As modern day Americans we are fortunate enough to not have to flee for refuge in another country or be stereotyped into specific employment due solely to our nationality. Unlike in the United States, Italy is a country that is full of immigrants who are being forced into jobs, living situations and treatment that they do not deserve. Immigrants from Ireland and immigrants from Nigeria, all treated differently but still struggling with the immigration process in Italy.
When I first began to research the immigrant experience I found myself shocked with how much information was available. I wanted to know what each individual felt like when they came to Italy, about their experience, how they were treated and why they felt they were treated that way. I was also interested in looking into the other side of the experience, that of the Italian. What was an Italian’s experience with so many immigrants in the workplace, did they have certain reserves against specific nationalities?
My journey began with one step into the Esquilino Market. I looked around at the bright colors that surrounded the stands but more importantly the many different shapes, sizes and colors of the people that stood behind the stands. Smiling faces, some that looked tired but enthusiastic others that looked desperate and hopeless. It was a melting pot of nationalities with a wide array of selling tactics. Some of the vendors spoke no English and disregarded me; others showered me with compliments and followed me around with questions. After a few failed attempts I realized that my lack of Italian language skills were hindering me from progressing too far. I needed a little bit of help, so I went on a search of an English-speaking immigrant.
David is an Italian speaking, Irish born bartender. His experience in Italy has been one that differs from most of the immigrants I had encountered. He loves the city and all the people that he’s been lucky enough to get to know through his diverse experience as a bartender. When I asked him about other immigrants he interrupted me and said, “I haven’t got a baldy,” which in other words means he doesn’t have any idea and he doesn’t really care at all.
I asked him if he felt stereotyped by Italians at all, he thought for a moment and smiled widely after a long pause. “Hell’s yes I do, I’m an Irish bartender, what do you think?” he laughed loudly. He even told me a story of when he first left Ireland for London and how nervous he felt of being judged or hated.
“I remember when I arrived in London, when I was 19 for the first time, and my f*ing shoulders when up to ere eh [shoulders up to his ears] and I was so tense! I couldn’t figure out why I was so tense though, it wasn’t that I had aye bad experience o’ nothing...I just felt everyone was watching to see if the Irish kid f*ed up.”
He went on to talk about how in Italy it doesn’t seem as bad for him as others. I had the impression from the way he talked about Italy, the Italians he knew, or how the people walking in and out spoke to him that his experience wasn’t a bad one. He seemed to adapt into the environment very well. When I mentioned this observation after his short speech, it was almost as if he had changed his mind completely. He went on and on about how ‘I don’t have it nearly as bad as some other people have it, I came for a good time and ended up staying, their coming for bad reasons.”
I didn’t know at first what I thought about his answers. At first he mentioned that he felt stereotyped as well as an innate fear of being judged, later he talked about not having it as bad as others and that he loved being in Italy and seems to have no problems with the people here. I imagine that the latter is truer. If someone has an extremely difficult experience I would assume that they would be very consistent on their views of the ‘immigrant’ experience.
Before my next interview I decided to try and find some valid information in regards to the opinion of immigrants through the Italian perspective. I didn’t come up empty handed. I first came upon a few articles in the Encyclopedia Britannica online archives. The article mentions that, “the Italian political context during the 1990s the institutional responses to immigration in Italy were generally reactive and delayed, involving a number of amnesties allowing illegal immigrants on Italian soil to become legal residents…” it goes on to explain that this tactic of awarding residency stopped and with that halt came, “reluctance to accept the presence of immigrants.” Employment problems doesn’t seem to be causing these hostel feelings towards immigrants because of the jobs that immigrants tend to take such as, “subordinate, heavy-duty and low-paid jobs that Italians do not want to do.”
With this knowledge I decided to dig a bit deeper into these opinions. An article found in the Italian paper, Wanted in Rome, talks about the difference in how Caucasian, or non-western European immigrants are treated compared to immigrants from other darker nations. Caritas offers that 20.5% of the Italian immigration population has migrated from Romania while the highest Western European population is Germany with only 1.1%. The article explicitly states that treatment, “often depends on country of origin and skin color.” Is also mentions that many western European immigrants come to Italy for professional reasons or to experience a new culture while, “For so-called immigrants [non-western European] the stimulus is usually only economic: the need to secure a better future for themselves and their family back home, and eventually to return to their country of origin.”
In Esquilino specifically, I was able to find a case study that was focused on the immigrants in the market. I found one specific quote that caught my attention, it was from a Bangladesh store owner who said that, “ In this area [Esquilino], for various reasons, the Italians do not think well of the foreigners, they think we have stolen their place, their work, their social life.” I thought this was important to even more so further the point that David had mentioned, Italians treated distinct nationalities poorly.
I was also able to get an opinion from Alex, a Naples native who took us all on a tour of the city when we visited. When I asked him what he thought about the poor reputation that Naples has in Rome he was very concise in his answer. He quickly said that, “all of the immigrant come to Naples, learn the language, head up to Rome and tell everyone they are Neapolitan. That is why they all think that Neapolitans are crude and dumb, because all they have are immigrants that claim to be from Naples.” He put all the blame on the immigrants for the untruthful reputation that Naples has.
While Italy is still working to create bills that help immigrants have more of a say in the government, elected officials and laws passed on both state issues and immigration issues their efforts seem to be very lax. Italy seems to be making progress but still seems to be far behind in truly accepting immigrants as Italians.
Razvi, a Romanian immigrant that now works as a waiter here in Rome in a small restaurant along Via Corso was the next person I was able to sit down and talk with. I was able to talk with him about his impression of Italians based on their treatment of him. He started by saying that he, “could write a novel about how badly Italians treat Romanians.” He also explained that of all the people that reside in Italy, Albanians, Moroccans and Romanians are treated the worst. He explained using an example of a recent incident in Rome that has been overly discussed in the Italian news. The story was of a 14-year-old girl who was raped by a Romanian immigrant. This story was discussed for months following the event as well as spurred conflict amongst all the immigrant groups. An Italian cabinet minister even, “called today for rapists to be chemically castrated, amid a growing row over vigilante attacks on immigrants,” according to the Times Online.
The story continues to discuss the attacks that have resulted in this story becoming a primetime Italian news. Meanwhile Razvi commented that when this same incident occurs with an Italian attacker it is a two-day broadcast. This perpetual cycle of emphasizing the negative events surrounding immigrants only continues to feed into people’s wrongful stereotypes. We can also see this occur with the race riots in the south of Italy and how the media attention only spurred more negativity and furthered racial tensions.
When Razvi mentioned his own experience he explained that when he began working at the restaurant Italians appeared to be nice, over time though, as they realized he would be remaining as an employee the “jig was up…” and their true colors were shown when they began to treat him, “terrible.” They only, “like Italians and they make it clear to everyone, they are all racists.” His point was even more evident in the a new bill that is being passed in Italy that will force, “Doctors…to report illegal immigrants to the authorities, something which has been banned on privacy grounds since 1998.”
I was again finding myself in a conflicting situation. I had learned that Italians definitely treat separate immigrant groups differently but I was beginning to become confused as to how Italy was dealing with these issues. I had in the beginning found myself believing that while there were serious racial tensions the Italian government was making an effort to correct them and give immigrants a larger impact in the government. After talking to Razvi and reading articles about the race riots and the rape incident I found myself thinking that Italy was a country much in need of racial reform.
When I first began this project I intended on interviewing Italians to hear their opinion on the immigration in Italy. I had a hard time because every time I brought the topic up in a conversation I would either get no response or I would receive something that seemed to be untrue. I was under the impression that Italians didn’t want me to think of them as racists and gave me a false idea of their true feelings toward immigrants. I remembered when we were fortunate enough to hear from an Italian film director. He made it very clear that while he loves his country it “saddens” him to see their actions towards immigrants.
A recent strike in Milan was covered worldwide by the media, the strike allowed for people to speak up about the issues with racism that occur in Italy, some people didn’t have positive things to say. According to governmental research, “nearly half of Italians between the ages 18 and 29 express varying degrees of xenophobic or racist sentiments.” The New York Times also printed information about a recent campaign in Milan that consisted of a, “Native American Indian chieftain with the slogan: ‘They put up with immigration, now they live on reserves’.” The Italian opinion on immigration is loud and clear; it’s Italy for Italians and only for Italians.
Through my interviews, research and experience I was able to come to what I believe is a thorough conclusion. While Italians may be making efforts to improve their immigration issues and are aware of their own biases, essentially, I still think there is a lot of room for improvement. Most Italians still carry a negative and false impression of the immigrants that come to their country. According to the novel “Blacks Out” this country would not function without the help of its many immigrant residents. Hopefully Italy will continue on the path it is slowly trekking on now and find itself in the future with a more diverse culture and an open mind towards incoming foreigners.
If we look back into the history of the United States we can still find evidence of the horrible treatment we induced on African Americans. Just like any change, things take time; Italy needs time to adjust to a new culture that is taking over their country, a mixed, multi-ethnic culture. While what is happening isn’t right or fair, people need time to adjust and allow for change, Italy simply needs time and people with willful hearts.
The one thing that this project has made me realize above all is that I am very fortunate to live in a country that accepts people from all around the world as members of the American family. We truly are a melting pot of nationalities, religions and cultures and I would not want to live anywhere else.
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