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.