About immigration

Immigration in Italy is quite a recent phenomenon with respect to other European countries; during the XIX century it was in fact mainly considered a country of emigration as thousands of Italians left their country due to the lack of work. The phenomenon of immigration has particularly increased from the 80s and in only ten years immigrants with a regular residence permit became almost 600.000-700.000. According to Caritas, in the last two years their number has further increased by 3.7 millions, with an annual rate of about 700.000 immigrants.

During the last decade, lots of things in the bureaucratic procedures for the admittance of immigrants have changed, and many of these policies were designed to limit the illegal flow of immigrants: the law "Bossi-Fini", for example, among other restrictive measures, provides that any immigrant who applies for a regular residence permit must leave his/her fingerprints. Even though such measures enable the identification of the immigrant, I think that on the other hand it leads to classify him/her as a potentially dangerous person or a criminal. Moreover, mass media talk about immigrants almost only when serious offences of organized crime happen, in such a way that they are often considered the ‘problem’ of our society.

Many are in fact the obstacles that immigrants have to face to integrate in our society: among these, certainly the mastery of the Italian language and the knowledge of Italian traditions. One of the main factors that make it difficult for them is that colleagues and friends frequently talk with each other using dialect, this way excluding the possibility for the immigrant to fully integrate in the society. In order to overcome this problem, I think it is necessary to promote more policies which enables him/her to live as a citizen with his rights and duties, also with regard to the right to vote: I think that every person who live and regularly work in our country must have the right to decide which candidate they want to govern, otherwise it will be very difficult for them to identify themselves with our society and institutions. Therefore, I think that more clear procedures for achieving such rights are the basis of a concrete and farsighted policy aimed at eliminating prejudices and reducing social disparities.