Ukrainians form Italy’s fourth largest community of foreigners, but lag behind the other groups economically.
Italy has long been one of the top destinations for Ukrainian labor migration in Europe.
According to the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy, there are officially more than 240,000 Ukrainians living there, with unofficial estimates running as high as 500,000.
But Ukrainians are ranked 20th place among Italy’s foreigners by economic activity, according to the embassy. Most of them have service jobs that are not popular among locals: babysitting children, taking care of the elderly, cleaning and farm work.
Oleh Kozhushko, first secretary for the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy, says most Ukrainians moved to Italy during times of severe economic instability. They found that even low-paid work in Italy was better than what they were earning in Ukraine.
“They were trying to improve their lives,” Kozhushko told the Kyiv Post.
A small percentage of labor migrants from Ukraine have managed to save enough to start their own businesses and escape the service sector. Kozhushko says the children of first-generation migrants are doing better economically.
But there are examples of both older and younger generations of Ukrainians living in Italy who have become successful entrepreneurs, despite numerous obstacles.
Putting in the effort
There were several migration waves from Ukraine: at the end of the 19th century, after World War I and after World War II. The fourth wave started after Ukraine gained independence in 1991 and faced continual economic hardship.
Nataliya Semenko, a school teacher from Brusyliv, a town of 4,900 people in Zhytomyr Oblast, was one of those who left the country looking for a way to earn more than a miserable state salary — usually less than $500 monthly — as a teacher. She moved to Naples, Italy’s third largest city, which has one of the biggest Ukrainian communities in the country, in 2000.
At first, Semenko, 53, worked as a babysitter. In three years, she moved to Rome, another hub for Ukrainians in Italy, where she met her future husband, Italian Raffaello Fracassi.
“I always loved Rome,” Semenko told the Kyiv Post.
Semenko says that her then-boyfriend enjoyed making gelato, or Italian ice cream, and dreamed of running his own business. So Semenko decided to support his idea: She took culinary classes that focused on ice cream and pastry.
The couple used their savings and took out a bank loan to invest 70,000 euros in their enterprise, a cafe called Il Dolce Sorriso (The Sweet Smile).
They united culinary skills and created a menu for a cafe that served various kinds of the frozen dessert, as well as a number of other sweets. Semenko says that her now-husband is still responsible for gelato, while she is in charge of pastry and cakes, so the couple is equally engaged in the business.
Semenko remembers their cafe gained ground soon after its opening in 2009. She says that it was a favorable location in the city center that quickly helped to attract tourists. However, it was taste and service that made visitors return.
She says that they use fresh milk and cream as a base for ice cream. The couple experiments a lot with tastes that aren’t easy to find in other gelaterias. For instance, they used to sell such flavors as red and white wine, lemon and basil. Their visitors’ all-time favorite is walnut and fig, for which Semenko’s mother, who lives in Kyiv Oblast, grows her own walnuts.
Il Dolce Sorriso’s approach soon won itself numerous fans and in 2013 it was ranked as number one gelateria in Rome, for about six months, on travel website TripAdvisor. Today the cafe’s profile on the platform has more than 1,300 reviews, with 1,059 of them giving ratings of “excellent.”
Semenko says that Italians respect and appreciate Ukrainians and the nation provides opportunities for them to develop as professionals. “Our nation is very hardworking and responsible,” she said.
However, any achievement, including opening an enterprise, takes a lot of effort, Semenko says. She learned a new language and mastered a whole new profession. “People should learn and keep making attempts.”
Ukrainian entrepreneur Nataliya Semenko poses for a photo with her husband, business partners and employees of their Il Dolce Sorriso cafe in Rome, Italy on May 2016. (Courtesy)
Sharing culture
For Ukrainian Andriy Zlotko, moving to Italy was a natural step when he was 16. His mother lived and worked in Rome and he followed her to reunite with family.
Zlotko, 34, at first worked at plantations gathering nuts and berries. He later tried a number of jobs, such as carpenter and electrician. About a year after moving, Zlotko ended up working at the kitchen of one of the numerous pizzerias in Rome.
He was mainly cutting up ingredients for pizza but wasn’t allowed to make it himself. It was an accident that helped discover Zlotko’s culinary talent.
“One day there was nobody to make pizza and I took a risk. Afterward, my boss came and said I would be making pizza from now on,” Zlotko told the Kyiv Post.
After making all kinds of pizza in a number of eateries, Zlotko wanted to start his own pizzeria in 2008. But he got into a car accident and was seriously injured. He spent much of his savings on time-consuming treatment and rehabilitation.
So Zlotko continued mastering his skills as a pizzaiolo working at various kitchens until in 2010 he won Italy’s pizza-making championship.
After fully recovering and saving up new funds, the Ukrainian got back to his long-awaited dream and opened his first eatery, Mastro Pizza, in 2013.
Zlotko says that Italians were at first critical of pizza, their national culinary masterpiece, being made by a Ukrainian. So Zlotko and his wife Yana, who runs the enterprise with him, told visitors they were just employees, not the owners. However, despite all the prejudice, he says he was never afraid of launching a business.
“Why be scared? If there’s a big demand you should do it but in a new way.”
Mastro Pizza makes square pizza that is sold by weight. Zlotko says that the secret of their pizza is a signature dough recipe combining various kinds of flour.
“We do it with love, like for ourselves.”
As for the toppings, Zlotko says he acts intuitively and experiments a lot.
Zlotko invested 120,000 euros in his pizzeria to only make 20 euros a day in the beginning. In order to get things going, Zlotko and his wife worked from dawn until dusk the first year and a half.
“It was hard when kids at home were crying, asking us not to go to work and stay at home.”
But the family’s struggles eventually paid off. Today there are three Mastro Pizza places in Rome. And Zlotko says that at each of them they serve up to 200 customers per lunch. The majority of the visitors are Italians, the entrepreneur says.
“Now all the customers say ‘let’s go eat at Ukrainian’,” he says.
Last year, Zlotko reached a new high and took second place at the world pizzaiolo championship.
And now the entrepreneur has decided to share the pizza culture he mastered in his home country. At the end of 2018, the first Mastro Pizza opened its doors in Kyiv. And the next year, he opened another eatery, Emma Pizza, along with a Ukrainian business partner in Lviv.
“I’m Ukrainian. I think it is right to bring what I learned there to Ukraine.”
Although it isn’t easy to believe that someone with no specialized education managed to become so successful in a foreign country, Zlatko says that there’s a simple recipe behind it.
“You just have to work hard, believe in what you’re doing and carry it through.”
