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.