Italy and migration: an overview

The shift from an emigration to an immigration country

Italy became a country o f immigration only relatively recently. For many decades since its unification in 1861, the history of the country has been characterized by mass movements o/Italian people who migrated both domestically - from South to North - and internationally, primarily towards other western European countries, the United

States and Argentina (Klein 1983). Such was the scale of these movements of people that it is suggested that the emigration of over 26 million Italians between 1876 and 1965 has been among the most important and numerically substantial of the modem world (Wrench and Solomos 1993; Gabaccia 2000).

It was in the 1970s, with the turnaround from net emigration to net immigration in Southern Europe, that Italy’s long history as one of the most prolific exporters of people and labour came to an end. This change marked its passage from a traditional sending country to a new3 country o f destination (King and Black 1997; Gabaccia 2000). Immigration to Italy grew steadily throughout the 1970s and 1980s boosted by economic growth and lack of proper immigration regulations (Cole 1997). In fact, it was only in the mid 1980s that more rigorous, but still tolerant4, migration legislation was first passed, although neither uniformly nor coherently enforced (Pastore 2004; Pojmann 2006). In just three decades, the number of migrants to Italy rose from 300,000 to an estimated 1.6 million at the end o f 2001, and reached just over 3 million, i.e. 5.2% of the population in 2005 (Caritas 2006).5

The first migrants to arrive to Italy in the late 1960s were Tunisian and Yugoslav men, and women from the Philippines, Eritrea and Cape Verde. Starting from the 1980s migrants of many more nationalities joined them, primarily from Africa (with a prevalence o f Senegalese and Moroccan men) and Asia (Sri Lankan and Indian men and women). The 1990s were characterized by large influx of individuals from the Balkans and Eastern Europe, Albania and Romania in particular (Cole 1997; Macioti and Pugliese 2003). As o f 2006, according to estimates based on the number of those who are in possession of, or have made a request for a visa, the largest migrant communities in Italy are originally from Romania, Albania, Morocco, Ukraine and China (Caritas

3 The adjective ‘new’ is adopted here exclusively in the context o f the modem history o f Italy, i.e. since 1861, when it became a united kingdom. In fact for millennia, the Italian peninsula had been a destination and transition country for many migrant people(s).

4 Particularly if compared to strict contemporary immigration policies o f other EU states such as the United Kingdom and Western Germany.

5 Compared to other European countries such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom, the number o f migrants in Italy is still on a smaller scale. However, the quantitative dimension o f the phenomenon assumes particular relevance when one considers how fast the turnaround took place. In this sense, Italy’s situation is closer to other Southern European countries, such as Greece, Spain and Portugal, which went through similar transitions in their migration patterns (King and Black 1997).

2006).6 Women constitute nearly half of the total migrant population, with the largest nationalities represented by Polish, Peruvian, Filipino, Romanian and Sri Lankan migrants (ibid.).

The response to immigration

The socio-political impact of, and response to immigration has been the object of analysis of a large body of literature. This has observed that after a relatively tolerant start, Italy, as a ‘receiving’7 country, has progressively developed exclusionary policies and practices towards the newcomers. The literature suggests that since the late 1960s - at the onset of migration flows - and until the early 1980s, the steady arrival of migrants was internalized by the indigenous population as a social fact, with little debate or questioning about its causes and possible consequences (Campani 1993; Dal Lago 1998; Statham 1998; Andall 2000; et alia). The legacy o f the emigration experience and the ‘good nature’ of Italians were also sometimes adduced as an explanation for the empathy and tolerance with which migrants were supposedly welcomed during this first stage (Ferrarotti 1989; Balbo 1991).

In his 1988 book, Giorgio Bocca, a popular Italian journalist, asked the question (the title of the book itself) Are Italians Racist? As Cole suggests, the question preoccupied many people who were reminiscent o f the overtly racist past of the country during the Fascist era (1922-1943) and wondered whether a new wave of intolerance and racism would develop towards the increasing number of migrants (1997). But the prevailing answer to Bocca’s question remained negative for quite some time (and as I explain in chapter 6, for some, it still is). What motivated this position was the belief that Italy was at the time still in a phase o f ‘pre-racism’. This expression was used to indicate how, until the migration turnaround, Italian society had remained substantially mono- cultural and mono-racial. For this reason, it could not be considered a racist country,

6 Being based on the number o f migrants who are in possession o f or have made a request for a visa these data are only tentative because they are not inclusive o f undocumented migrants.

7 Dal Lago argues that given the rejection, rather than reception, experienced by migrants in Italy, it would be hypocritical to use the term ‘receiving’ country. As a better alternative, he suggests the use o f ‘destination country’. “This special attention does not come from any sort o f political correctness, it is

simply a linguistic caution necessary to keep the distance from the langue de bois which dominates the

subject o f migrations” (1998:17; emphasis added, my translation). Even though I agree with Dal Lago on this point, throughout the thesis I occasionally refer to Italy as ‘receiving country’, and use inverted commas to indicate its contentious meaning.

because de facto there were no ‘other races’ to discriminate against (Balbo 1991). A document written in 1990 by the organization Italia-Razzismo (Italy-Racism) - a prominent association established in the 1980s to provide information on migration - states:

We certainly cannot take for granted that we will not become a racist society (in our institutions, in our practice, in our everyday relationships, in our values), but nor is it true that we are racist today, in the same terms as other European countries. Attention and cognitive investment and debate are crucial in this phase which for the moment is one of pre-evaluation, pre-formulation, perhaps, pre-racism.

(Italia-Razzismo 1990: 3, quoted in Andall 2000: 55)

Such notion of a ‘pre-racist’ society and that of the intrinsically good and welcoming nature o f Italian people was later questioned given that, rather than being welcomed, migrants had been simply ignored: they were not conceived of as a public issue, because they had not yet been identified as part of the public (Cole 1997; Sciortino and Colombo 2004). Furthermore, structural factors such as their “relatively low numbers, [...] uneven regional dispersal across the country, and their insecure type o f labour” contributed to obscure their presence (Statham 1998: 25).

Indeed, the concept of a ‘pre-racist’ Italian society needs to be addressed critically, not only to be confronted as an unsubstantiated and naive belief, but also, and more importantly, as a refusal to acknowledge both systemic and everyday practices of racism in contemporary Italy.8 To be mentioned, for example, is the fact that internal movements of southerners to the richer and more economically developed North had resulted in the spreading and exacerbation of already deep-rooted anti-southerner hostilities (Pojmann 2006). People from the south of Italy - often called ‘terroni\ the peasants, a common derogatory term used by northerners to refer to the southerners - were routinely subjected to various forms of discrimination and social exclusion (Lumley and Foot 2004), and in the 1990s became the target of the racist propaganda of the Northern League. But also important to address is the unobtrusive exploitation and discrimination of many migrant women operating in the live-in domestic sector who, at

8 Essed suggests that racism is more than structure and ideology, as it is “routinely created and reinforced through everyday practices” (1991: 3). In this sense, she adopts the concept o f everyday racism “to connect structural forces o f racism with routine situations in everyday life” (ibid.). Essed’s notion o f everyday racism in relation to the Italian context is further discussed in chapter 6.

that time, were already numerous in Italy, but due to their lack of visibility remained ignored (Tacoli 1996; Andall 2000; Anthias and Lazaridis 2000).

The point here is not to advance the idea that Italy is a racist country. As Essed posits in fact, “racism in a society is not the same as a society made of racists” (1991: 21). Rather, these considerations highlight the refusal to come to terms with and problematize its various racist practices that were, and still are, well ingrained in the social tissue of the country. In this respect, Salih suggests looking at this tendency as a continuum with the Italian colonial past. As she states, even though “there is not a defined political culture towards immigrants which can be directly ascribed to the colonial legacy” (Salih 2003:17), the historiography o f the Italian colonial past - which represents the colonial experience as a humanitarian enterprise and denies its racism9 - is consistent with and reinforces contemporary denials of racist policies and practices towards the migrant population (ibid.) (see chapter 6).

Notably, by the end of the 1980s, the notion of a ‘pre-racist’ Italy and that of a good natured Italian population ‘always ready to welcome newcomers’ had to be seriously reconsidered. Hostile sentiments towards migrants became increasingly overt, fuelled by fears of the cultural and economic threat that the Italian population had associated them with (Andall 2000). Consistent with the progressive criminalization of migrants in public discourse are the various pieces of legislation on migration that since 1986 have increasingly tightened border controls to deny entrance to the so-called extracomunitari, extra-communitarians, a term that is commonly used to describe people who are not citizens of the European Community.10

9 For example, as Barrera points out, Mussolini organized the short-lived ‘Italian empire’ in Africa - named Africa Orientale Italiana (Italian Eastern Africa) - following a hierarchy o f racial relations that was based on the strict subordination o f colonized people (2003).

10 Even though it is commonly adopted in legal and governmental documents, the term ‘extracomunitario'

has a highly negative connotation. For example, Pojman, a white American scholar who did research on

immigrant women and feminism in Italy claims that, although she called herself ‘ extracomunitario.'

(feminine) when she was in Italy, “literally the term ( ...) usually denotes poor, o f colour and from the third world. A white American could not claim it accurately” (2006:2). While I agree on the second part o f the

statement, it is important to mention that ‘extracomunitario' is not necessarily about ‘being poor, o f colour

and from the third world’. For example, white migrants from the Balkans and Eastern Europe, were and

still are (despite some o f them coming from ‘new’ EU countries) called '’extracomunitari'. In this respect,

this term entails primarily a notion o f non-belonging to an ideal western system o f values. The person who

is labelled as '‘extracomunitario' is supposed to come from and personify a culture that is incompatible

Italian immigration policies

The political response to immigration came through the introduction o f the first specific migration policy in Italy, Law 943 in 1986 (Andall 2000). This legislative measure was primarily aimed at prohibiting clandestine migration, and for this reason it included an amnesty for undocumented ‘aliens’ residing on Italian territory. However, the law presented a number of flaws that severely limited its applicability. Crucially, it did not include a realistic appreciation of the social conditions of migrants, thus, ultimately, it failed to provide a rational and coherent immigration regime (Pastore 2004). Furthermore, the inefficiency of the bureaucracy in cooperating with local administrations, the police and regional offices resulted in an extremely limited number of migrants being able to comply with the requirement to register in employment lists. As a consequence, it became even more difficult for them to find a job through legal channels, with the opposite effect of pushing people into illegal jobs (and, as a consequence, to an illegal migration status) (Statham 1998; Andall 2000). Lastly, this piece o f legislation was constructed upon the gendered notion that the ‘main’ migrant would be a man and the dependant, the spouse, a woman. In this way, the possibility for women to enter the country independently and legally was limited as their status had to be linked to that of the male migrant they had supposedly migrated with (Salih 2003).

Four years later, new migration legislation was passed. The so-called Martelli Law (Law 39,1990) granted a second amnesty for regularization, and included specific norms on working conditions which were less penalizing for migrants. It also established the right to asylum and provided for substantial budgets to be set aside for processing refugee application and to fund immigrant and refugee support centres. As in the case of the previous legislation, these provisions were in line with the Government’s policy to regularize migrants already residing in Italy, whilst at the same time prohibiting further entry of non-European nationals.

This shift towards increasingly exclusionary migration policies is believed to have been propelled also by the so called ‘Albanian crisis’ of 1990 and 1991. In those years a large number of Albanian people fled to Italy and other southern European countries claiming asylum from the deepening political chaos of their country (Wrench and Solomos 1993). The incapacity of the Italian state to respond promptly to this

situation led to a humanitarian crisis11 which the media presented as a national emergency due to the country ‘being under siege’ (ibid.; Dal Lago 1998). After this episode, the notion o f migration as the movement o f people in search of better opportunities was completely replaced by that of an unlawful activity that needed to be stopped. Concurrently, discourses on immigration - whether generated in the political arena or reproduced through media channels - became dominated with visual and verbal images o f the invasion and criminal behaviours o f migrants (Sciortino and Colombo 2004).

But the development of such a strong anti-immigration sentiment has to be inscribed and understood also within the context of the drastic end of the first Italian republic.12 In 1991 the explosion of a corruption scandal threw the entire political system into a state of total chaos to the extent that the elected Government shifted, literally from one day to the next, from being the legitimate authority of the nation state to being a national scourge. As a crisis of legitimacy crystallized within the dominant culture, the ‘invading’ migrants became a perfect scapegoat to blame, not only for the supposedly threatened national identity, but also for the instability of its political regime. It is in this context that the Northern League gained substantial political terrain and supporters.13 It claimed to be a new, truly democratic alternative to the ‘old’ corrupted political regime, and pursued an explicitly racist anti-immigration campaign in order to defend Italian culture, value system and identity from the threats embodied by the ‘foreigners’ (see chapter 4 and 6). As Andall reports, the unequivocal anti-immigration position of the Northern League was outlined in a 1992 electoral manifesto which stated:

We are convinced that it [immigration] does not constitute an economic advantage for rich countries or for poor countries. [...] Our position of harsh criticism towards migratory policies also derives from a particular conception we federalists have of man. The human being is not simply an economic agent, but in fact, he or she is also made up of affection, cultural values and identity, which can find their best expression in their respective historical and environmental collectivities.

(LegaNord 1992: 2, quoted in Andall 2000: 64)

11 Several thousands o f Albanian men, women and children, were forced to reside temporarily in the soccer stadium in Bari, in Apulia, in very precarious hygienic conditions.

12 Italy’s form o f Government shifted from monarchy to republic in 1948.

13 In the 1994 national elections the Northern League won 9 percent o f the vote, 20 percent in the North, and almost 30 percent in Lombardy, the region where it had first started its campaign (Calavita 2005).

The populist rhetoric of the Northern League is further analysed in chapter 5 in relation to the campaign it pursued to address ‘foreign prostitution’. However, it is relevant to mention that its anti-immigration agenda was and is shared by a much broader spectrum o f political parties that focus on migrants as common enemies, promoting the idea that Italy needs to be protected from their cultural and economic threat.

In 1998, Law 40, also known as Turco-Napolitano Law or Consolidated Act (CA)14 tried to bring some order into the numerous immigration laws and codes that had been passed, changed and repealed in the previous decade. It moved along three main guidelines: a) programmed number of entries within annual quotas; b) fight against illegal immigration and criminal exploitation of illegal migration; c) social integration policy for legal migrants. This law is particularly important for this study in that, in line with its second and third guidelines, it established a system of support and assistance in favour o f ‘foreign citizens’ in conditions of abuse (Article 18), a measure that is adopted almost exclusively for women trafficked for sexual purposes. The difficult process that led to the formulation o f this article and its inclusion in the CA is further discussed in the third part of this chapter. It is important to specify, however, that while on the one hand, the Consolidated Act included these new provisions, on the other, it fixed more severe punishments to counter illegal migration. It also established the creation of CPTs (Centri di Permanenza Temporanea, Centres of Temporary Residence), often referred to as detention centres, where those who have entered the country without documents are kept in custody while their identity and nationality is checked (Salih 2003).

After the fall of the leftist Government in 2001 and the victory o f Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing coalition15 (which included the Northern League and the neo- fascist Alleanza Nazionale, National Alliance), more initiatives were enacted to curtail immigration into Italy. The 2002 Bossi-Fini Law'6 amended the 1998 CA by further restricting the number of migrants with strict quotas, and established that a pre- established work contract is necessary to obtain a stay permit. Its purpose, as Bossi made

14 The complete name o f this law is ‘Consolidated Act o f the provisions concerning the regulation o f

immigration and rules on the conditions o f the foreigners’ (Testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la

disciplina dell'immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero).