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.