While Salvini calls himself an "Italian infantryman" who defends the
borders by shouting "foreigners shall not pass," the opposition iscollecting signatures to reduce the legal residency requirement from 10
to 5 years to be able to apply for citizenship. This is not a radical
proposal, since it does not touch on the situation of illegal migrants
who have been in Italy for years, nor on the arrival of others. Instead,
it touches on a long-standing problem, that of integration, which the
proposal, if it were to pass, would theoretically favor. In fact, this
is precisely the underlying problem: on the one hand, those who deny
this possibility, worried about the progressive disappearance of
"pure-blooded" Italians; on the other, the so-called opposition, which
is in favor of integration policies, not only in the economic and legal
sphere, but also in the cultural one. That is, transforming foreign
residents into Italians.
If one were to ask what it means to be Italian, the answer could vary
from "being born in Italy" to "feeling Italian." In this second case,
the reference would be to cultural identity, the way of being, gestures
and even what one eats. Unfortunately, in legal terms, identity does not
seem to be the criterion taken into consideration, neither by the legal
system nor by the population itself, even if at different levels
depending on ideas and political positioning. See the cases of racism
that periodically appear on the pages of newspapers regarding famous
players or singers: it is enough to have black skin to be denied, more
or less explicitly, belonging to the Italian "race", even if they are
people born in Italy and who feel Italian. Thus, without taking into
consideration what anthropology has to say, we discuss more about laws
in the future: whether or not the ius solis can be valid, that is, being
born in Italy (not sufficient to be Italian, as in other countries), or
the ius scolae, that is, attending Italian schools for a certain number
of years, and even the ius sanguinis, as a Northern League governor
recently did. In this case, it is evidently not a question of blood type
but of filiation: if you are the child of Italians, even of just one
parent, you are Italian (thus creating the absurdity of people living
abroad, with children and grandchildren who do not even speak Italian,
but who can easily obtain a passport).
The fallout from these disputes involves above all migrants who are
already legally resident in Italy and of course their children. And
while their status is being discussed, plans are being developed from
many quarters to integrate them into Italian society, at least where the
administrations are sensitive to the problem: medical care, schools for
children, etc. The problem concerns the word "integration" itself,
which, used so much, seems to have swelled, becoming polysemic, so much
so that each can mean different things according to circumstances and
interests. Furthermore, the migratory phenomenon has become more
complicated, especially since it slowly went from a social phenomenon
that only involved young men seeking fortune to families with children
willing to settle down in Italy. This population demands assistance and
services, even if not always in an organized way, but this does not
necessarily mean that it is expressing an integrative will. For example,
the Islamic communities existing in Italy do not seem to express the
desire to become Christian and even resist changing their food or way of
dressing. And, in any case, it seems to me that no one has explicitly
asked them if they want to integrate into the "Italic culture", even if
in many areas it is necessary, perhaps instrumentally, to easily lead
daily life. Consider the case of food: in the early days of their
arrival, migrants are forced to buy food products offered by local shops
and supermarkets. But, with the formation of communities that are
ethnically homogeneous, the number of shops selling products from their
land of origin increases, allowing them to reproduce, even in a
syncretic way, the traditional diet that serves as an anchor to their
original identity.
Aside from the plans of politicians and administrators sensitive to the
problem, there is certainly an automatic integrative pressure from the
majority population on these minority groups that especially affects the
new generations of foreigners present in Italy, through the media and
schools. The latter precisely serve Italian boys and girls to
consciously assume the "way of being Italian", continuing the
inculturation begun in the families. But in the case of boys and girls
born to foreigners, the main function of the school, as an "ideological
apparatus of the state", comes into conflict with family inculturation
(including language and diet, obviously), creating critical situations
of cognitive dissonance, with strong negative repercussions on their
identity and conscience. In fact, the plan is to use the school as a
tool to progressively integrate foreigners so that in one or two
generations they can transform into Italians. Studies, both in America
and in Europe, tell us that this plan is destined to fail, also because
the reverse process is also true, in part certainly: in the long run,
the cultures of origin will penetrate into Italian culture, transforming
it, even if only partially.
Transculturation, more or less imposed, produces resistance, even if not
necessarily organized. In fact, to give an example, it is indicative
that where homogeneous ethnic communities have been formed, the original
language continues to be spoken, both at home and in the street, here as
a system of prevention and defense (the other local does not
understand), this process being valid for the Chinese of Prato as well
as for the Tunisians in Sicily or the latest arrivals from Bangladesh. A
different attitude of the state could be to favor the creation of
differentiated primary schools: educational spaces in the hands of
teachers from the societies of origin and with their own cultural
content, with attention also to the local culture: Arab, Chinese or
Tunisian schools, where boys and girls would take their own history and
culture as a priority, but open to the contributions of the Italian one
(for example, bilingual and intercultural schools). Certainly schools
have been created, more for adults than for children, of non-Italian
language, but these function as realities of sensitive private and not
public institutions. It would be interesting to know what the so-called
opposition thinks of this possibility, integrated into the national
school system.
In the end, if a proposal of this type were successful,
micro-communities would be created that are ethnically, culturally and
linguistically independent, but integrated into the majority society by
self-managed nodes that would articulate economic and legal relations,
while enriching Italian society with new content and ideas (and not just
children). A future society of this type would be truly multiethnic,
also bringing back the traditional Italian minorities, put in the
background by the Italian domination imposed since unification; and I am
not only thinking of Tyrol, but of Sardinians or Sicilians, above all.
Emanuele Amodio
http://sicilialibertaria.it
_________________________________________
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