Transcript Diapositiva 1

Maurizio Ambrosini, university of Milano
Director of the review “Mondi Migranti”
Two Concepts:
 Reluctant importers: a conflict between the market
and politics ?
 The Mediterranean (or Southern European) model of
immigration regulation: what differences exist
between Southern Europe, Central Europe and the
United States?
Immigration Policy in Italy: A
strange continuity
 A phenomenon apparently imposed from outside,
initially (in the 1980s and early 1990s) seen as
unrelated to the labor market.
 An implicit link, acknowledged late and with
reluctance, with labor demand (from companies and
families)
 The centrality of amnesties as the main tool of
migration policy (6 in 22 years, the last one in
September 2009)
 A policy of quotas and flow controls: provisional
instruments that are used to produce hidden
amnesties.
The Italian Labor market
 Fragmented productive structure, weight of PMI and
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autonomous work (circa 25% of those employed)
Important black market economy
Still important presence of industry
Profound territorial inequality
Unemployment and underemployment, concentrated
among the young, women and the southern regions
Decline and transformation of internal migration
High capacity of protection from families
An increase in the level of instruction of youth (3 out of 4
obtain an upper middle school diploma)
The insertion of immigrants in
Italy
 A spontaneous process, socially constructed « from
below»
 The condition of undocumented worker as the first
step of the migrant’s career in Italy
 The importance of ethnic networks and social actors
(trade unions, volunteer associations, the Catholic
church)
 An « economy of Otherness» and a subordinate
integration
 Ethnic specializations and cognitive stereotypes
A geography of insertion
 Immigration is concentrated in the more dynamic
regions (80% in the six regions of the CenterNorth)
 It is diffused in provincial territories (especially
industrial zones)
 It finds a place in industry (around 40% of
employed immigrants)
 It has important irregular components, even in the
Center-North
 Families employ largely women, both regular and
irregular, for domestic and assistance tasks
Four territorial models:
 Model of diffused industry areas
 Model of metropolitan economies
 Model of Southern regions
 Model of seasonal activity (Center-North)
A point of resistence: the code of
citizenship and political belonging
 The code of citizenship modified in 1992: facilitations for
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descendents of Italian emigrants; more rapid processing time for
Europeans (from 5 to 4 years), and a doubling for third country
nationals (from 5 to 10 years)
In 2008, 63% of naturalizations are still granted due to marriage
A familial, almost tribal, conception of national belonging
Granting of the right to vote and to elect their own
representatives to Italians living abroad, not resident immigrants
living in Italy for years
Conclusion: a functional admission of immigrants as a resource
for the economy, not as legitimate members of the national
community
The fear of the invasion
 The connection between “clandestine”
immigration and criminality and its political and
mediatic exploitation
 Italian TV is the first in Europe for the space given
to criminal news, murders and so on: Italians think
to live in a very insecure country, because of
immigration
 The government has sent the army to warn the
cities, as in times of war
 Identification of irregular immigration with
landings from the sea, and overestemation of
African arrivals
The advent of a security
rhetoric
 Mobilizations against the Roma camps, emergency legislation for big
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cities, requests for expulsions and controls of Romas
The “security package”: irregular stay in Italy as a criminal offence, the
request to health officials to denounce illegal immigrants, the “ronde”
of citizens
The rejection of about 900 boat people (potential asylum seekers)
towards Libya, notwithstanding the protests of UN and other
international institutions
Few sanctions and light controls for employers
Initiatives of control and rejection taken by local authorities (e.g.
Brescia)
Milano and Lombardy, with Venetia, are the Italian regions where the
initiatives of public institutions against migrants are hardest
The distance between rethoric
and reality
 Faced with about 500,000 irregular immigrants , there have been
no more than 14,000 expulsions in 2009, and there are only 1,800
places in Centers for Identification and Expulsion of irregular
migrants
 Only 38% of immigrants detained in the CIE are actually
deported and the ratio is declining in the last years
 In September 2009, after several month of hard rhetoric against
illegal migrants and the approval of the « security package » and
other bills, the Italian Government has approved an
amnesty for migrants working in Italian families, with
300,000 applications
 Conclusion: 1 deported against about 20 regularized
migrants
Multiethnic Milan
 Lombardy is the first region for number of resident immigrants (905.000)
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and for the economic contribution of foreign citizens: 589.867 employees
(they are 19,7% of the total), and 66.525 were employed in 2008
In Milan there are 301.958 immigrant employees. It is the first province for
number of immigrant employees and it counts the 10,1% of the total
Its labour market is the more internationalized in the Italian economy
In constructions immigrant workers (taking into account only regular
employees) are 43,6%, in domestic services they are about 75%
Milan is the first province for self employment too: 10,3% of the national
aggregate amount (about 19.000 out of 187.000)
Foreigner students in schools are 58.000 (151.000 in Lombardy)
Milan is the town where the conflict between the rhetoric of the
refusal of the immigration and the reality of practical acceptance is
the strongest.
“to become an African town” is the label of a presumed degradation
The role of the third sector and the
civil society: policies and services
 Trade unions, associations and religious institutions act as political
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actors, and they ask for amnesties
They also offer services to help individuals with regularization
procedures
Many services (as meals, health care) , especially for
undocumentedimmigrants, are provided by nonprofit and religious
organizations
Lessons and courses in Italian arranged by these organizations
welcome undocumented immigrants too
Many NGOs are committed to projects for unaccompained children
and women victims of trafficking , also thanks to public funds
In Milan and Lombardy, this role is more developed, partly
because of the hostility or at least of the reluctance of public
institutions to involve themselves in immigrant s’ integration
Advocacy
 In recent years in Milan some organizations who collaborate with
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churches and trade unions have been the protagonists of legal battles
against the discriminatory policies of local authorities (Association
“Lawyers for nothing")
Doctors’ associations have been fighting against the rules that wanted
to force the medical staff of public hospitals to denounce
undocumented immigrants: "We will not ever do it"
Evictions of Roma settlements in Milan are the subject of recurring
controversy among NGOs and local governments
The Archbishop of Milan has repeatedly called for major openness to
immigrants and for the recognition of worship ‘s freedom for
Muslims, becoming the target of explicit critics by pro-government
newspapers and the leaders of Lega Nord
The centre-right politicians often claim to be the champions of
Christian traditions, in contrast with the leaders of the Catholic
Church
Conclusion
 Italy is experiencing a great tension: it is becoming a multi-ethnic
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society, it employs an increasing number of immigrants, but it would
reject this change
The political forces who are in office take advantage of these feelings
and feed them
Campaigns against illegal immigrants and the link constructed
between immigration and crime support this strategy
Churches, trade unions, NGOs constitute a pro-immigrant lobby that
fight against this rhetoric and provides many services to migrants,
including undocumented immigrants
The anti-immigration policy contradicts itself implementing
amnesties, tolerating the underground economy, neglecting the
investments necessary for the implementation of expulsions
The pro-immigrant lobby has to face increasing problems of legitimacy
that come from its social base, which is influenced by the xenophobic
rhetoric