and electrician in America for 5 years, and to be well paid i had to take classes. is Italy the same way ?

tanks !!!

Sigh, all I have is English and Cantonese in my belt, none of which make my Italianising very easy..

Good luck hendrikmgr!

Hi Hen, I am moving to siena on July 20. Did you ever get an answer to your question about needing a special permit to do your work in italy? If so what did you learn? Because I have been asking everyone everywhere what I need to do to get licensed as a podiatrist (foot specialist) - I have been in practice for15 years; also as an Esthetician (I am certified here). I joined this forum in Oct. 2008 and I still have not found where anybody was able to give me an answer or at least a place to look for the answer. it's frustrating. I wish you luck with your plans.

Hi Folks

I think the reason you may be having trouble finding out whether your qualifications are valid, is that it is a really awkward area.

As you know one of the raison d'etre for the EU is economic development in the EU.

On the most important parts of this is the free movement of capital and people. An upshoot of this would be the movement of qualifications. My understanding is that this is starting to happen. Obviously with law with one half of the continent practising the adversial system (UK & Ireland-and London being the business cetre of Europe so there would be a lot of business and contract law that would be based on UK law) and the rest of Europe which practices the Inquisitorial system (Eg France and Italy) there are difficulties in transferring qualification. Solicitors swapping between systems must sit exams to ensure that they understand the system. For example the Law Society in Ireland lists countries and what units they need to take to be able to practice in Ireland.

I am sure that those in the medical profession would have a similiar system of recognising qualifications and sitting exams for particular areas to ensure that the doctors meet the standard.

I would imagine the same would apply for accountants etc.

My husband is an electrician and if wanted to work in Australia he had to sit tests to prove that he was competent and I am sure if he chose to work in Italy as an Electrician that although his papers may theoretically be valid under freedom of movement of persons in the EU, there would be differences, so he would have to learn them (along with the language)

Australia is well set up for this, with immigrants coming from all around the world it is quite clear cut as to what you have to do. With countries like Italy and Ireland who have traditionally had a culture of immigration (out) not of emmigration (in), it is a game of catch up.

Most Electricians that come over from England and Ireland would work for English speakers as they are allowed under EU law, but they do this knowing that their Italian is not great and their customer base is English, that being said there is alot to be said for hiring the locals. And at this time in a recession alot of countries are battoning down the hatches and hiring locals not citizens from other countries.

With podiatry, and other such professions, if there is no historical agreement of recognising qualifications and you are the first then you will be the person starting the whole procedure.

What I would do is get all qualifications and certificates translated and references and letters of recommendation. On another thread, Frank did not seem to see the issue in the beauty/spa end.

The world economy is entering a time of unprecedneted econonomic tightening and anyone moving countries would have to be seen not to take jobs from the locals and if possible be able to employ a local or do some voluntary work to contribute to the area. For example Australia has reduced it's working visas by 14,000 and lessened the categories (no more construction) and Japan is paying those from South America to leave Japan, and there is talk of a similair prgram in Ireland.

I myself am focusing on the TEFL and I picked CELTA after careful consideration as it is recognised internationally particularly in the 3 areas of interest I have Italy, Ireland and Australia.

As EU citizens you have free movement to live and work, but as your papers are not European, it will be down to the individual organisation to decide if you have to take a paper to gain Italian accreditation.

Remember there are almost 500 million citizens in the EU and alot of them (with the exception of the British and Irish) are multilingual and their qualifications will come first to any coming from outside the EU.

This is not a thread to be negative but to explain why most people who have immigrated to work in another country for nearly every profession the process would be byzantine and there is no way you would look up another preofession as a hobby because by the time you have finished with your own particular profession and qualifications, you have lost the will to live and do not want to think about it ever again!!

That said we are all VERY fortunate to continue to have these opportunities, there are many people who would love to but cannot.

It may be an idea to see if there is an EU assocaition for your profession and see where that leads you.

PLEASE NOTE: This is not legal advice in any way, shape or foem, just a potted summary of free movememt of people and how it MAY effect you practically.

I hope this is of some help.

and as usual it is too long!!

Hi Henrickmgr,

exciting you'll be moving to Italy!

You are right about checking requirements for working as a carpenter / electrician, there probably are some rules. Perhaps you want to set up as an individual contractor, I would contact an Italian association or institute, there are all sorts of entities ready to help with making sure you know the rules.

I would check out these for info on 'imprenditoria artigiana e delle piccole imprese' - these are the main small business associations:

www.cna.it
www.confartigianato.it

Find the office near where you will be going in Italy and give them a call and get some pointers. I know CNA have a foreigners' desk in the big cities (but not sure they will speak English!).

Just my 2 cents, good luck!

Alex V.