The land without parents

“This is Carolina, talking to her mother Tanja. Five years ago Tanja paid €4,000 to people-smugglers to get her into Italy, where she works as a care assistant. She left Carolina and her two sisters, Olga and Sabrina, alone, living in a couple of rundown rooms on a farm with no running water and no working toilets. They look after one another, tend the livestock and make their own cheese and bread.”

“During Soviet times, Moldova was considered rich: it was the orchard of the USSR. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country fell on hard times. The secession of the breakaway republic of Transnistria in 1992 left Moldova without heavy industry and the economy stagnated. For Moldovans living in the countryside there is no way to earn money: their only prospect of doing so is to be smuggled into a foreign country, leaving their kids behind. Sometimes they are left with grandparents, sometimes someone from the family looks in from time to time or does some shopping for them, but there are also cases where children are left to look after themselves.”

“I visited this school in south Moldova and asked a classroom of kids how many of their parents are living in Italy. Two-thirds of them raised their hands. Moldovans choose Italy because of the language – Moldovan is a dialect of Romanian, which is a Romance language, so Italian is easy to learn. It’s also easier to live and work illegally in Italy than it is in other EU countries like Germany.”

“Gabriela is seven and Marina is 15. Their mother left to find work in Italy, but when she arrived she had to keep moving around, so the family couldn’t reach her easily and she didn’t send much money back. Gabriela is on the phone with her father, who had to go to Russia to try to earn money, leaving her, Marina and their 12-year-old brother alone for months at a time.”

“Artemie was two when his mother Svetlana left for Italy. Artemie lives with his father Ion in the capital, Chisinau, so they have an internet connection (an unknown luxury in much of the countryside) and they can talk with Svetlana over Skype. Svetlana is effectively bringing up her child over the internet.”

“Anastasia’s mother Nadia left Moldova seven years ago and walked on foot over the Carpathian Mountains, drinking melted snow to keep her going. Nadia’s wages of €750 a month, earned as a careworker in Verona, go towards building a home in Moldova: her two daughters live alone in the half-built house.”

“When Aliona’s husband Wanja first tried to get into Italy, he paid a man €1,000 to smuggle him in. The man promptly disappeared. On his second try, he paid €3,000 and was turned back at the Austrian border. By the time he finally got into the country, he had a debt of €6,000 and had to work a whole season in the melon fields to pay it off. Aliona has joined her husband: they earn €5 an hour picking and processing melons. Their two small children live in Moldova with their grandparents.”

“Moldovans keep departing the country each day. This couple were leaving their three children alone for the first time to go to Italy. It was the summer holidays and they knew that in four weeks the children would need books and things for school and they thought, Okay, in four weeks we can send the first money over. They arrived but there was no work: happily, they did eventually find jobs.”

“Emigrant Moldovans send €1.3 billion home each year – an amount equivalent to quarter of the nation’s GDP. Because they are often working illegally, Moldovans don’t set up bank accounts in Italy, so the only way to send money home is through a network of minibuses that constantly loop back and forth between the two countries. Along with the money, they send packages back to their kids.”

“These are boxes a mother packed to send home to her two daughters. The cheap apples from the supermarket in Italy won’t taste half as good as any apple you can get in Moldova, but sending tokens like this and treats like the tubs of popcorn is the only way for the parents to show their love and care to their children.”

“The new prime minister of Moldova, who came to power in May, is talking about making an agreement with Italy to allow his people to go there legally. If he is successful, the flood of Moldovans will continue, but they will be able to come back home on visits – and they won’t have to spend years without seeing their children.”

“The new prime minister of Moldova, who came to power in May, is talking about making an agreement with Italy to allow his people to go there legally. If he is successful, the flood of Moldovans will continue, but they will be able to come back home on visits – and they won’t have to spend years without seeing their children.”

Andrea Diefenbach (andreadiefenbach.com) is author of ‘Land Ohne Eltern’ (‘The Land Without Parents’), published by Kehrer, and ‘Aids in Odessa’ (created with Hatje Cantz).

Posted on Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 - Categories: #11 - Apr-Jun 2013, App Issues.