An interview with four immigrants

Italy is one of the most important destination countries for migrants in Europe. Around 500.000 regular migrants live there and the annual growth rate of migrant presence is, together with Spain, the highest in Europe. Italy is currently struggling to deal not only with the legal immigrants but also with the illegal ones. As a matter of fact, many of these undocumented immigrants use the sea route as a way to enter in the country. This problematic situation has increased tension within Italian cities, as well as feelings of animosity towards immigrants.
A week ago we decided to interview some immigrants living in Northern Italy in order to understand how they are treated by Italians, whether or not they feel welcomed, and if they are still victims of racial bias. The interview took place in four different cities - Brescia, Treviso, Mantua and Venice - and has been translated in English

Venice, post-cosmopolitan city?

In the volume Post-Cosmopolitan cities: Explorations of Urban Coexistence, Venice is listed among post-cosmopolitan cities, that is places once famous for being cosmopolitan but which are no longer so in the twenty-first century.

Group Discussion on the Novel

Germany as Migration Destination

For many international migrants Germany seems a desirable destination because of its stable economy. In 1994 its GDP per head was more than $25,000 per year; compared to some of Germany's neighbor countries, like Poland, which GDP was $5,336 and the Czech Republic which had a GDP of $7,824 in the same year (U.S. Department of Commerce 835), Germany is a wealthy country and is, therefore, an attractive state to migrate to. In fact, as a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation reveals, in 2012 Germany has become the second most desirable destination to move to permanently after the USA. Financial crises in the Southern European states led people to leave their home countries and migrate to Germany. Permanent migration rose 38% from 2009 to 2012, and in 2012 400,000 permanent migrants came to Germany. One in three migrants in Europe is moving to Germany now; in 2007 one out of ten moved to the nation. Consequently, Germany is undergoing a migration boom (Webb).

Italian Diaspora in America: Italians as emigrants

Nowadays it is very common to define Italy as a country of immigration whilst in the past it was considered merely such as a country of emigration. During the unification of Italy in 1861, the rise of Fascism and the end of the World War II, there was a phenomenon known as the Italian Diaspora. At the beginning the so called “exodus” regarded only the Northern regions such as Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardy and Piedmont. Afterwards, the phenomenon interested also the Southern Italian regions such as Calabria, Sicily and Campania. In particular Italians chose to move to America.

Cosmopolitanism: the migrant and the city

"City life is carried on by strangers among strangers" 

Zygmunt Bauman

Graphics on International Migration in Germany

Source:

Spiegel