Recoloring Black Italians
An Integrated Analysis of Immigration Discourses in Macerata Province, Italy
Simone Conestà
Social Anthropology 60 Credits
University of Oslo
Department of Social Anthropology
Fall 2021
ii Copy Right Simone Conestà,
2021,
Recoloring Black-Italians, Simone Conestà
www.duo.uio.no
Publisher: Reprosentralen, Universitetet I Oslo All Photographs are owned and taken by the author.
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Abstract
Through fieldwork ethnography integrated with a social discourse analysis, this thesis investigates tautological self-reinforcing discourses on immigration which tend to socially exclude immigrants. Since the late 1980s, the dominant anti-immigration discourse has
constructed the “South to North” immigration as an invasion of desperate immigrants in search for greener pastures. The arrival of immigrants is perceived as disrupting a previously
established status quo which results in social disorder and chaos. However, the Italian institutions are more complicit in the immigration phenomenon than they claim given their colonial historicity in Africa and the labor demand that they create in the informal sector which invites immigrants to Italy for work. As a consequence, immigrants are stuck in a limbo as they are both socially excluded from society while at the same time being interwoven in its social texture. In this sense, both legal and illegal immigrants, but especially the latter, go unrecognized thus becoming “invisible” to the state institutions which provide them with little or no help to integrate into society. Their precarious condition makes them easily exploitable by the informal economy and mafia schemes like the “caporalato” system. Immigration discourses appear to have a major influence on Italian society’s social stratification which conceptualizes immigrants as the “ideal informal workers” due to their assumed natural leniencies for illegal work. This thesis elucidates that the binary national and non-national dichotomy maintains immigrants in loops of unsatisfactory informal work and micro-criminality. This is predicated on the concept of Italianness which is shifting from an ethnicity based conception to one constructed through territoriality, culture, and language. Immigrants are reappropriating the reins of their own narratives and discourses and are now more than ever centering themselves within the Italian social structure. The failure to factor transnational political economy dynamics limits the
conceptualization of Italian society as being part of a grander global system which, incidentally, would not only lead to a reconstruction of the concept of Italianness but also to an increased understanding of Italy as a pluralist multicultural nation state.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my research participants for their participation, kindness, and enthusiasm for this project. Their emotional support and friendship were invaluable and accompanied me throughout the writing process.
I would also like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, who over the past two years has been of great assistance, and a true inspiration and mentor.
Lastly, I would like to thank my family and friends for their constant encouragement. An appreciation goes also to those who read, gave me feedback, and contributed to important corrections.
vi Map of Italy.
Map of Le Marche region.
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Content
1. Introduction………1
Research Questions………..2
Terminology……….4
Methodology………5
Thesis Overview………10
2. From Emigration to Immigration………..12
The Three Waves of Italian Emigration……….12
The Beginning of The European Immigration Crisis………15
Demystifying narratives of Sub-Saharan Invasion to Europe………17
The Foundations of Italian Immigration Policy: Bossi-Fini………..19
Chapter Summary………..21
3. The Uninvited Guest………23
Social Exclusion: Immigrants at the Hotel House……….23
The Problem with Methodological Nationalism………28
Immigration Discourses in Macerata……….30
The spread of True and False News online………....33
Chapter Summary………..36
4. The Invisibles………38
Work Ethnicization: “We need an African at the volleyball court”...………...38
Who are the “Invisibles”?...39
Fun work: Recurring to Informal Work for Income………...43
“Have you ever seen a black man at the bank!?”………...48
Slow Bureaucracy and Underfunded Integration Programs………..51
Chapter summary………...54
5. Black-Italians: From Objects to Subjects………..57
The Hotel House: Integrated Immigrants and “New” Italians………...57
The Myth of “Italianness” and the “North-South” Divide……….63
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The Emergence of New Concepts of Italianness………...64
From Primordialism to Constructivism: Ius Sanguinis, Ius Soli, and Ius Culturae……...65
The “Reemergence” of Ghosts in Italian Society………..72
Afro-Italianness and Popular Culture………75
Chapter Summary………..79
6. Conclusion………81
Summary………....81
Discussion………..85
References……….89
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“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible”
Maya Angelou
“A system cannot fail those it was never designed to protect”
Tupac Shakur
“Inclusion is not bringing people into what already exists; It is making a new space, a better space for everyone”
George Dei
“You do not beg for rights! No. You demand them!”
Hillary Seddu
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1. Introduction
“A tous ces racistes à la tolérance hypocrite Qui ont bâti leur nation sur le sang
Maintenant s'érigent en donneurs de leçons Pilleurs de richesses, tueurs d'africains Colonisateurs, tortionnaires d'algériens Ce passé colonial c'est le vôtre
C'est vous qui avez choisi de lier votre histoire à la nôtre…”1 (James, 2012).
“Lettre à la Republique” by Kerry James is a rap song in which he imagines himself talking to the Republic of France. In his words, James captures France’s ironic paternalism toward people from postcolonial francophone countries in view of its colonial past. He captures the resentment of minorities that are ignored and unrepresented in Western societies, as well as their demand for more attention and acknowledgement. He refers to the oppression and exploitation of people and of resources at the hands of those who now portray themselves as role models in modern society.
James reminds France it was they who chose to tie the destinies of “Western” and “Non- Western” generations together. These lyrics offer a key insight into the plight of the African diaspora from a postcolonial perspective.
Postcolonial theory is often misunderstood as a temporal concept, meaning the time after
colonial independence. Rather, it is the contestation of colonialism’s narratives, power relations, and social hierarchies, particularly as they persist following formal colonial rule. It is not merely a chronological construction of post-independence, but rather an ideological response to
colonialist thinking (Gilbert & Tompkins, 1996). While postcolonial theory does not simply mean “after colonialism,” it is still important to link history to the present to understand the modern situation in terms of domination by the Global North in formerly colonized societies.
1“To all racists and their hypocritical tolerance. To those that have built their nation on others blood. Now they stand as examples to look up to and givers of lessons. Pillars of riches, killers of Africans. Colonizers, tortures of Algerians. This colonial past is yours. It is you who have chosen to tie your history with ours…”.
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One area where postcolonial theory is particularly useful is in contextualizing the immigration crisis as it relates to today’s modern political economy. In fact, immigration from “South to North” is often seen in isolation from colonial history and modern political economy.
Nevertheless, this study will not solely linger on postcolonial postmodernist theories in a critical analysis of the dominant paradigm given that these may become redundant and ends in
themselves. They ultimately do not provide solutions to the issues at hand as they reinforce the already predominant frames and dichotomies (Lakoff, 2004).
To understand the “South to North” migration to Europe, this study integrates postcolonialism with theories of superdiversity and particularism as an analytical framework. Additionally, these will be integrated with fieldwork ethnography and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It is not solely an attempt to criticize the West for its colonial past. Rather, this study delves into the lived experiences of sub-Saharan immigrants in Italy elucidating their hardships and builds on
postcolonial theory exploring the pathways to reciprocal as well as mutualist relations between locals and immigrants. It begins from the assumption that discourses are very powerful tools that shape our societal structure more than we may think. Looking at discourse means looking into the mirror of society and observing its reflection. It is by looking at this mirror that we can scrupulously analyze the intersections of inequality between immigrants and locals. I auspicate that capturing perspectives from both the local and immigrant populations can provide us with the knowledge needed to steer future immigration policy towards more desirable outcomes.
Research Questions
Within discourse lies the potential for social change, and it is therefore crucial to analyze and understand it to see social structures for what they are. This thesis’s aim is to scrutinize
discourses on immigration through topics of globalization, nationalism, and citizenship. Firstly, it is important stress that there are a wide variety of immigration discourses. Nevertheless, this thesis’s goal is to understand the tendency of negative discourses on immigrants to spread and propagate as well as to analyze the implications these have for immigrants, Italians and, Italian society at large. By conducting critical and engaged ethnography this study sheds light on unequal power relations whilst analyzing the experiences of immigrants in Italian society.
What are the main immigration discourses and how do they come into being?
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Immigration as a topic has been widely studied and researched by data analysts, intellectuals, and academics. This here is not intended to provide any groundbreaking knowledge on immigration.
Rather, this is a study that collects a variety of migration discourses that have been scrutinized, and whose validity and veracity has been questioned. There are many migration discourses in Macerata province and in Italy nationally. However, the challenge was not identifying the
different discourses themselves but understanding how different social facts come into being and thus also become self-evident. Often, immigrants are negatively connoted because of a state thought considered to be ontological (Sayad, 2002).
Although certain discourses on immigration seem self-evident and acquire tautological meaning, I scrutinize these and analyze them for what they are. The question arises: why even challenge a self-evident discourse? This question echoed in my mind during fieldwork as I realized that discourses need not to be true, but they do need to be convincing to become accepted as a fact or, better, a “social fact”. For the purpose of this thesis, I will use Durkheim’s definition of social fact which he defines as a social force in our environment that influences us but which we cannot change or control. For him social facts are manners of acting thinking and feeling that are
external to the individual invested with a coercive power by virtue of which they exercise control over the individual (Durkheim, 1895). Social facts are invisible forces which we cannot exactly see but that which we can perceive and that I suggest, ultimately, structure our society making discourses the ideological building blocks upon which societal thought and behavior is founded upon.
What are the implications of immigration discourses on the lives of immigrants?
The question is not if discourse affects social realities but rather how. I take a conceptual- philosophical approach not only reflecting on migrants’ role in society but also reflecting
altogether on Italian society. Distinguishing between legal and illegal immigrants, I focus on the conceptualization of sub-Saharan Africans, and more generally the “other”. What kind of attitudes do Italians take on considering current migration discourses, what are immigrants’
responses and do immigrants have the capacity to represent themselves institutionally? I explore the pathways leading to reciprocal and mutual relationships benefitting an Italian society
comprising of local and “new” Italian citizens.
What is Italianness? How does one come to be known as Italian?
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Italy is a multicultural state comprising many different nationalities. In fact, there are about 200 different nationalities of which 50% are European, 22% African, 21% Asian, and 7% American (ISTAT, 2020). However, terms like multiculturalism have been used by politicians and media as oppositional to patriotism and nationalism creating conflict. Therefore, being nationalist means being anti-multiculturalism and vice versa. The problem lies in the antithetical-rhetorical manner in which the two terms are conceptualized. How does multiculturalism threaten nationalist values and why cannot the two coexist? What does it take for a foreign individual to be considered Italian from a social and legal standpoint?
Terminology
Extracomunitario and Comunitario
The term “extracomunitario” is composed of two words “extra” meaning “outside” and
“comunitario” intending community. It is embedded with racialized tautological significance and has been used to refer to individuals outside of the European Union (EU). However, for example, although Americans, Australians, Japanese and Russians are all within the category of
“extracomunitari” they are not seen as such by the public and are generally referred to as
foreigners (Dal Lago, 1999). In fact, the term is associated with people coming from what social scientists define as “global south” or “third world countries”. In contrast, comunitario refers to individuals deriving from European countries and generally has positive connotations. We can go as far as to say that the terms extracomunitario and comunitario conceptualize ethnicities and not country of provenance with divisive and respectively negative and positive connotations (Dal Lago, 1999).
Ethnicization and Pathologization
Ethnicization is the process of attributing certain characteristics to a determined ethnicity. This is the process of stereotyping, creating determined assumptions about different nations, religions, and cultures based on assumptions and prejudgment. It creates a binary understanding of society between “national” and “non-national” which creates an in-assimilability of the “other” in the preexisting established social order. Assimilating the “other,” in this sense, would mean disrupting the social order thus causing chaos.
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Pathologization adds a clinical-scientific dimension to the process of ethnicization reinforcing the latter in a cultural deterministic manner. What pathologization implies is that determined nations are inherently “ill” and by consequence may “infect” the host nation. This is meant both in a figurative social manner, but also in a scientific-medical sense. In fact, hate slogans against migrants such as “immigrants bring diseases!” and or “letting immigrants arrive means having more criminals!” are not new. What I uncover in the chapters to come are the processes through which these kinds of discourses come to be and ultimately become known as what “everybody knows.”
Tautology
How do certain words become synonyms and reflect other meanings simply by virtue of the word itself? For instance, when the word “immigrant” is uttered, there are a series of
conceptualizations and associations that one makes usually connected to previous experiences with the term and other contextual information. Like other words, the word “immigrant” is constructed and reconstructed in a determined way thus building frames and paradigms for the word to be activated in. Lakoff (2004) in “Don’t think of an Elephant” clarifies this by arguing that it is indeed impossible not to think of an elephant when the word elephant is mentioned. This argument can be extended to “immigrant” and the associations made with the term itself. He argues that to create new paradigms it is essential not to think and act within the same frame but rather to create new frames, frames which conceive the term, in this case “immigrant,” in a different light.
Methodology
From Theory to Practice
The transition from theory to practice in everyday settings, was not an easy one. This thesis is my first attempt at writing an ethnography and, I believe, having previous experience would have provided me with an experiential blueprint and helped tremendously. Reality is much more complex and dynamic than even the most detailed and nuanced anthropological descriptions.
However, over time, I managed to adjust to different contexts and situations to collect primary data. Additionally, conventional anthropological research methods are still very much based on Euro-centric ideas that tend to describe and fetishize non-Western peoples as the “other”
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(Harden, 2011). Although it is true that anthropology as a discipline was formed and developed in Western countries by Western institutions, in today’s day and age, due to processes of globalization and hence a much vaster interconnectedness, we cannot simply treat different cultural groups as islands of their own but rather as part of a complex web of island-cultures.
Because of this, I did my best not to compartmentalize, in my instance, Italian from “African”
culture but rather to understand and interpret them in a reciprocal manner.
Gathering Secondary Data
Gathering secondary data is essential to comprehend past, modern and even future discourses and narratives. Historical or even social facts are contingent to present day situations and unwittingly shape social institutions and norms. For example, we cannot study post-colonial contexts without referring to and acknowledging a past of colonialism. This thesis investigates different Italian and European migration laws looking at the issue from a structural point of view.
I then identified various chains of interrelated social discourses in a reflexive analysis of laws and “social facts”. In this instance, I took a top-down approach looking at how migration policies shape the agency of immigrants, especially from sub-Saharan African countries. I was, however, more concerned with a bottom-up perspective in the attempt to identify discourses and narratives deriving from migrants themselves. Not coincidentally, I mainly used post-colonial theory as an analytical framework while also considering more modern approaches to issues of
multiculturalism like superdiversity theory and particularism.
Gaining Access
Since I chose to do research in my home province of Macerata, gaining access to people was not difficult. I got in touch with many of the research participants through family, friends, and their acquaintances and, through snowball sampling, they led me to more interviewees and research participants. However, not everyone was willing to participate, and some were even skeptical.
Some research participants gladly took part, and their names will be mentioned, and others will be anonymized either because they were weary or because they were unaware of me conducting fieldwork. For clarity, I never “tricked” anyone into giving me information that they otherwise would not have given me. I simply decided to follow conversations in times when my status as a researcher was not all that important to mention. I made sure this data could not in any way be traced back to these individuals to preserve their privacy. Further, I also adopted more of a
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“semi-random” approach and got in contact with people randomly by going to public places such as parks, cafés, squares, markets, promenades, and engaging in conversations with them.
Ethnography-Fieldwork
My ethnography, or primary data collection, was mainly carried out through fieldwork.
Ethnography and fieldwork are almost synonymous, but here I will use Wolcott’s distinction of the two found in “The Art of Fieldwork”. For Wolcott (1995) while ethnography is the
overarching process of primary data collection grounded on both ontological and epistemological perspectives, fieldwork is the process of inquiry that requires the researcher to be immersed or involved in the ongoing social activities of individuals or groups. Ethnography is more of a wholistic approach to the study of cultural systems than fieldwork and conducting consequently also means conducting ethnography.
Participant Observation
Participant observation is the main method I used during fieldwork. Usually, I would bring with me a small notebook and a pen to scribble down. However, at times I felt somewhat uneasy going around with a notepad and taking notes in public so I alternated between phases where I would pull out my notepad and others where I wrote my impressions at the end of the day. On one hand, writing at the end of the day gave me more of a “bigger picture” perspective given that I could look at what had happened during the day from a detached and uninvolved point of view.
On the other hand, this meant that my impressions were not as “fresh” as earlier in the day and that therefore I may have missed out on some details.
Being an ethnographer resembles what chameleons do in nature. They adapt changing color just like the ethnographer adapts and changes his or her involvement in context. I used most
participant observational methods given that no particular situation or context was ever the same and required different adaptations. In some instances, I was a complete participant, I took zero notes and socialized with people. By being a complete observer, I was able to tap in emotionally which added more dimensions to the research process and, additionally, it was also a valuable experience for me as an individual. Other times I preferred to be detached from the action and observe from afar while sitting on a bench taking notes or while taking a stroll down the street.
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However, most of the time I participated in the action but remained intentionally detached so that I could take in the subtleties of what was happening.
Semi-Structured Interviews
Semi-structured interviews were also part of my qualitative research methods. Before I left for Italy, I prepared interview guides which guided me through interviews in a structural manner.
Nevertheless, I found in the field that interviews often go places we do not expect and therefore questions and interests shift in conversations. You cannot exactly know how an interviewee is going to react to certain types of questions and as the interviewer I had to find ways to steer the conversation without wandering into unrelated topics. Interviews are not simply about asking questions and receiving answers. I learned through practice that interviews are very contextual- situational and based on both the mannerism and behavior of the interviewer and as the
interviewee. I went about my interviews in a friendly and nonchalant manner asking questions, expressing my interest, or sometimes ignorance, on topics whilst taking turns. I did not disclose my full opinion on topics as I did not want to influence the interviewee’s response.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was an essential analytical tool in my ethnography. CDA uses linguistics to analyze the deeper implications of statements from a standpoint of social theory. Its purpose is to analyze covert structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power, and control manifested in the use of language (Blomaert, J. & Bulcaen, C., 2000). It emerged in the 1980s and since then it has become one of the most influential branches of discourse analysis. CDA uses a 3-dimensional framework for conceiving and analyzing discourse: discourse as text, discourse as discursive practice, and discourse as social practice (Fairclough, N. 1992). Discourse as text looks at linguistic features and organization of concrete instances of discourse analyzing choices, patterns in vocabulary, and text structure. Discourse as discursive practice looks at that which is produced, circulated, and ultimately consumed in society. Lastly, discourse as social practice analyzes the hegemonic processes in which discourses are socially propagated and reproduced (Blomaert, J. & Bulcaen, C., 2000).
Essentially, discourses are social practices in CDA that are meant to be scrutinized from both oral and written language to further understand ongoing social behavior and dynamics.
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Consequently, it is mainly used to understand political and economic discourses, ideologies, media language, and in essence any arena of language that may lead to social inequalities. I used CDA to analyze the language of politicians while using social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well as statements from newspapers and national television to analyze different narratives, statements, and social practices. By doing so I was able to look beyond statements on their own and understand their wider implications. Although I found CDA to be a useful analytical tool, I acknowledge that my own personal bias and opinion on the matter may have influenced my interpretations. Qualitative interpretations are not exactly quantifiable and therefore contain within them some residual subjective bias. Nevertheless, my role as an ethnographer is to describe and interpret reality as close to the truth as possible.
Limitations Personal Bias
An authentic ethnography should be defined by self-awareness and critical thinking. Whether we like it or not, our worldview is influenced by the lens through which we come to know of reality thus filtering information accordingly. Personal bias derives mainly from personal experience and professional training. Both help form and shape us as individuals, but LeCompte (1987) claims that it is mainly professional training that influences our thinking. Additionally, these biases lead to confirmation bias, a bias that induces individuals to search for and use information that confirms their prior beliefs; it is the blind unwillingness of the individual to let go of their world view because they are convinced of its truth. Although there are no ways to completely remove personal bias, there are ways in which it can be limited. LeCompte (1987) suggests that through an “ethnography of the mind” one can practice what she defines “disciplined
subjectivity,” which is an act of identifying conscious and unconscious thoughts and being able to scrutinize them. Personal bias, if used in a reflexive manner, can be used to integrate primary data. While I recognize that subjectivity is to some extent inevitable, it does not necessarily represent a limitation if the researcher willingly acknowledges it and takes it into account.
COVID and Fieldwork
Conducting fieldwork during the COVID pandemic in Italy was challenging as one of the first countries heavily affected by the virus. The increase of coronavirus cases and the staggering
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death rate caused a certain fear and skepticism in much of the Italian population, which made my task as an ethnographer more difficult. It was difficult to reconcile the safety measures that I had to take for myself and for others in one-on-one conversations or interviews. The awkwardness of wearing or not wearing a mask sometimes created strange tensions and even a sense of
skepticism. Due to COVID restrictions, it became logistically difficult for me to do all the things I intended to do. Nevertheless, I adapted and managed to conduct fieldwork while taking
precautions. The limitations I encountered because of the corona virus provide in themselves situational data about the social dynamics taking place.
Ethical Considerations
Ethical considerations come hand in hand with conducting anthropological research. I sometimes struggled in situations where my status as a researcher was not known since I felt as if I was using people to get information. However, the more time went by the more I realized that I was being too hard on myself for things that I should not have been. In the end, I deemed I was asking myself the right questions and it would have been unethical in itself had I not been questioning myself.
Gathering primary data and storing it is a responsibility that comes with the research process. We can compare the ethnographer to a journalist as “a good journalist never reveals their sources,”
unless the interviewee has no problem with their name being mentioned. In this case, I provided an informed consent sheet, required by the Norwegian Center for Research Data (NSD) which informed my research participants about my research and their rights when it came to their data.
Immigration is a sensitive topic, and although I did my best not to invade other people’s privacy, it was inevitable sometimes to feel like I was. I reflected a lot on the purpose of my research;
whether that would be of any help or use to the people I was talking to or whether it was merely for self-interested purposes. Describing social dynamics for academic purposes can be
considered reason enough to conduct research, but for me, especially because of the topic of my thesis, research should be engaged and directed towards finding possible solutions that can aid society. Although this is how I conceptualize research I do not mean this thesis in any way to provide a guide of solutions to problems of immigration in Macerata province. However, if my research can even just contribute to a better understanding of the social issues in question, then my role as an ethnographer will have been, in my understanding of things, successful.
11 Thesis Overview
In the following chapters we will look at how immigrants are socially marginalized through the dominant anti-immigration discourses and how these discourses become known as “common knowledge”. Firstly, I will contextualize the present situation on immigration by looking at how Italy went from being a country exporter of immigrants to becoming importer of immigrants. By doing this we will understand the nature of the “South to North” migration and see how
immigration is commonly talked about as a threat to national security. This representation is reinforced by tautological discourses which further justify the tendency of migrants to work informal non-contractual jobs. Secondly, the apparent natural leniency to work informal jobs associates immigrants with illegality making them appear as the cause of social disorder.
Immigrants are thus conceptualized by the dominant discourse as “unwanted guests” given that they reside in Italy but are not idealized as integrating part of it. Thirdly, we will understand how the process of social exclusion leads to a certain “invisibility” on both a social and institutional level. On a social level we will see that they are not considered as part of Italian society while on an institutional level they are neglected and have difficulties integrating. Although legal migrants in theory have the same rights as Italian citizens, often their integration is made harder by a slow bureaucratic system which does not aid their integration. Illegal migrants on the other hand are at the margins of Italian society and must fend for themselves whilst living in a limbo from which they seemingly cannot escape. Fourth, being part of the Italian nation is linked to the concept of Italianness which has roots in Italy’s unification in 1861. This concept is based on an
understanding that ethnic “whiteness” is the standard requirement to be recognized as Italian and by incidence becoming an integrating part of society. Nevertheless, migration driven
diversification has made Italy into a multicultural state in which different ethnicities, cultures, religions and languages intersect. This is causing the concept of Italianness to shift from an ethnic conceptualization to one that is more defined by territoriality, culture and language. We will come to an understanding that analyzing immigration discourses and conceiving them through transnational political economy, can provide us with the knowledge we need to steer future immigration policy towards more desirable outcomes for both locals and immigrants.
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2. From Emigration to Immigration
Italy is undergoing an anthropological revolution from a country that exported migrants to the Americas in the late 1800s and early 1900s, to a country “plagued” with the modern “migrant crisis”. But what causes the current migrant crisis today? There is a tendency to conceptualize these dynamics in isolation from the Western social, political and economic system. However, the aftermath of colonialism and the modern capitalist system are entrenched in postcolonial contexts causing and perpetuating structural inequality (Hopper, 2012). To better understand Italy’s modern situation regarding immigration, this chapter will summarize the history of Italian emigration and immigration, and it will briefly summarize the most significant immigration policies leading us to today’s modern situation.
The Three Waves of Italian Emigration
When I was a child, my grandfather used to tell me stories about how family relatives fled Italy in search of greener pastures to the Americas, namely to Argentina.
“Back in the day people were dying of hunger! It was tough for them to leave their home… But they had to! They were told that there was a lot of land and a lot of polenta, but when they arrived they found that life was really hard...!” narrated my grandfather recalling old stories as I stared at him with awe.
The first wave of emigration began in 1861 and ended with the ascent of fascism in 1945. During the first wave, also known as “the great Italian emigration”, it is estimated that about 9 million Italians left Italy mainly to north and south America (Rai, 2020).
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1. Image of Italian migrants during the first wave of immigration also known as “the great Italian migration”. (2duerighe, 2018)
Italians were persuaded into migrating with hopes of finding good jobs, becoming rich and ultimately fulfilling the “American dream”. However, they found themselves in a much different situation. When they arrived, they were received by the “Bossi2” who entangled many Italians with working contracts by offering jobs only after having paid tangents3. Many Italians did not have enough money to reach America therefore the Bossi paid one-way tickets from Italy to America which accrued in long lasting debts that forced Italians to work for them for years.
Italians were hard workers and adapted to doing anything in order to gain an income, and it is perhaps because of this willingness to take even what were considered to be “dirty” or “low value” jobs that Italians gained the nickname of “white-niggers”. Italians faced racial
2 The Bossi were employers that would promise Italian immigrants good jobs but that in reality exploited them for self-interested purposes. The Bossi-immigrant dynamic is very similar to the to the “Caporalato” system in Italy which exploits mainly illegal immigrants in the informal sector.
3 A percentage owed in exchange for money or a favor. Tangents were a way of keeping Italian immigrants in precarious conditions which meant they would be easily exploitable by the Bossi.
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discrimination, were abused, often lived in unsanitary conditions and worked long hours. In fact, Italians were not treated as equal to the preestablished British or Spanish folk who did not make an effort to understand their language. Furthermore, Italians were also used to replace African slaves given that the abolition of slavery made African labor more expensive thus making desperate Italian migrants a target for cheap labor (Rai, 2020).
The Second Wave of Italian Emigration began after World War 2 (1945) and ended in the 1970s.
This wave was defined as “the European wave” as it saw many Italians migrate to northern European countries experiencing economic growth. Switzerland, Belgium, France and Germany were among the popular destinations chosen by Italian migrants. It is estimated that between 1861 and 1985 around 19 million Italians emigrated from “il bel paese4” without returning (Rai, 2020). Given the attachment that Italians generally have to their roots, it was difficult for them to have to migrate. However, the economic conditions in Italy at the time were not favorable and left many Italians without a choice. A third wave of immigrations was caused by the economic crisis of 2007. This new emigration, also known as “la fuga dei cervelli” or “brain drain”, is causing many graduates to emigrate towards more economically advanced nations to find
employment. In fact, many graduates find themselves with a degree but unemployed or unable to work at their full potential.
Historically, Italians have been and still are today a very mobile population. Because of this, there are many “oriundi Italiani”, native Italians, around the globe; there are about 50 million Italian descendants residing in foreign countries. It is a staggering number considering that the Italian population amounts to an estimated 59 258 000 (ISTAT, 2021). Native Italians have the possibility to gain Italian citizenship due to a law called “Ius Sanguinis” which guarantees citizenship to those descending from native Italians. Essentially, one can have an Italian great grandfather and legitimately apply and obtain Italian citizenship. This law enables Italians all over the world to feel like they are all part of “la madrepatria5” and enables an invisible but perceptible bond, one that ties conational individuals. Outside of Italy there is another Italy, an Italy that has become and that is becoming more and more incorporated and interwoven into the
4 Italy is commonly referred to as “il bel paese” in English “the beautiful country”.
5 Mother country.
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social texture of the foreign countries which they have inhabited melting in and influencing nations into newly evolved cultures and social realities.
The Beginning of the European Immigration Crisis
After World War two Europe was war torn and the necessity to industrialize and develop economically drove former colonizer countries to implement bilateral guest working schemes with their ex-colonies (Van Mol & de Valk, 2016). This led, for example, migrants from the commonwealth6 and from francophone countries to migrate to England and France respectively.
By the end of the 1880s these same countries began enforcing more and more restrictions on immigration driven by family reunification and family formation. Regardless, restrictions were not able to decrease immigration and, paradoxically, in this period Europe witnessed an increase of asylum applications. Europe was experiencing the very beginning of what today is known as the European “immigration crisis”.
2. The European immigration crisis: image of migrants travelling on a boat in the Mediterranean Sea. (Uemo, 2016).
6 An international organization comprising of the UK and previous English colonies. It seeks to foster international co-operation and trade links between its people.
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In response to this, several European countries began to enforce stricter immigration policies geared towards curbing the migratory phenomena. In 1993 Germany, for instance, had abolished the right to political asylum to refugees. Consequently, many were sent back to their home countries and about 400 000 were sent back to the borders (Dal Lago, 1999). In 1994 France had reduced the rights to citizenship for children of migrants making it harder for immigrants to obtain citizenship (Dal Lago, 1999). Overall, if the goal of these policies was to halt immigration influxes it only served to shift migration patterns from northern Europe to Southern Europe.
Italy, in comparison to other European nations, began experiencing immigration fluxes in the later stages of the “South to North” immigration exodus. In the eyes of the Italian public at large, the burden of immigration unjustly fell into their hands. “They do not want to come here
anyway! They want to go to Northern Europe so let them go to Northern Europe!” or “Why do we have to suffer the consequences of other European countries’ imperialism?!” are arguments that I have often heard. It is indeed true that most migrants aspired to reach more industrialized and developed European nations and that this immigration can be understood as a consequence of European imperialism. Nevertheless, these discourses outsource a sense of responsibility and accountability on both a social and governmental level causing indifference and even hostility towards immigrants. Additionally, although Italy is not exempt of its own colonial history, in the public consciousness it has gone largely forgotten and when it is talked about it is referred to as
“humane colonialism” in an almost legitimizing manner (De Napoli, 2013). These discourses justify alertness and mistrust towards immigrants or what is also known as “emergency culture”.
These ideologies racialize issues which are much greater and complex than identifying certain minority groups as the cause of social disorder.
The increase of immigration came hand in hand with an increase of fear and hostility. A study made in 1988 demonstrated that fear towards migrants was increasing. In fact, it was estimated that 34% of Italians would relate immigrants to criminal activity and only 5 years later this percentage increased to 64% (Dal Lago, 1999). According to Dal Lago, the Italian government, rather than attempting to find solutions to the hatred that was festering, took this “public
opinion” as a fact on which to act upon. Immigrants all over Europe were not only being targeted as public enemy number one but also being violently abused by police forces. For instance, in 1996 it was discovered that Spanish police officials were drugging clandestine migrants to
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facilitate their expulsion. This was not an isolated episode and police brutality on migrants all over Europe started to become an issue. During this time tv news channels and social media depicted immigrants as desperate people in search of refuge and financial security in the safe lands of Europe. Nevertheless, these representations of migrants neglect the overall lack of workers in determined sectors of the economy which overtime have been increasingly reserved for clandestine migrants.
Demystifying Narratives of Sub-Saharan Invasion of Europe
African immigration to Europe is commonly seen as an exodus of desperate people escaping poverty and conflict in the attempt to reach the rich and safe lands of Europe. This representation is based on flawed assumptions about the actual magnitude, nature and causes of African
migration to Europe which is not so massive, new or so desperately driven by misery as is commonly assumed (Hein De Haas, 2008). In the 1960s most African migrants arriving in Europe were from northern African countries such as Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. In between the 1970s and 1980s nomads and traders started to migrate in southern Algeria and Libya given that there was demand for labor in these regions but a lack of supply. These economic migrants were openly and tacitly welcomed as they fitted the national governmental policies geared toward revitalizing underpopulated desert regions. The UN’s involvement in the region played an unintended but decisive role in the unprecedented increase of transnational sub-Saharan migration. In the 1990s Al-Qadhafi welcomed sub-Saharan Africans to work in Libya. Libya thus evolved into a major destination for migrants from a multitude of west African and east African countries (Hein de Haas, 2008).
The increasingly irregular character of migration into Libya resulted in a westward migration to Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. It is from here that numbers of sub-Saharan migrants joined the Maghrebis in their attempt to reach Europe. Although portrayed as destitute or desperate, migrants are often relatively well educated and from reasonably well-off backgrounds. They are often portrayed as victims of smugglers, but evidence demonstrates that the vast majority migrate on their own initiative. In fact, smugglers, more often than not, are not part of organized crime but tend to be former nomads and immigrants who operate through relatively small networks.
Many migrants consider north Africa as their primary destination and a considerable amount of migrants stay in north Africa as a second option rather than returning to their more unstable,
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unsafe and substantially poorer origin countries. This demystifies the notion that North Africa is reduced to a transit zone and waiting room for entering Europe.
European foreign policy in northern Africa externalizes border controls to clamp down on irregular migration. This foreign policy is based on increased border security, readmitting irregular migrants in exchange for development aid, financial support for border controls, military equipment and limited numbers of temporary work permits for immigrants (Hein de Haas, 2008). To reduce immigration the EU incentivizes co-operation by establishing
multilateral agreements such as the European Mediterranean Associations Agreements (EMAA).
North African countries such as Morocco and Tunisia thus issued new immigration laws and punishments for irregular immigration and human smuggling; according to critics new laws show that Morocco and Tunisia are bowing to pressure from EU to play the role of Europe’s policemen.
Italy’s foreign policy on immigration is based on bilateral agreements with north African countries. For instance, in 2004 Al-Qadhafi and the Italian government led by then prime
minister Silvio Berlusconi made a pact to stop irregular migration to Italy with Libya agreeing to deport unauthorized sub-Saharan migrants over the Libyan territory to their origin countries.
Furthermore, illegal immigrant detention centers have been set up on Libyan territory for the purpose of identifying individuals and sending them back to their home countries. Although on paper these schemes seem to provide efficient solutions to the immigration problem, they come hand in hand with unintended collateral and human rights concerns. In fact, there has been a notable increase in institutionalized racism and civil rights violations of sub-Saharan immigrants.
Not to mention, investigations on Libyan soil have led to the discovery of mafia organizations that capture sub-Saharan migrants turning them into modern day slaves. Videos of men being sold at auctions in Libya for 400 USD have been leaked and caught the attention of the
international community (CNN, 2017). Libyan authorities have allegedly launched investigations to stop slave trade, but the discovery of these criminal organizations suggest that the issue of slave trade is much wider and capillary than what we may think. Anti-emigration discourses have been propagated through a vast array of sub-Saharan national countries warning migrants about the potential risks they could encounter, the hard life that is reserved for them once arrived in Europe and, additionally, appealing to nationalist narratives of development from “home”.
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Migration to Europe need also be conceived as a response to the demand in Europe for labor in the informal sectors. There is a discrepancy between the official aim to curb immigration and a sustained demand for cheap migrant labor. In fact, the informal sectors in southern Europe and northern Africa have become increasingly dependent on migrant labor and migration seems to be driven by labor market demand (Hein De Haas, 2008). Although new immigration and labor laws have increased penalties for employers who hire irregular workers, this is still often tolerated in practice. Italy has a quota system formally based on the labor market need and the fact that yearly quotas never match real demand explains, at least in part, the persistence of largescale irregular immigration. In this sense, anti-immigration propaganda merely acts as a reassurance to the local population that the issue is being dealt with while, in reality, not having much interest in decreasing illegal immigration and regularizing it further.
The presence of both legal and, more specifically, illegal migrants acts as a cushion for the Italian agricultural sector that finds it increasingly difficult to sustain the low prices imposed by big retail companies. In fact, retail companies obligate the Italian farmers to drive their prices down by threatening to buy goods from the more affordable developing economy markets. In parallel, wages in the agricultural sector also decrease causing a whole in the economy since Italians do not want to work poorly compensated jobs. This whole is filled by clandestine agricultural workers who are lured in by mafia like agricultural structures which I will talk more about in the following chapter. As we can see, it is not solely a quest for salvation but also an economic demand that is formed in the local informal sector and which specifically targets migrants for obvious reasons. Immigration demands serious and appropriate interventions which can adapt to the changing nature of the migratory phenomenon. The foundations for Italy’s current immigration policy rests on the Bossi-Fini law of 2002 that has been afterwards revisited by different administrations.
The Foundations of Italian Immigration Policy: Bossi-Fini
The Bossi-Fini law acts mainly on entrance, visa, digital fingerprints, irregular expulsions, reunifications with family, “false matrimonies” and rejection.
1. According to the law, only those with a job and that are capable of demonstrating to have the means to maintain themselves can obtain a visa. If earlier immigrants were granted up to three years of work visa for open ended working contracts now this has been reduced
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to two and in some cases to only one. As an immigrant, losing your job also means losing the right to stay in Italy meaning being at risk of expulsion. This policy makes it
extremely difficult for extracomunitari to obtain working permits.
2. Extracomuntari applying for working permits, in Italian “permesso di soggiorno”, must register their fingerprints with the authorities. Although in the eventuality of a crime this would make the work of the authorities easier, it implies that extracomuntari are inclined to committing crimes and that the authorities must necessarily pay extra attention to them. This law has been criticized for racializing extracomuntari as criminals or people with criminal predispositions and is an institutional representation of how certain discourses can shape immigration policies.
3. The law requires that those not in possession of a “permesso di soggiorno” be expelled.
As a black man in Italy, I have been checked and identified by the police. Clearly, the process of identification is not random and it is, indeed, based on ethnicity. The authorities deny this and claim to check people randomly, going through their bags to find potential weapons that may cause a threat to the public security. But where do we draw the line when it comes to identification based on ethnicity? Can a nation claim to be democratic while allowing racist law enforcement practices? What I am elucidating here is not how differently citizens are treated by the authorities, but how certain practices come into being from social discourses and relations to actual law enforcement practices.
Furthermore, if one is found irregular they are escorted to and detained in a center of temporary residence, in Italian “Centro di Permanenza Temporanea” (CPT), for a maximum of 60 days where he or she will be identified and expelled.
4. The immigrant whose visa has been approved has the right to be reached by a family member provided that the latter is not capable of maintaining themselves. The applicant can be reached by a parent given that they are over the age of 65 and that no other child can effectively maintain them. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that the visa applicant is employed and capable of maintaining both himself/herself and the family member.
5. If a marriage between an immigrant and an Italian is faked Italian citizenship shall be revoked. If one gets married in front of the law but then does not reside with their spouse it is considered a fake marriage. Fake marriages are not new and have been a method of
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obtaining citizenship for many migrants around the world. In addition, citizenship can be extended to the child or children of the immigrant. The only exception to this norm is if you have a child with an Italian, in which case you will attain Italian citizenship by incidence.
6. The final issue that the Bossi-Fini policy addresses is “rejections” back to the country of origin based on bilateral agreements between Italy and other countries. In Italy’s case, this could mean for example agreements with the Libyan government of 2009 with Gheddafi that aim toward cooperation and prevention of illegal immigration. The
objective is not to allow boats of immigrants sailing from northern Africa to reach Italian soil and to conduct identification of asylum seekers and provide medical care, for those in need, on board of the boats.
The Bossi-Fini act on immigration is the basis upon which modern day immigration laws are based on today. As I will explain in the later chapters, there have been further ratifications of this law adjusting to the fluctuating necessities of a constantly evolving society in terms of political, economic, and social bearings. There is growing consensus around the fact that the Bossi-Fini act on immigration needs to be replaced with a new, more modern and comprehensive immigration law. Now more than ever immigrant experiences and opinions are beginning to be represented institutionally and have more influence. On the other hand, the growth of immigrant narratives and discourses come hand in hand with more contestation from conservative groups. The point of the matter is not to put gas on the fire and augment an “us” vs “them” dichotomy but rather to find commonalities upon which to build the basis not just for acceptance and integration but also for reciprocity, mutuality, and conviviality.
Chapter Summary
The Italian emigration can be divided historically in three different waves: the “great” Italian migration to the Americas, the European migration and the “brain drain” emigration recently caused by the economic crisis of 2007. The historicity of Italian migration has led to the spread of Italian descendants and Italian culture worldwide. After World War two, Italy went from a country exporter of migrants to a country importer of migrants by hands of what is now referred to as the European immigration crisis. The immigration crisis affected Italy as well as other European nations but Italy’s southern and central position in the Mediterranean has made it an
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important transit zone and destination for many migrants. The Italian institutions argue that Italy has been left alone to deal with the burden of migration and demands that EU countries take more responsibility in sharing this burden. This is often attributed to the fact that other European countries colonial history is said to inherently have caused this migration wave and that Italy should not be left alone to deal with it. A series of multilateral and bilateral agreements between European countries and north African countries have been implemented in order to clamp down on illegal immigration which does not seem to cease. In this tense context, migrants are
commonly portrayed as desperate individuals in search of a better life in Europe, but this
narrative does not account for the significant need of laborers in the informal sector. Immigration flows are therefore not only to be conceived as a quest for a better life but also as a response to the labor demand generated by Italian as well as other European economies. Current immigration policies aim to disfavor illegal immigration and promote legal immigration by making it
increasingly difficult to obtain visas and working permits. Nevertheless, this provisions only seem to delay the inevitable as they do not address the root cause of immigration which is embedded in today’s neocolonial and neoliberal global political economy. Local immigration policies have been increasingly scrutinized by locals and migrants who would like to see the outdated and racializing immigration policies revisited but this also came hand in hand with contestations from the opposition. The dual relation between these two contested ideologies are constantly topics of debate in the Italian public which is increasingly influenced by migrant narratives and discourses.
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3. The Uninvited Guest
The dominant discourse on immigration conceives immigrants as the cause of social disorder.
We will see that although many immigrants are admittedly involved in criminal activity that this is not based on an assumed propensity towards criminality but more as the result of a systemic structure which lures immigrants into doing “dirty work”. The paradigm of methodological nationalism reinforces the distinction between national and non-national excluding transnational dynamics from influencing local contexts. Further, this comes hand in hand with patriotic beliefs and rightwing polarization that have led to social tensions between locals and immigrants which culminated in episodes of violence. Alternative discourses to the anti-immigration narrative, however, remind us that it is individuals that must be held accountable in front of the law when they commit crimes and not nationalities. Immigrants are conceptualized as “uninvited guests”
but have been invited to stay by an increased labor demand in the informal sector thus filling holes within the Italian economy. Further, these conceptualizations seem to have a faster and wider outreach in comparison to positive ones implying that news which triggers sentiments of fear and hatred are more likely to be talked about and shared on social media outlets. In this chapter we will look at examples of hardships that immigrants in Porto Recanati face as well as scrutinizing anti-immigration discourses in Macerata.
Social Exclusion: Immigrants at the Hotel House
“The Hotel House7 is a particular place... There are many sayings and assumptions about the Hotel House (HH) and its residents, but this is normal… It is normal because there are people who sell drugs here and many of them are immigrants. We are not protected
7 A big apartment complex in Porto Recanati which is home to around 2000 people. It was built in the 1960s as a tourist residence but, given that public housing was not enough to cope with the number of residents in the area, the HH became a private replacement for this. Through the years due to the increase of immigration and the falling costs of rent here, the HH became home to a lot of immigrants and is now in fact almost synonymous with immigration.
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from these people, we are alone. There are many things said on the news that are not even true. We really need somebody who can represent us.”
These are the words of Souleye a young Senegalese man who lives in Porto Recanati at the HH.
3. Picture of the Hotel House from the main road leading to Porto Recanati.
Nevertheless, this replacement came hand in hand with a series of institutional and structural issues which affect immigrants living here. Criminality is associated with the major presence of immigrants here implying that they bring illegality. The presence of the police in the area is supposed to reassure the residents at the HH but Souleye claims that notwithstanding their presence, many do not feel safe.
“How come everyone knows about this but drug trafficking persists at the HH? I often see a police van in front of the building… Don’t they keep you safe? How do you feel about the presence of the police here?” I asked.
“They know the place very well, they have friends on the inside that sell and that don’t sell… So, they do each other favors. They are supposed to clamp down on drug
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trafficking but at the same time they also facilitate it… They say ‘If you denounce me I am protected’. They use their power to impose themselves and that is the unfortunate truth. For example, I have been checked by the police a couple of times. They asked me for my documents and at first the policeman said “Ahhh you are a good one…” but the next day the same guy came back, asked me for my documents and took them away. This is the power that they have.”
It was curious how everybody knew what was happening at the HH but that nothing was being done. Souleye claims that oftentimes the police facilitates drug trafficking and that they
additionally abuse of their power to harass immigrants who have done nothing wrong. Micro- criminality is always in the forefront of headlines and news articles but not much is said publicly about the nationwide pervasive Mafia structures. Ultimately, it is these that set-in motion micro- criminality and without it micro criminality would not exist. Souleye claims that there are a lot of things said in the news that are not true about the HH and that the HH is in need of someone who can appropriately represent them.
The HH’s residents are stigmatized for both their foreign origins and because they live here.
They are marked by the public opinion and the public institutions seems to act accordingly meaning that its residents are always treated with suspicion. Souleye remarks that the people here are good and that it is the drug dealers that bring problems to the HH. The acts of few individuals influence the way all the residents at the HH are perceived thus making them criminals as well. When one says that they live at the HH it is typical to associate them with fiscal evasion, unhygienic living conditions, drug trafficking and even murder. There have been cases of bones buried in the where abouts of the HH and it is assumed that this may have
something to do with the residents of the HH even without any evidence. It is common narratives like these that perpetuate a circular never-ending and self-reinforcing preconceptions and
thoughts about the HH and its residents.
“Apart from criminality, what are some of the most pressing issues at the HH?”
“Water. The water at the HH is very bad and this is because the HH is in debt with the water services. 89% of the people at the HH do not pay taxes on water versus 11% who do… Some because they cannot afford to pay, others because they refuse to pay given that nobody does anything about it! And the 11%? Who knows where that money goes…
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The problem here is that everything is private and because of this the commune takes no responsibility. Although the HH is private it is still within the commune of Porto
Recanati so the public institutions should do something. But they just wash their hands and say that it is out of their jurisdiction. There are 17 floors and the elevator does not work, the apartments are old and need restructuring, the carpet on the floor has been there since the building was built in 1967! But no one cares about this we are just left on our own”
“What do you say to people who say they should tear down the HH?”
“It hurts, it is not fair. The HH was built because their was not enough public housing and became a substitute for it. The cheap costs are what brought immigrants to the HH
because of their limited finances… But let’s say that 15 or 20 years ago you bought an apartment here for about 70 000 euros right? Now the prices of these apartments has decreased a lot! Now the value of these apartments has almost halved because of the presence of immigrants right… In addition to this they want to tear down the HH?? This is not fair and if they a want to do this they must compensate the owners of the
apartments.”
The value of the apartments at the HH has in fact significantly decreased and this is because of the sense of degradation associated with it. This degradation is associated with the presence of immigrants who are assumed criminals. The commune of Porto Recanati does not take any responsibility or initiatives to ameliorate the situation and in fact any initiatives are taken forward by local NGOs and civil rights organizations like “On the Road” which Souleye is part of. The HH has private contracts with water and electricity companies respectively with ASTEA and ENEL. It is commonly believed that it is the residents at the HH that do not pay the taxes, but what is not much talked about is the fact that many of these apartments are owned by Italians. They receive payments for services in their rent but do not pay these to the service providers. This needs to be clarified in order to avoid misunderstanding and assuming that it is only immigrants who do not pay taxes as it is a common problem among Italians as well.
It seems that the private nature of the HH jurisdictionally does not permit the commune to take any actions in these regards. The commune is therefore made helpless towards the HH and its residents who must fend for themselves with the occasional help of civil rights organizations.
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“How has the corona virus situation affected residents at the HH?”
“There have been only 13 cases of COVID reported at the HH and many more in the center of Porto Recanati but still we are seen as spreading the disease. This has affected many people in terms of work because they forced people to stay home. Some of them with unemployment benefits while others without anything. So, how are people supposed to make ends meet? There is an industry called Clementoni that during COVID
specifically did not hire anyone living at the HH. Because we are seen as carriers of the virus.”
The pathologization of immigrants residing at the HH resulted in a series of social as well as work related issues. The stay-at-home regulations forced immigrants to stay at home and not work. Nevertheless, many of these workers are informal Souleye says and the ones with contracts often work extra hours “in black8” (in Italian “in nero”) in order to keep their jobs.
Furthermore, immigrants are racially profiled by employers who do not hire them given that they live at the HH.
“What would you tell people that have negative assumptions about the HH?”
“Who has never been at the HH would say that they would never live here, but who lives here will never want to leave because of the friendships you make in comparison to other places. The people here are good they are not bad. We just need to be helped.”
The HH is the present, future and for a certain part of Europe the past. It is a sort of Start Trek planted on the ground where people from different countries live together. It is an
exceptional occasion and challenge in terms of the capacity not only to tolerate but to integrate with one another. At the HH there are no ethnic or religious tensions amongst people, and they live in peace amongst each other. Although drug trafficking here is a reality, it does not make everyone here culpable of criminal acts. Immigrant’s wrong doings seem to have a totalizing effect causing their social exclusion on the basis of place of residence and of ethnicity.
Additionally, the social marking of the HH’s residents affects their ability to find work and they are not helped by the institutions due to jurisdictional barriers. The commune of Porto Recanati exempts itself from any responsibilities and stresses that the reason the HH is facing issues
8 “Black work”, in Italian “lavoro in nero”, is commonly used in referral to informal work.
