IMMIGRATION

Last semester I attended an interesting course called “Geografia della popolazione” and one of the most interesting subject it was based on was ‘immigration in Italy’. Therefore, thanks to this course I think I have a good knowledge of this issue.

First of all, immigration is still a relatively new phenomenon for Italy (it received the largest flows of immigration during the 1980’s) because it’s a country that in the past had seen mostly emigration.

The current situation regarding immigration is rather difficult to handle, especially illegal immigration… Italy attracts an illegal immigration which is greater than that of other countries not only due to its frontier, which is quite extensive with respect to its total surface area, but also – and primarily – because of its large underground economy. The singular expansion of the sector of domestic and personal services and the diffusion of small business facilitate the growth of an illegal workforce.

Moreover, government policy has never been effective: Italy doesn’t have any proper legislation for immigrants, refugees or asylum-seekers. The Turco-Napolitano Act (1998) and the Bossi-Fini Act (2002) have been the most important attempts to face the problem but not only they were not able to solve the situation but also they have encouraged illegal flows, given that more effort has been given to legalising foreigners already present in Italy, than in encouraging legal flows.

Unfortunately, the situation is not helped by the information provided by the mass-media that often point out only the negative aspects of immigration: all immigrants are criminal; they want to steal everything they can… The result is a great discrimination towards all of them, especially if Albanian and Rumanian.

And what about the legal part of immigrants? I think that they are not protected as they should be: they pay taxes contributing to progress of our country but they don’t have the same rights of Italian citizens.

As I said in my reflection on intercultural competence, there is a current increasing need to be able to deal effectively and appropriately with diversity, whether ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural.
Finally, I really hope that the new government will be able to choose the right options for the eradication of this problem.

If you want to gather much information you can take a look at CARITAS website.

SKYPE AGAIN!

Last Tuesday I spent an enjoyable hour speaking with Alessia, Martina and Allyson about political issues.

We asked Allyson basically two questions:

• Hillary and Obama are the main candidates for elections in the USA. Do you think that the fact of being a woman and a black leader can influence the voters’ choice more than their political platforms?
  

According to Allyson the answer is definitely affirmative. Since the possibility to have a black leader or a woman as president is a great achievement for America, many people, especially women and the black communities, are voting for one of them. Allyson thinks that both of them can really give something more to politics because they can offer different perspectives on a large number of issues and especially Obama is an open-minded person. But do they have enough experience to rule the country?!

• Among the different issues of the political campaign which is the most important and that the Americans care of?
  “The decision of the army withdrawal from Iraq is definitely a central theme in the political campaign.” said Allyson to us.

Then she asked us some questions about the candidates who are running for the new office in Italy and the main differences between Berlusconi’s and Veltroni’s programs. She told us she heard that Berlusconi has a high probability to win again, although most of the Italians she knows do not like him… Well, we have only to wait for Monday night!!

Besides politics, we dealt with other topics such as the organisation of healthcare system in America and the lessons Allyson had in those days. She told us that she watched “Il Caimano”, another interesting movie about Italian politicians!

What else can I add on my reflection?! Yeah, Skype is a wonderful means of communication and our American peers are really nice… Talking about topics such as politics, immigration, healthcare system is very useful to develop our intercultural competence and to improve our linguistic skills!