Common European Asylum System

Immigration and asylum has been taking place in Europe for quite some time, but didn’t become a hot topic until the early 1990’s especially when we are talking about Italy, even recently immigration and asylum seekers have been arriving from North Africa in large numbers.  Currently the process of applying and receiving asylum varies from country to country within Europe and there is much abuse of the system by both the country and asylum seeker from fraud to breaking international laws.  In addition to this there is a general trend that has been occurring over the past 25 to 30 years and is a major problem has been the a steep and steady decrease in the people that are actually recognized as refugees which has dropped from 50% in 1982 all the way down to 28% in 2001 (Hatton 5).  In an interview I had with a refugee worker at St Paul’s he said that the current system needs much work because of the difficultly obtain asylum in Italy and puts a large amounts of responsibility on the external border countries like Italy and Spain.  Recently in the EU there has been a calling for change in the current system and desire between most EU Member States to move towards the direction of a common system of asylum for the continent of Europe. 

The modern day asylum system has it root traced back to under the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the status of refugees article 1 defined what a refugee is, and article 33 is the non-refoulment policy.

Article 1: defines a refugee as someone who is outside his or her country of normal residence and is unable or unwilling to return to it owing to a well-founded fear of persecution.

Article 33: Provides that a person who has claimed asylum under the Convention must not be forcibly returned to a territory where he or she may be at risk of persecution.  Also known as non-refoulment.

There hasn’t been many real advancements in this policy area since the 1951 convention until recently in the last decade under the Tampere programme starting in 1999.  The European Council, at its 1999 meeting in Tampere agreed to establish a Common European Asylum System based on the full and inclusive application of the 1951 Geneva Convention.  The Common European Asylum System is one of the European Union’s objectives of establishing an area of freedom security and justice open to those seeking protection in the EU.  The first real work to be done in this policy area was under the 2004 Hague Programme and the vision was to create a practical co-operational system between all Member States under a similar policy, creating a common framework and system for all of the EU.  The Hague, Tampere and the more recent Stockholm Programmes are guidelines and goals set forth by the Council every five years, these Programmes have outlined the dates of when the Council would like to finish working on the legislation and preferably adopt the policies.  Under the Hague Programme the goal was to have the commission propose the legislation to the council and parliament by 2009 or early 2010 but his didn’t happen under the Programme and has been extended under Stockholm to 2012, with a preferred adoption deadline of 2012.  Under the Stockholm Programme the main goal in the immigration and asylum is to setup the Common European Asylum System by 2012 and to further the development of the European Asylum Office.

One of the more important pieces of legislation was in October 2009 with the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum.  This pact was outlined into 5 basic commitments all under the premise that the EU must develop a comprehensive and flexible migration policy and that the policy should concentrate on solidarity and responsibility, and address the needs of both EU countries and migrants.  These 5 commitments are:

·         To organize legal migration to take account of the priorities, needs and reception capacities determined by each Member State, and to encourage integration.

·         To control illegal immigration by ensuring that illegal immigrants return to their countries of origin or to a country of transit.

·         To make border controls more effective

·         To construct a Europe of Asylum.

·         To create a comprehensive partnership with the countries of origin and of transit in order to encourage the synergy between migration and development.

These 5 commitments offer a very good foundation for the future of the Common European Asylum System and outline the goals and parameters that need to be taken in order to protect the rights of the asylum seekers and also those of the Member States. 

The CEAS is to built in a 2 phase structure the first phase is comprised of 4 legal documents that act as the building blocks for the second phase, as of 2009 all 4 of these legal documents are in enacted into law across all 27 EU Member States.

Regulation (EC) 343/2003 ("Dublin Regulation")

·         The Dublin Regulation contains rules about the Member State’s responsibility for evaluating an application for asylum and to prevent multiple or simultaneous applications by an individual.  The general aim of this regulation was to prevent an applicant form applying in multiple Member States, and also made it so that the first country of entry the one that processes the application and is responsible for that individual, which inadvertently places more pressure on the border countries. 

Directive 2003/9/EC ("Reception Conditions Directive,")

·         The Reception Conditions Directive guarantees minimum standards for the treatment of asylum seekers including housing, education and health.

Directive 2004/83/EC ("Qualification Directive")

·         The Qualification Directive determines the criteria for qualifying for either refugee status or subsidiary protection status, and also determines what rights are associated with each of these statuses.  This directive also introduced a system for subsidiary protection in the EU to those that fall outside the guidelines of the Geneva Convention of 1951.

Directive 85/2005/EC ("Asylum Procedures Directive")

·         The Asylum Procedures Directive guarantees that throughout the EU all applications at first processing will be subjected to the minimum standards set forth in the in the directive.

These legislative documents have been put in place by the EU to help level the playing field and to create a system which guarantees a person genuinely in need of protection access to a high level protection under equal conditions in all EU Member States, while at the same time dealing with those who do not qualify for asylum to be dealt with fairly and efficiently.  The second phase of the CEAS was to be prepared by the commission by 2010 but this date has been pushed back to 2012 for the successful completion of the system.  The goals of the second phase should be to achieve both a higher standard of protection and greater equality in security and protection across the EU and to ensure greater solidarity between EU Member States. 

Establishment of the CEAS by 2012 still remains a high priority under the Stockholm programme.  The CEAS framework reinforces the non-refoulment policy that was originally enforced by the Geneva Convention and will help prevent countries like Italy, Spain and Greece from sending asylum seekers back to their country of departure.  This will continue to remain an important policy area as more and more people immigrate and seek refuge in Europe, and countries like Italy will have to be more open to accepting them especially with the current issues that people are facing in some of the North African countries like Lybia, Egypt and Tunisia. 

Biography 

Hatton, Timothy. "European Asylum Policy." Forschungsintitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit 0.1721 (2005): 1-33. Web. 01Mar 2011.

Dublin Regulation

http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:050:0001:0010:EN:PDF

Reception Conditions Directive

            http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:031:0018:0025:EN:PDF

Qualification Directive

            http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004L0083:EN:HTML

Asylum Procedures Directive

            http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2005:326:0013:0034:EN:PDF

Abdulla, Akbatan. Personal Interview by Anthony Rossi. 01 Mar 2011.

LaRue, Dean. E-Mail Interview by Anthony Rossi. 13 Mar 2011.

Rione

Vatican City

For our rione we chose Vatican City while technically not one of the recognized Rione’s of Rome it is instead a small nation located with-in the city limits of Rome itself.  My portion of this project will be discussing the Architecture and Monuments, Government (Political System, Military & Police, Administration and Foreign relations) and Demographics (population, Languages and Citizenship) of Vatican City. 

St. Peter’s Basilica:

St. Peter’s is the largest Catholic Church in the modern world, construction of the Basilica started in 1506 under the direction and plan of the architect Bramante and finished in 1626 under the direction of Giacomo Della Porta who finished the church with the plans laid out by his predecessor Michelangelo.  The original plan was to create a large dome that was supported on four piers, based on a Greek Cross floor plan with the dome design being inspired by the Pantheon in Rome.  Much was changed over the next century as new architects were appointed some of these architects were Raphael, Peruizzi and Sangallo.  The modern day church was built on the design of Michelangelo in the late renaissance and early baroque, drawing inspiration for the Santa Maria Del Firoi in Florence mainly the renaissance design of the Latin Cross plan and the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi in the early 1400’s.  The dome of the church is the third largest pre-modern dome in the world measuring 42 meters in diameter, the Nave and the façade of the basilica was designed by Carlo Maderno. 

St. Peter’s Square:

The present day square that we see was constructed between 1656 and 1667 by Bernini, it consist of two flanking colonnades that wrap around and “hug” the square, two fountains and an Egyptian Obelisk.  When Bernini started construction on the square it was already occupied by the Obelisk previously erected the late 16^th century and a fountain made by Maderno on the northern side of the square.  The colonnades were built in the simplest architectural order the Doric, this was so that the colonnade wouldn’t supersede the importance of the façade of the Basilica, it was designed 4 rows of columns deep and capped with a triangular pediment.  The southern fountain was later built in honor on Bernini and as an exact replica of the northern fountain build in honor on Maderno.  The obelisk that is at the center of the square is 41 meters tall including the base and the bronze capital, it was originally taken from Egypt in the early 1^st century and was part of Nero’s forum, until erected in its current location in 1586. 

Government:

The political system of Vatican City is Unique in that it is an Absolute Elective Monarchy, in which the head of the Catholic Church (The Pope) is the head of legislative, executive and judicial power over the State of the Vatican.  The Swiss Guard have acted as the protectors of the city and the papacy for over 500 years; more recently there has been the Corpo della Gendarmeria dello Stato della Città del Vaticano also known as the Gendarmeria.  The Gendarmeria is responsible for public order, law enforcement, crowd control, traffic control and criminal investigations within the city.  Vatican City is a recognized territory internationally and has diplomatic relations with almost all of the world’s countries excluding a few in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 

Demographics:

Vatican City is one of the smallest countries in the world; the total area that the city occupies is 0.17 square miles or about 110 acres.  Currently there is more than 800 people living in Vatican City and 572 citizens, but of these 572 citizens only 220 are living in the city walls.  Citizenship is based off of Jus Officii meaning it is granted to those who are working for the service of the Holy See.  On 1 March 2011 Pope Benedict XVI enacted a new law replacing the 1929 residence and citizenship laws.  Vatican citizenship now has four categories: The Pope, Cardinals residing in Vatican City, Active members of the Holy See’s diplomatic corps and other directors of Vatican offices and services. (1)  The Vatican City has no official language, but the Holy See uses Latin for its official documents, and Vatican City uses Italian in their legislation and communications, and Italian is also the everyday language used by the majority of the people that work in the Vatican.

(1). http://www.zenit.org/article-31900?l=english

Writing Assignment #8

My service learning for this program was done at the Joel Nafuma Refugee Center located in the basement of St. Paul's church, and is the only day refugee center available in Rome for these people. The refugee center is a place for these men to go each day where they can converse with others that speak their language, watch the news and movies, receive aid and services, learn Italian and English and offers them a place to go during the day so that they aren't outside. The min activities that we saw and took part in was handing out breakfast to the refugees which consisted of tea and conrnetti, distribution of goods such as clothing and toiletries, and teaching some of the immigrants english. Some of the other activities that they offer there is ping pong and foosball and checkers and chess.

My initial impression of the refugee center has changed since I started my service learning their. At first I feel like was apprehensive to be around them and to help and interact with them, but as my time their went on feel like I have been able to better integrate among them and be able to talk to them or even have some of them approach me and start a conversation. At the end of our time at the refugee center I knew the names of quite a few of them and they would often talk with me, but many of them were hesitant to talk to us especially some of them didn't want to talk about their how they came to be in Italy and some didnt want to talk about where they came from and why they had to leave. I feel that this organization is very beneficial for the people that take part in it, but it is only limited to those that are political refugees, leaving quite a few of the other types of refugees that make up those that came to Italy seeking asylum.

I would like to ask more questions about the experience and the difficulties that some of the refugees faced on their travels to Italy or their host nation. In particular I would like to know what part of the process they find the most difficult and any ideas that they would have on improving the current asylum process in Italy and Europe. This next question doesn't really relate to y service learning but I feel that it is a vital one that needs to be asked: why is it that the Italian government is so hesitant to help refugees and why is it that the only people that are helping them are volunteers and volunteer organizations such as Caritas. But talking to the refugees does represent a problem since there is often the language barrier that is very difficult to overcome without the use of a translator. Many of these questions could be partially or fully answered by the refugees granted that their would be many different ways that they would answer the questions. But the est authority to talk to in concern my final question would be an Italian professional who either works as a politician and law maker or someone who is in academia.

Artist Statement

My art work represents some of the political problems that are currently facing the Italian people and the government. In the center of my artwork I have the Italian flag, surrounded by words and short statements of some of the problems that they are currently facing. An example of this is the words corruption, greed, immigration and government just to name a few of them. Above the flag I have the word Future with a question mark following it to ask where the future of the going and if there in what direction this country will continue to go in. another significant point is the 20^th century because much of the thinking and actions of this country are similar to those that we went through in the US back in the 50 and 60. What want you to realize looking at this artwork is that Italy is a relativity “new” country in the problems that they are facing and that they are taking an old 20^th century way of dealing with 21^st century problems.

Writing Assignment #7

During my time here I have realized that many of the youths between ages of 14-35, in Italy but particularly in Rome and Naples have a deep investment in the arts. When I say arts I am referring to not only art but music, film and even their own youth culture and groups and possibly even their own political movements. Many of the youth that I have spoken to and observed have a strong sense of nationalism and a common shared identity among the youth of Italy. Italy is currently a changing and dynamic country that is what some would call being on the breaking point due to the large scale corruption that is rampant through the countries political system especially with the Berlusconi administration; and man other factors including policies, laws and problems surrounding the large scale immigration that has taken place over the last decade and recent problems in some of the northern African countries have added to this dilemma. The youth here in Italy are to an extent marginalized by the older generation mainly through jobs which accounts for the large amount of unemployed that is seen associated with the youth population. Plus in addition to that their still remains the social hierarchy of importance with age, as the young have less authority than those who are older. These reasons account for as to why there is such an age discrimination in government held offices where there are relativity very few people that aren't men in their 50's and 60's. This discrimination of the young people here in Italy leads to not many young people completing their education and even fewer going on to complete their university level work; which later will only tend to cause Italy more and more problems in the next 15 to 30 years when much of the older and more educated populous retire and there is this group of youths that are relativity “uneducated” for a professional job.

The youth generation in present day Italy differs by a large margin from the older generation not only in their age but more importantly their views on many political issues and many of the other issues that are currently being debated in Italy. The stance that the youth take on many of the issues differ from those of their parents and the older generation. A great example of this divergence is the issue of immigration, many of the younger generation in Italy don't really care that there is large scale migration to their country and many of them actually approve of the current state that it is in. This isn't true of the older generation in Italy though, among them their isn't much agreement with the youth on this topic, they generally disapprove of the current level of immigration and feel that the migrant population is ruining Italy while they wish to preserve their country. This is represented by some of the laws that are currently in placed right now in Italy for example the recent education reform where no schools may have an immigrant population consisting of more than 30% of the school. Some of the law surrounding immigration and the process to be a legal resident of Italy are to an extent ridiculous in their nature. For example having to wait a minimum of 10 years to be able to apply as a citizen, the difficulties with obtaining a permesso di soggiorno, the list goes on and on for the difficulties that they face in this country.

The youth also have different thoughts on the North/South divide within Italy. With the other generation there is a lot of post war resentment towards each other and this has been drawn out for the last 60 years. The youth that I have spoken with mainly in Rome have a different view on this issue, they don't share this same resentment that the older generation does, they would like to see a more unified Italy with a more true Italian identity. In general their seems to be a define line dividing the youth of this country whether it be their art and culture or their differing political views.

Writing Assignment #6

My assigned Rione is Vatican City, this is a unique district within Rome, since it's a country within Rome and in this respect differs from all of the other Rione's. Interviewing residents from our Rione proved to be difficult since there are very few people who actually are residents within the walls of Vatican City, 826 residents as of 2009; but talking to visitors of the city was extremely easy since there are tens of thousand of visitors here each day. We interviewed 2 people visiting the Vatican but I will get to that later. Vatican City is the where the pope resides and is currently viewed as one of the most important monuments to the Christian faith. Vatican City resides on .17sq miles on the left bank of the Tiber river, the church in it's current state was built in during the baroque era and this is reflected in the church's interior and also on the facade. The church was designed by multiple architects and is the culmination of much of their different original designs also, meaning parts of the church were designed by a single architect and not just one master design; the square and the colonnades were the design of Bernini. This main piazza is where we meet the people that we interviewed for this assignment, as it is the most assessable part of the whole Rione. The majority of the rest of the city is made up of the museums which we saw a few of, and also the gardens and areas that are off limits to the public. The Vatican museums hold some of the most valuable works of art in the world and also some of the most important religious pieces of artwork to the catholic faith. The Vatican also has its own military and police who are known as the swiss guard, in addition to this they also have their own economy and political system which is an absolute elective monarchy.

What we learned from the people we interviewed was that for many of them it was their first time visiting the Vatican and Rome, and that is was one of the attractions that they had came to see while they were in Italy. From sitting around and listening to the people visiting we learned that the vast majority of them were foreigners, while many from other western European countries and America their was a surprising amount from Asia also. I think that for many of these visitors visiting for the first time, they were overwhelmed by the immense size of the actual structure and the sheer size of the building and square.

For our first interview we decided to talk with an American couple who had been visiting Rome for the first time and also the Vatican. We discussed with them the first impressions that they had when entering the Vatican for the first time, and the thoughts that had about the importance of the city to themselves. The other person that we interviewed for this assignment was a student studying in Rome from an American university much like us. We asked them similar questions a we did the other people we interviewed and got answer similar to those above. The thing that really stood out to me about our Rione was the diversity of people that visit the site, in all actuality there are people from all over the world that visit this site everyday and that this city is host to some of the most important art and architecture in the world; and holds some importance for all of those who are catholic.

Multicultural Italy: Introduction and Salvation

The introduction of this collection of Italian Literary works introduces us to the general themes of the book and a general overview of the majority of the stories that are to follow. From reading the introduction it appears that the majority of the stories are about immigrants and stories that they have to tell, and they appear to be only written by immigrants living in Italy.

The story called Salvation is an interesting story, the main character portrayed in this story is from the middle east and has been in Italy for some time and is established within the country. The protagonist of this story is willing to accommodate his friend but tell him that the process of coming to Italy is very difficult and even say that he will have be baptized in order to even gain entrance to the county. But this is all a clever ploy to keep his cousin back home so that he doesn't have to help him get his life in Italy started. This story shows the true side of human nature that someone may say that they're going to be willing to help but when the time comes to actually help them they just make excuses to preserve their own well-being.

Writing Assignment #5

Despite being only a short distance apart between Rome and Naples their are many differences and characteristics that define these cities. Before leaving we read the articles depicting to us what we were to expect while traveling in Naples and how the culture and people here differ from the rest of Italy and especially Rome. Visiting Naples has allowed us a glimpse of the northern and southern divide that we have read and discussed about in class previously, granted it is difficult to spot the differences without talking to the local people of Naples and obtaining their view points on the subject matter. What I did notice when visiting Naples was that their was a much larger immigrant population then compared to Rome and there is a much greater diversity of where they originate from; this for me was a first hand opportunity to observe the “gateway” of immigration for not only Italy but all of Europe.

This was not my first time in Naples but, much of the city and people are exactly as I remember it the first time I visited. Having visited Naples before many of the “myths” were known to me and I was aware of the dangers that the city hides within its grimy shadow. Alex our tour guide for Naples explained some of the problem that face his city for example, large drug rings, piles of garbage in the streets and an extremely high crime rate; despite all of these problems he still shows an unconditional love for his city. The last time that me and my family were in Italy we visited our cousins in Pastena and when we told them that we were going to Naples for a few days they were extremely worried for our safety and told us to not stay in Naples; since we would be robbed on the streets. Even Italians fear going to Naples which says something extremely negative about the city if the natives from a commune less than an hour away don't even want anything to do with Naples. I think though that Naples has received a bad reputation over the years that has caused a lot of fear of the city and prevents people from going their to experience the real “Naples”. Much of the fears that I had about Naples are still present in my thoughts of the city even after visiting and staying in one of the safer parts of the city and are even perhaps more acute now that I know what to look for. Much of what has been said about the city of Naples and the “myths” that are attributed with the city are true to some extent, but some of the myths can also be true of Rome; it is just that in the case of Naples they have been exaggerated.

There are many differences between Naples and Rome some of them are obvious while others take some time to be seen. Some of these are obvious like the myths that we have heard about in class and some of things that Alex explained to us before we left. One of the first things that I noticed about Naples when we got their was the skyline was significantly different than in Rome where it is dominated by St. Peter's; but Naples had no one dominate figure but rather buildings of various heights some even considered skyscrapers. A not so obvious feature that I noticed was that the artwork and graffiti were more politically aimed and actually carried a message rather than being incomprehensible gibberish which it is often times. Even the way the Neapolitans dress is different than the Romans, in Rome they dress more to the fashion trends and it is easier to distinguish them rather than the Neapolitans. Naples and the Neapolitan people even have their own regional dialect which differs from the Italian spoke in Rome and other major cities; and to go back to the north-south divide this regional dialect plays a large role in the division that exist. Another thing that I noticed while in Naples is that their isn't the large scale amounts of people outdoors during the day and evening like we see in Rome in the Campo dei Fiori or in the other large piazza's of Rome. I don't want to say that Rome is a better city than Naples is but, I will say that there are features of Rome that I like a lot more than those in Naples and if I had the choice of where to live I would choose Rome every time.

Writing Assignment #4

Immigration into Italy at this time is still a very difficult process that can take months to years to receive legal status to remain in the country. Granted that the EU has been taking steps to make this an easier process for the last 10 years or so but much of the legislation on immigration is still left up to that nation; and poor EU enforcement of their laws doesn't make the process any easier. It is easy enough for the immigrants to go to Italy, but it is the law within the country that make it difficult for them to stay here once they arrive; although there is free-movement within Schengen States, so in practice they can go to any of the other 24 other Schengen states. Within this last decade their has been much focus on protecting the rights of immigrants and those seeking asylum in EU countries. The Hague Programme adopted by the European Council on the 4 and 5 November 2004 outlines 10 goals for the next 5 years ending in 2010.

These goals are:

Strengthening fundamental rights and citizenship

Anti-terrorist measures

Defining a balance approach to migration

Developing integrated management of the Union's external boarders

Setting up a common asylum procedures

Maximizing the positive impact of immigration

Striking the right balance between privacy and security while sharing information

Developing a strategic concept on tackling organized crime

A genuine European area of justice

Sharing responsibility and solidarity

An outline and explanation of these goals can be found in the following link http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/human_rights/fundamental_rights_within_european_union/l16002_en.htm

Perhaps the most important of these 10 policy areas in terms of this class and immigration are the common asylum procedures, strengthening fundamental rights and maximizing the positive impact of immigration. Coming from the Hague Programme is one of the most important documents that the EU has adopted, last year with the Treaty of Lisbon, that has shown true progress with the growth and power of the EU was the adoption of The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Adopted on 1 December 2009 and implemented on 19 October 2010, this document consist of 54 articles all protecting the rights of people living in the 27 EU member states. This charter is a major step forward for the EU because it not only protects the rights of citizens it also protects immigrant populations.

More information on this document can be found here:

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/rights/policies_rights_intro_en.htm

The charter can be found here:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/pdf/text_en.pdf

Italian immigration is perhaps the most strict of all the European Union countries despite the desire to create a common immigration law within the EU. Their has been expressed interest with some European countries to create a common immigrations and asylum policy for all of the EU countries since there is free-movement between all 25 Schengen states. But there are certain countries that oppose a common immigration system like Italy and other countries that are immigration “gateways” to Europe; and then there is always the problem of enforcing these laws since the punishment for disobeying these laws is negligible. But the main concern of these countries, ie Italy, is the concern over the immigration of illegals and problems that they present when they arrive in these countries; this is the main reason as to why some of these countries are so hesitant to change their laws. Here is a quote from the current Portuguese President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso:

"The Migration Package adopted today shows that we need to take a new approach to dealing with Immigration and Asylum. Immigration contributes to European economic performance. But this potential will be possible only if integration of migrants succeeds and people's concerns about illegal immigration are recognized. Europe needs a common policy vision which builds on past achievements and aims at providing a more coherent and integrated framework for future action by the Member States and the European Union. If we work together on the ten principles to better manage immigration and reinforce the standards for protection of asylum seekers we will make tangible improvements in these crucial areas".

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/948&format=HTML&aged=0&language

In the above quote there is a line that really stands out and that is “Immigration contributes to European economic performance. But this potential will be possible only if integration of migrants succeeds”. This quote leads me to the next point I would like to discuss which is, the problems that face immigrants once they have the right to stay in Italy; which is education and in particular the education of the youth. How can we expect the immigrants to succeed in Italy when much of the population isn't pro-immigration and when almost all politicians are unwilling to propose or vote for any pro-immigration legislation since for them it would be political suicide. As we have seen in some of the articles we have read over the past 2 weeks there is a general trend of more and more immigrants finishing high school. But this trend may just be because there is an increasing amount of second generation immigrants that are Italian speaking; but then there is also the problem of those who are learning ISL (Italian as a Second Language) where they tend to fall further behind in the education system and are less likely to finish. But then there is also another problem in Italy which could be the cause of many of these problems, which is the lack of funding for the public school system; but then again this is a problem not only in Italy but also in other European countries and America. As was discussed in the lakhous lecture much of the older Italian population is against immigrations and even the integration of them into Italian society, since they wish to preserve the Italian society; which can include the school systems. Much of the youth in Italy is open to idea of allowing people to immigrate to Italy, while many of the older population is anti-immigration; the problem with this is that many of the politicians in Italy ranges from 50 – 70, so it is only their ideals and beliefs that are expressed. If the EU and Italy want the immigrants to succeed and become a defining and helpful force in Europe then their needs to be political will and funding and the desire to help them. This means creating programs to help immigrants at younger ages and to offer classes that will help further their education to university levels. This is going to have to be achieved on the Italian government level since there is no political will in the European Union to have EU wide education requirements.

It is difficult to compare education of the youth and immigration between the United States and Italy especially when the counties differ so much (with the European system being much more complex when it comes to immigrations and asylum seekers due to the overseeing hierarchy of the European Union, which the United States does not have). I don't have much experience when it comes to immigration and education in the US, but from what I have observed in general about the US is it's much more accommodating to immigrants and their education when compared to Italy. While many of the states in America are pro-immigration there are some that have setup english only laws restricting the spoken language in government operations within those states to only english. This can be somewhat problematic when teaching in schools for those children that are learning english as a second language. Many states are also trying to curb illegal immigration like in Italy by passing laws that will deport those without the legal right to stay Arizona is one of the first states to try to pass such legislation (S.B. 1070) with many other states also writing and try to pass similar illegal immigration laws. Education in the States is in my opinion much more accommodating to immigrants especially those who don't speak english as their native tongue; at least from what I have seen in the eduction system in Washington State, which is also one of the few states to not have an english only law.

Much of my opinions and perspectives on the education and in particular immigration in Italy and the EU are based on my area of studies in European Studies. But much of opinions and perspectives about the US are from what have observed and learned during my time living in the US, but never formally studying these topic in school; in addition to this I have never had the experience of immigrating to another country.  I also believe that the greatest problem facing immigrants in Italy and Europe, is that Europe has an integration problem when it comes to immigrants.  The French are a perfect example of this type of thinking, an example I'll use is from the book Europe's Promise by Steven Hill; "The unspoken pact that France has had with the immigrés for decades has been, 'you come here, we'll greet you warmly, we'll give you free housing in suburban developments built just for you, you'll get spending money every month, free health care, a monthly allowance for every child you bear. You, in turn, will sweep our floors and dig our trenches. But don't even think about getting a REAL job!'" (Hill 305).  This is the mentality that is shared throughout many larger western European counties Italy included, this still remains the problem even if more and more doors are opened for immigrants this mentality towards them only hurts any chance they do have of integration. 

Writing Assignment 3

Piazza Vittorio looks like any other Italian neighborhood at first glance but upon further inspection it is completely different from any other neighborhood within Rome; with a variety of different international shops, grocers and food markets. This culturally diverse neighborhood is home to immigrants from all reaches of the world from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and anywhere you can think of. From talking to many of the foreigners many of them came here alone with the dream of making more money and having a better life, with many of them aspiring to move to the United States. The majority of the people working at the food market are emigrants from Bangladesh and some from north Africa and the Middle East. The first interview that we did was with 2 men, one from Egypt and the other from Bangladesh both of these men were in their early 30's or late 20's. Both of them worked as butchers in the market Esquilino, they both enjoyed working as a butchers in the market and have been living in Italy for four years and six years. The man from Bangladesh came alone and by himself an plans on moving to the US in about 2 years, the man from Egypt came to Italy with his family but doesn't like here in Italy as much as he did in Egypt. From talking to them we learned that they were interviewed by some other students from our class, that were taking notes and writing down information and names; which they found to be disrespectful and offensive. Much of what they told us about the immigration process sync to what we have been learning in class and their experiences both differed.

The Italian that we talked for the interview was a 22 year old female university student we met on the street in the neighborhood, who lives with her parents in the area around the piazza vittorio. She had a different view on the immigration than most of the other Italians that we talked to previously; she was open to the idea of allowing immigrants into the country allowing them to work and raise their families here in Italy. She was happy to talk with us and offer her option on immigration in Italy even though she was an Italian, granted she may have held some of her true thoughts back but she was generally in favor of allowing immigrants to reside here. I think that she may have been more open with discussing this topic with us if we were one of her peers at the university or another Italian.

I feel that this was a fun assignment meant to push our boundaries and make us talk to immigrants and Italians about a controversial topic in Italy. During this assignment I realized many people don't like to talk or discuss immigration in Italy, but this is not only limited to the Italians but also some of the immigrants were reluctant to talk to us about their history and the experiences that they had coming to Italy, an example of this was a Bangladeshi man who Sarah had bough food from in english but when we started to ask him questions about where he came from he became reluctant to answer questions and just said that he didn't speak English. Overall I thought that this was a enlightening experience and showed us a new side of Rome that isn't normally seen when you are touring the main attractions.

Writing Assignment #2

When discussing Italian identities it is a very dense and complicated topic, because of the large amount of discourse over what region is the “true” Italian. Much of this discourse and arguments stems from the unification of Italy about 150 years ago, and has been much more obvious in the last 60 years after WWII when north Italy was rebuilt and was modernized and became the industrial mecca of Italy, while the south remained mainly agriculturally driven. A similar divide like this has also been seen in the United States mainly after the Civil War when the Northern States became industrialized and the southern states remained agricultural. This division that is seen in Italy between the north and the south has caused a differing mind-set between the north and south causing at times a division of ideas and ultimately their identities.

In America we have preconceived notions and stereotypes of what an Italian should be, for example that all Italian immigrants in America are working for the mafia and conducting illegal activities; this may be true for a very small part of the population but it doesn't hold true for all of them. Even within Italy there are these “myths” or stereotypes between not only of the immigrants and Roma populations but also of the northern and southern Italians. As time moves forward there is an ever growing number of immigrants in Italy and the number will continue to raise in the coming years as more and more people use Italy as a gateway for European immigration. As it stands right now the immigrant population in Italy accounts for about 10% of the population or about 5 to 6 million people in a country that has population of around 60 million. As this trend continues the Italian people are going to have to accommodate these people and their national cultures. Italy is moving the direction of a multinational culture similar to the United States but many of the Italians are unwilling to make this change and wish to preserve Italy as a purely Italian state by making it increasing difficult to legally reside within the country. But then this raises the question of how can the Italians make a purely Italian country when the Italian people themselves can't even decide on what is a “true” Italian? Whether the Italian people want to admit it or not the immigrants are a needed workforce for the country, due to a negative birthrate, and the transition of the country from a mostly blue collar country into one that is white collar and the unwillingness of the native population to perform these “lower class” jobs, when all they want is the higher paying desk jobs. This same scenario has been happening in the US for decades now, particularly in the agricultural sector and this same trend is currently happening in Italy.

The increase in the immigrant population has started to make Italy a diverse country with a mixing of cultures living together, this is especially visible in the larger cities like Rome, Milan, Florence and Naples. Even though there are different cultures living together the dominant culture is still Italian but there are neighborhoods that are made up of a very large immigrant population, generally in the poor parts of the city. From some of my observations and talking to Italian they will generally try to avoid these areas and wont shop in their stores or eat in their restaurants although they are tolerant of them.

As I have stated before it is extremely difficult to describe what the Italian culture is because there is such a large immigrant population and even disagreement between Italians as to who really is a “true” Italian. Italy is like America in this way that there are many different “America's” within the US, for example the difference between the south, midwest and westcoast. It's true we are all different but we still recognize us all as being American despite our differences on political, cultural and social issues and I think in this respect that Italy has something to learn from the US on these matters. While on the matter of who does belong and who doesn't in Italy, it would be hard for me, being an American to say that nobody because we have been raised in a country where everyone one belongs and can be an American. But in Italy it would seem to be that the title “Italian” is reserved for those who are Italian by heritage and bloodline. What I would like you the reader to understand from this assignment is that Italy is still a young country in the terms of immigration and political/social ideals, and has a long way to go on figuring out its identity and to be more open to the ideas of others not just other Italians but other immigrants.

Youth in Rome

The youth in Italy are very different in Rome when compared to those in the states, as is the classification of who is considered to be a part of the youth group.  In the states, youth generally refers to those that are under the age of 18 or 21, what i have observed while I have been in Rome is that the youth isn't limited by age like in the states but by the way that you act and the people that you associate yourself with.  I have seen people from a much broader group of ages while i have been here that i would consider to be youths, ranging from 14 all the way through their 30's.  In the states we put all of these restriction on the youth like drinking age and being able to buy tobacco products that once you reach you are really no longer considered to be young; while Italy is quite the opposite this.  In America people generally move out of their parents house when they turn 18 and want to be independent and live on their own, while many Italians will live with their parents much later.  These are just some of the differences that i have noticed between the youths in Italy and the US.