NYT article: When Caregiving Makes Women Ill
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/world/europe/when-caregiving-makes-women-ill.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Interesting article about the phenomenon of “Italy Syndrome”— women from relatively poor Eastern European countries going to Italy to work as live-in caregivers to elderly Italians with little to no breaks or respite, and breaking down mentally as a result.
Excerpt:
The two women who arrived at his clinic in Ukraine were “somehow different from all the other patients,” Dr. Andriy Kiselyov, a psychiatrist, remembered telling a colleague. They had a form of depression that did not respond to traditional treatment.
The women shared another trait. Both were returning from working as caregivers in Italy.
Soon, he started to notice that others who had returned were similarly affected. He and his colleague started informally referring to the malaise as the “Italy syndrome.”
That was 20 years ago in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, when, needing to feed their families, many women from across Eastern Europe migrated to Italy to fill its expanding need for elder care.
In the decades since, doctors across Eastern Europe have adopted the term, not as a scientific or medical diagnosis but as casual shorthand to describe caregivers’ psychological distress.
Hi Burnt,
Thanks for explaining your perspective. Maybe to some extent we're both right!?
Unfortunately there will always be unscrupulous people who are scammers, and there will always be people who are closeminded.
I'm Italian and Greek. I married into a large Eastern-European family the first time around. I know the culture of that part of the world. With the younger women there's no sex or love without commerce of some kind. It's not just the culture in only that part of the world. Watch that show '90 Day Fiance' sometime. It's disgusting. Also, there most definitely is something wrong with moving to a country with the purpose being to marry some unsuspecting fool who thinks you really love him. My husband (we were divorced then. We're remarried now) fell for that nonsense. A handsome, well educated man that he is. Luckily, he was able to divorce that thing without losing his shirt in the process. This is wrong and even lower than being a prostitute. At least a prostitute provides an honest service and gets paid. They don't expect the 'John' to take care of them and their family for the rest of his life or unless the woman upgrades to a richer, better sugar-daddy. I think I'd rather work as an actual prostitute rather than pretend I loved and wanted someone when really I'd just using them for their bank account and geographical location.
You talk about 'long-term Italian boyfriends'. The key word there is 'boyfriend'. Those Italian guys know that the Svetlanas and Katyas have an expiration date and they go home.
They're very different cultures. Really, unless you've lived it and been in an Eastern-European community or family, you can't get what I'm talking about and I can't explain.
I lived in Italy for 3 years and I don't agree with the sweeping statements in your post pronouncing Polish people =unhappy and Italians= happy. Although I agree that Italians know how to live.
While living in Italy I knew plenty of young immigrants from Poland and ex-Soviet areas who worked in Italy - they didn't wear designer labels and they had steady long term Italian boyfriends.
And hey, there's absolutely nothing wrong with moving to Italy to find an Italian husband! I sometimes wish I'd done that.
Italians enjoy life. Especially in the old country. It's a different culture entirely than Eastern Europe. Italians eat good every day. Not live on soup so they can show off to the friends once in a while. I remember my former MIL used to practically have a heart attack because I'd cook an expensive meal for my husband on a weekend or we'd go out. She didn't understand why I didn't have a second job on the weekends because we didn't have kids. I told her it was because I'm Italian and Greek and we enjoy life.
Those Ukrainian women going home and being burnt out on caregiving was their choice. Italy has a six-hour workday and they have very strict labor laws. These women choose to work more because they want that money. I worked seven days a week when the business first started. I wasn't about to do that for life and I don't anymore. These women are no different than anyone who is going to go at it hard for a while to either save money, or like myself to get a business established.
The 'malaise' most of the time is because these pretty, young Svetlanas think they're going to get some rich Italian guy to take care of them and keep them in Italy. That doesn't happen and also, the Italian guys they're after like the Italian women. The imported Eastern European domestic help can't compete with Italian women. I spent a bit of time in Italy with family after my first divorce. I know this. They liked an American who speaks Italian. There were a lot of Eastern European beauties around then who were caregivers, or nannies, or in some other type of domestic service. Every Sunday you'd see them coming from church advertising their wares. The real reason they're in Italy is to find a man and stay. The Italian guys in the old country don't even look. They got no interest in that.
The term is now familiar to groups representing caregivers’ employers, and to the women who whisper among themselves about the insomnia, anguish and depression they feel after spending years away from their families tending to older, often disabled people abroad, in near-confinement with them. ….
….. Dr. Modoranu said she was following dozens of patients whose syndrome had become chronic.
Sleep deprivation often combines with other factors that are typical of caregiving jobs, doctors said.
Live-in caregivers are expected to be available 24 hours a day, unlike nurses in hospitals or retirement homes who have special training, shifts, private lives and homes.
Unlike other migrants, the women working as caregivers often cannot take their children with them. They are likely to witness the deaths of the patients they have single-mindedly dedicated themselves to.
While many women recount positive experiences in Italy, with understanding and generous employers, for some the difficulty of work spent cleaning, bathing, dressing and feeding is compounded by the fact that they are highly educated professionals like engineers, teachers, architects.