Jagjit with his bushy white moustache and large green turban cheerfully organizes a pile of lettuce on his vegetable stand at the sprawling Piazza Vittorio marketplace in Rome as he explains to me that he came to Italy from Punjab state in India 20 years ago. Not far from Jagjit, Diana from Ecuador is selling specialty foods from South America while chatting with customers in Italian and Spanish. She tells me she has been in Italy for 11 years.
I stop by a butcher stand where I meet a Chinese man named Lino who says he comes from a place near Shanghai but has been in Italy 22 years. Helping him out is a young man from Bangladesh who says “call me Filippo”. He has only been in Italy for five months.
In the 1980s, Tuscan photographer Oliviero Toscani impressed the world with his striking photos for the Italian clothing company Benetton showing people of all ages, races and colors under the banner “the United Colors of Benetton”. The multi-culturalism represented in those ads did not represent the Italian population at that time, which was predominantly white and Catholic. Now the colors of Italy are changing dramatically.
Italy has one of the slowest growing populations in the world. According to ISTAT, Italy’s National Statistic Agency, the birth-rate in Italy was 1.42 children per woman in 2012. Breaking that down between Italian women and foreigners they found that Italian women had on average 1.29 children and foreigners 2.37. In addition, the average age of the foreign women having children was 28 and the average age for the Italian women was 32. So the foreign women start having children at a younger age and have more. Thanks to the foreigners in Italy, the population continues to grow. These statistics reinforce what is obvious to me every day. It is rare to meet an Italian woman who has a child in her 20s. Most of the women I know are delaying children, giving up altogether on the idea or deciding to have just one. It is more common to see foreign women pregnant in Italy than Italians. As a result of the low birth-rate and the high life expectancy, Italy has a steadily growing elderly population.
For the past 15 years, Italy has been struggling with a stagnant economy, with unemployment floating around 12-percent and youth unemployment floating around 40-percent. Young Italians are flocking abroad for jobs elsewhere in the world. According to ISTAT 68,000 Italians left Italy in 2012, up 36-percent from 2011. Among these 25-percent had university degrees. Italians regularly bemoan what they fear is a national brain drain as their best minds seek work and study options outside of Italy. Yet every year roughly 200,000 immigrants arrive in Italy. In 2011 the total was 351,000. I was curious about why the immigrants continue to come to Italy when it doesn’t exactly seem like the land of opportunity.
I was lucky to find Gianluca Luciano who in 2000 started a website www.stranieriinitalia.it to help immigrants and foreigners living in Italy. Stranieiri In Italia (translated ‘Foreigners in Italy) is now a publishing company that features 11 websites and newspapers in as many languages with 1.5 million readers per month.
Luciano has a charming way of “telling it like it is” combined with an ability to roll off numbers and statistics that I could barely get my brain around fast enough before he moved on to the next one. He explained to me that roughly 200,000 immigrants arrive in Italy every year, 65 percent of whom are clandestine — but, he said, that does not matter really because in Italy roughly every four to five years they have an amnesty so illegal immigrants can obtain legal documents. Luciano explained that the majority of immigrants work in manufacturing, elderly care, domestic work as baby-sitters and house-cleaners, or in agriculture, cultivating tomatoes, apples and oranges.
According to Luciano, “Italians do not want to do these jobs because they are tiring and are not paid well,” adding that he discussed this matter with an official for an agricultural workers’ Union representing workers gathering apples and tomatoes. The Union official told Luciano that for Italians that kind of job is not “socially prestigious enough.” Italians feel “ashamed” to go work in the fields (with the exception of cultivating grapes for wine). In sharp contrast, according to Luciano, the immigrants have an incredible energy, a desire to work and get things done, “as we Italians did back in the 1950s,” adding that “In Italy ‘la dolce vita’ has become an alibi for not working.
I asked Luciano to explain to me how it is possible with 40 percent youth unemployment that people can afford to worry about what is “socially prestigious.” I explained to him that as an American I was raised being told that even if I had to clean toilets, collect garbage and sweep floors, if that was my job, I should do it with my head held high. Work is work. He laughed and told me that he is married to an American so he knows well the mentality, but it is not the same in Italy, “Italy is a provincial country. People would prefer to remain at home than do certain types of work. The family will not let go of you. In this country fathers take care of their children. Sons grow up to be little princes and daughters grow up to be little princesses. The academic studies are paid for, and parents pay for the first home for a newlywed couple. This is our welfare system.”
So, given that Italian population growth is nearly at zero, given that the population is rapidly aging, you would think Italians would be thrilled with the influx of foreigners from other countries, having babies, doing the dirty work and paying for their pensions. Given the reaction to Italy’s first black Minister, Cecile Kyenge, this does not seem to be the case. Kyenge was met with racist attacks and threats. (See Blog Posts: Call Me Black, Racial Slurs and Death Threats in Italy and Courageous Cecile), even Italy’s star football (soccer) player Mario Balotelli has had to fight racism throughout his career. (see Blog Posts: Balotelli’s Mamma and Mario Balotelli Forever).
Luciano suggested to me that Italy is simply not used to being a multi-ethnic society, “racism is not taboo here,” he said. Still, he believes the majority of Italians do not support the hateful, racist behavior of Italy’s Northern League party, the problem is the country is not set up for integration. Unlike the United States the national anthem is not learned by all young people. Football stars struggle to mouth the words at the start of games as the TV cameras pan across their faces. In school classrooms, there is much more likely to be a cross on the wall than an Italian flag. Italians find national pride in their football and their food, but not in much else.
Luciano told me he thinks that Italy needs to work on the concept of identity, teaching people what it means to Italian and he thinks this needs to be done in schools. I got some interesting statistics on the schools in Italy from Marco Rossi-Doria, former Undersecretary at the Ministry of Education. In the academic year 2012/2013 there were 786,360 foreign students in Italian schools, 8,8% of the total number of students. Forty-two percent were children born in Italy to foreigners. In the academic year 1996/1997 there were 60,000 foreign students in Italian schools.
The foreign students are from 200 different nationalities, the greatest number from Romania. (Note: Unlike in the United States, in Italy children born to foreigners are not given citizenship automatically, a legal concept known as “Ius Soli”. In Italy a child born to foreigners living in Italy can request citizenship at age 18. The former Minister of Integration Cecile Kyenge has been fighting to change that in Italy and has met with fierce opposition. Her position has been removed under the new government of Italian PM Matteo Renzi).
Forty-two-year-old Isa from Cuba makes me laugh every day when my daughter and I stop by her coffee shop after work and school. She has been in Italy since 1998. Her 24-year-old son also works at the coffee shop. From her position behind the cash register, Isa makes friends with the rest of the world handing back change, handing out advice and making life in Italy seem like a lot of fun. Italy desperately needs Isa, Jagjit, Diana, Lino and Filippo, but I don’t know how long it will take before Italians realize it.
. . there’s a terrific book on the subject of immigration and disinformation /prejudice in the UK ‘Bloody Foreigners’ could be about pretty much anywhere in the so-called developed world. Diversity is a joy to be celebrated and damn those who think otherwise!
I should definitely get that book, and I agree with you “diversity is a joy to be celebrated!” Thanks for your comment Alan, always love to hear your thoughts.
Very interesting Trisha. Crosses on the school walls remind me that all kids say a prayer every morning in the Texas School System. It can be a silent prayer, but the time is inserted after the national anthem.
Also, what do you mean when you say Kyenge’s “position has been removed under the new government?” Her position seems such a critical piece for Italy.
Wow Gwen, interesting about the silent prayer and the national anthem in the Texas school system. Yes, Kyenge’s position — Minister of Integration– has just been cut out of the government. The new Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is cutting back on the number of Ministers. There are now 16 ministers compared to 21 in the last government. The idea is to remove waste– which generally speaking is an important thing to do in the Italian government– but I think removing Kyenge was a big mistake. The work she was doing was important and she became important symbolically for Italy. Sigh.
Such a wonderful, thoughtful, researched, and moving post! And the pictures are magnificent. The man from Punjab should be in an art show, really, Trisha. And the woman from Cuba radiates the warmth you say she bestows on everyone. I am moved at how many will take such brave risks to find a chance somewhere in the world. Italy is not unlike the US. Immigrants are invisible in many places, the food we eat was raised and harvested by them but we do not see them, and our elders are cared for by them, and our hospitals are cleaned by them, etc. They pump gas all over the US, and sell us fast food. Here, too, there is an ugly lack of hospitality, a sense of threat when increasing numbers are released. Congress is unwilling to act as it should, and all of this will haunt us in painful ways, in the future. For the future belongs to these, the meek of the earth. Here, though, we have rocker Ted Nugent calling Obama a mongrel, and a lot of folks agree – it does make my heart ache. Thank you for addressing this, in such thoughtful ways, and often.
Thank you Nancy. Your comments on the US are so interesting. Perhaps I was a tad unfair in my post implying that Americans are willing to do any kind of job, unlike Italians. I did not mention that in the US we’re are quite happy to pass a lot of the low-paid “dirty work” to immigrants. Plenty of immigrants are doing the agricultural work in the US and many of the other jobs you mention. The US has been dealing with multi-culturalism longer than Italy, but we definitely should not consider ourselves superior– and I certainly hope I did not come off that way in the post. I think the big difference in the US is that there is more opportunity for immigrants to move up in the society/system. As Gianluca Luciano said to me “In Italy we give immigrants the ‘opportunity’ not to die of hunger, in the US immigrants have an opportunity to get rich.” Plenty of immigrants in the US do not get rich…but at the moment, there is definitely more possibility for immigrants in the US than in Italy.
And yes, isn’t Jagjit with his moustaches and green turban just wonderful! I meant to go back to the market today and get his last name and ask him more about how he got to Italy and what members of his family are here. Unfortunately, I did not have time, but maybe next Saturday. Isa I see nearly everyday so I will get some more details on her life and add them in. I feel like there are a few holes in my reporting that I need to fill.
As I said in response to another blog post on immigration it is the immigrants who are changing the nature of Europe and the US. It’s not the powerful elites who directing change but the poor and powerless whose voices, energy and political presence are changing the nature of our societies. Just ask Mitt Romney whether the power in our country is shifting You document well how immigrants are changing Italy. I don’t know that “the meek will inherit the earth” but they certainly are changing it!!
I totally agree with you Dad, the meek are definitely changing the earth, and the earth will be better for it!
The face of Europe is changing quickly just like the face of the US. The various populations are more mobile than any time in history.
As for Italians not having much national pride except in soccer games, etc, I remember the explanation my mother gave me, supported by my history class in 10th grade. My mother was Italian…northern from the Veneto. This was important because she did not feel any compatriotism with Sicilians. They might as well be Arabs or Africans. This is because until the mid 1800s Italy was not a unified country, only a union of little countries all of whom felt pride and autonomy until then. Italians simply have no history of being one country like Spain or France. This is also why they abhor paying taxes will do anything they can to avoid them.
Brava Barbara! Thank you for sharing that explanation for the lack of national pride in Italy. You are absolutely right — Italy was unified as one nation in the 1860s and to this day people in the north and south do not feel as though they have very much in common and do not think it is useful to send taxes to a central authority known for waste and mismanagement. I was just up in the Italian alps for a week and had an interesting conversation with a woman working as a hair-dresser who lives in a small village there who spoke Italian and German — she was tall with blond hair and blue eyes and looked more nordic than mediterranean. She joked with me that I speak Italian like a “roman”. Not exactly a compliment coming from someone in the north, but she was joking with me. On another note though she said Italians are the best visitors to have to their village because “they like to eat well and look good” so they go to the restaurants and the hairdressers.
Italians might not want to do some jobs, but immigrants of all colours, religions and political ideas who work are very welcome. unfortunately at the moment Italy has been overrun by a lot of lay abouts and illegals who traffic in drugs, break-ins, there is a lot of violence at the moment in most of our cities. Italians don’t like paying taxes because they’re extremely high, go to increase the luxuries and salaries of the politicians, and the services given in return are not so good.
Thank you Ornella for commenting. I agree that there are plenty of situations of immigrants involved in violence — hold-ups, drug-dealing etc– but I think that is a minority. The questions/issues regarding the Rom (gypsy) population in Italy are huge and something that interest me a lot. I have visited several Rom (gypsy) camps in Rome over the years of my work here as a journalist and interviewed a lot of people. I’ve also gotten personally very upset when I see people (Rom) digging through the trash outside my house several times a day, or young children begging at traffic lights when they should be in school. The key again here is schools and education for the young. They Rom (gypsy) question is worth another blog post though.
This is absolutely correct. Lived with a Sicilian family for three years in NYC. The father, when speaking of his homeland, never said, “il mio paese, l’Italia,” instead he would declare, “il mio paese, Sicilia.”
Thank you Chuck! You are so right. No Sicilian would ever think of a Milanese being from the same “paese”
Dear Trish,
Thank you for your post, sadly so true. It’s pathetic to hear Italians lazily complaining about foreigners getting all the jobs, and industries moving abroad.
Aren’t we all, by now, one big world, where Italian design is applied on African materials through German machinery thanks to Chinese labour, to make products that US marketing will redistribute all over the world? Fish caught in English waters is sent to China for filleting then back here in Europe to be distributed.
No country can nowadays define itself by the roots of its people. Easier for the US as the country is born as such, very few can call themselves native.
Allegra, you are absolutely right, we are living in a globalized world…and our economies are all entwined. I hope in this post I did not seem to anti-Italian and as if I am bragging about Americans as more tolerant of immigrants and more willing to work. Americans have plenty of faults, and as you mention we don’t have much of a “native” population. We all know that sadly the “white” Americans who were the first immigrants more or less annihilated the native American population.
Trisha, your blog is called Mozzarella Mamma, how could you look anti-Italian??! You have embraced the Italian culture better than a ‘real’ Italian, your insights are so profound, that I often find myself learning about my own culture.
You bring such a truthful and yet warm approach to what Italy is really about.
Your blog is my favourite in the ww world!!
Oh Allegra, you are so sweet and kind with me. I am sending you a humungous hug!!
Wait, Cécile Kyenge’s position has been eliminated! What a pity. With all you have said here, I would think her position would be crucial.
So much of what you say holds true for the U.S; our immigrants and undocumented workers also do much of the proverbial dirty work. One thing that always strikes me when I see the difficult lives the immigrants lead and the challenges they face is that if their new country seems good to them, then how dreadful must life have been in their old country?
I love your photos of all the people. What wonderful faces.
Yes, it is indeed a pity that Kyenge’s position has been removed. I hope she will continue her efforts despite all the hostility and difficulties. It is interesting about the US, I have never studied or looked into the situation with immigrants, just had my own casual observations. I think in general on a basic level Italians are more humane in terms of letting immigrants into Italy and giving them basic services, while the US can be terrible. But once in and legal, there is not much opportunity to move up here for foreigners. Thanks for the compliments on the pictures — I had fun doing them. I particularly liked Jagjit — he was very photogenic.
not so, she was supposed to be minsiter of integration which means local citizens with immigrants, but it was all one way, especially with the gypsies etc, all money went towards helping the hard-working immigrants, who have to pay taxes, high rents, school fees etc. etc. but the ones who do not abide by the law, etc.
Our biblioteca had a day to celebrate the diverse nationalities in tiny Bobbio Pellice…..we had us (Australians), English, Canadian, American, Romanian, Russian, Scottish, and it was fantastic we all bought a dish we made to represent our country (we bought Lamingtons and the old ladies wolfed them down) we sang songs, and the librarian is wonderful, she organized the whole thing along with flags, books, and friendship. I love that our little part of Italy is so multicultural, it reminds me of all that is best about Australia xxx
That is wonderful Lisa. I wish there was more of that in Rome. Diversity doesn’t seem to be something people appreciate here. If you ever come to Rome though, you must go to the Piazza Vittorio market — it is fabulous — people and food from all over the world. I feel happy wandering around seeing so many different kinds of faces and foods.
The history of Italy is solely based on geography. All of the wars and conquests have left it with a “confused” identity. People are loyal to their town, their region, and then their country, in that order. I don’t know how a national identity could be taught in school but it certainly is an interesting and important topic for discussion.
You are right Bonnie. As Barbara Landi pointed out in an earlier comment Italians feel divided even among themselves — northerners and southerners do not feel they have much in common. Part of that is due — as Barbara said — to the fact that Italy did not unify until the 1860s. And as you point out the loyalties are to your village, region etc– and especially to your family (which is not a bad thing). However, given the current economic/demographic situation, Italy needs to open up to foreigners and seek in a unified way to improve the country economically.
I thought your post was fair and fine, really. The US does offer opportunity, though getting a toe-hold in it can be hard. So exciting this week, at the Oscars, to see the young Somali refugee who was in the film Captain Phillips,nominated for best supporting actor! All who played the Somalis in that film were refugees now living here, all had menial jobs, but could handle both languages, and looked right. They were friends who lived in the same neighborhood here. Two, the nominee and another, are moving to LA to try the acting life. Even if it doesn’t pan out for them as a career, what a ride they have had, and how few places in the world could offer that!