Immigration is quite a recent phenomenon in Italy. A country of emigration for many years, it is facing nowadays new cultural and political problems regarding the current big social change.
Immigrants arrived in Italy during the 70s and, in particular, the country saw an increasing number of foreign people during the 80s. The immigrants in Italy come from various countries with different customs, traditions and history. As a consequence there are not few ethnic groups prevailing as in the rest of Europe, but there are people coming from almost every area of Maghreb, Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey etc…
Italy started to develop strategies and to draft laws regarding this issue not many years ago (during the 70s and the second half of the 80s), but the policies didn’t concern the needs and above all the rights of the people coming from a different country. Only at the end of 1986 was drafted the first law on immigration, when the necessity of a greater state intervention in this field was perceived. An important progress was made with the law of the 28th February 1990 because the ‘fixed presence’ of immigrants living and working in Italy was accepted. Furthermore, they saw the attribution of rights not only related to work, but also to the more general personal sphere. Significant innovations were introduced by the law drafted in 1998, such as the ‘carta di soggiorno’, a document which allows the permanent stay in Italy with a legal residence permit. Recently the sensibility towards immigrants has increased; they are no longer considered only workers, but people who want to build their lives in our country and so they need both cultural and social assistance. However, the entrance of immigrants is not so easy nowadays because the so called Bossi-Fini law, drafted in 2002, has made the acquisition of the so called ‘carte di soggiorno’ even more difficult.
From a social point of view, nowadays immigrants are part of our society and the issue is not how many rights they should have, but the kind of coexistence we should build with them. In Italy there are many children of immigrants, born in our country or living here since their childhood. These belong to the so called ‘second-generation’ of immigrants. All of them share the same social and economic wishes, they would like to succeed in Italy, but they still have to face many problems, such as the language. Furthermore, it is not easy for them to give up their cultural habits because their parents are still bound to the traditions and habits of their place of origin, and that is why many unhappy events often happen.
We should create new organizations to help them to face the new reality, from a linguistic point of view as well and, if their stay becomes permanent, we should extend to them more of our rights to make them feel more integrated in the Italian society.
Immigrants arrived in Italy during the 70s and, in particular, the country saw an increasing number of foreign people during the 80s. The immigrants in Italy come from various countries with different customs, traditions and history. As a consequence there are not few ethnic groups prevailing as in the rest of Europe, but there are people coming from almost every area of Maghreb, Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey etc…
Italy started to develop strategies and to draft laws regarding this issue not many years ago (during the 70s and the second half of the 80s), but the policies didn’t concern the needs and above all the rights of the people coming from a different country. Only at the end of 1986 was drafted the first law on immigration, when the necessity of a greater state intervention in this field was perceived. An important progress was made with the law of the 28th February 1990 because the ‘fixed presence’ of immigrants living and working in Italy was accepted. Furthermore, they saw the attribution of rights not only related to work, but also to the more general personal sphere. Significant innovations were introduced by the law drafted in 1998, such as the ‘carta di soggiorno’, a document which allows the permanent stay in Italy with a legal residence permit. Recently the sensibility towards immigrants has increased; they are no longer considered only workers, but people who want to build their lives in our country and so they need both cultural and social assistance. However, the entrance of immigrants is not so easy nowadays because the so called Bossi-Fini law, drafted in 2002, has made the acquisition of the so called ‘carte di soggiorno’ even more difficult.
From a social point of view, nowadays immigrants are part of our society and the issue is not how many rights they should have, but the kind of coexistence we should build with them. In Italy there are many children of immigrants, born in our country or living here since their childhood. These belong to the so called ‘second-generation’ of immigrants. All of them share the same social and economic wishes, they would like to succeed in Italy, but they still have to face many problems, such as the language. Furthermore, it is not easy for them to give up their cultural habits because their parents are still bound to the traditions and habits of their place of origin, and that is why many unhappy events often happen.
We should create new organizations to help them to face the new reality, from a linguistic point of view as well and, if their stay becomes permanent, we should extend to them more of our rights to make them feel more integrated in the Italian society.
No comments:
Post a Comment