Case studies
Case study “Elisa”
Elisa is the 4 ½ year-old daughter of Carla (27) and Thomas (35), a married Italian-German couple who have been living in Rostock since they met six years ago. Thomas is a mathematician and has a PhD and a tenured position at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock. Carla came to the Institute as a student intern and stayed in Germany because she got pregnant with Elisa; she has been teaching Italian but she would like to go back to university to get her Master’s degree in sociology so she can finally find a qualified job. The marriage has not been going well (Thomas is very tied up with his job) and Carla is really starting to feel isolated and to miss her family, friends and culture. She is unsure if her German is good enough to study in Rostock. In the summer of 2012 and with Thomas’ consent she takes Elisa on an extended visit to her family’s place in Milan and spontaneously decides to stay. She runs into her old Sociology professor who says she can start right away with the Master’s program in October. Her parents are willing to help her financially and she enrolls Elisa at the university daycare centre. Everything is falling into place but Thomas doesn’t seem willing to go along with her plan. He is shocked that Carla would take such radical steps without consulting him and cannot agree to what she has proposed and seems determined to follow through with. He sees no alternative but to apply for Elisa’s return to Germany under the 1980 Hague Convention. The court encouraged the couple to try mediation. The court hearing is scheduled for September 25, 2012 in Milan and the mediation is to take place on Sept. 20 – 22, 2012 with an Italian female mediator with a legal background and a German male mediator with a psychosocial background, both of whom are fluent in German, Italian and English.