Immigration is a very hot issue for our country especially if we consider that Italy has always been more a country of emigrants than of immigrants. Personally I do believe in the great importance of cultural diversity and I’m extremely fortunate in being in contact with a lot of good persons who came in Italy just to have another chance, they work honestly and live regularly (not breaking the law). The real problem here is the illegal immigration and the fact that a lot of people look to Italy as an easy place to get into unnoticed. To the point, searching the net, I found a very interesting article which clearly explains not only the reasons why this is a huge problem for our society but also why the previous governments didn’t succeed in controlling it:
“One tactic the Italian government used to get these people to come out of hiding was to hold amnesties for any illegal immigrants, a time where they could apply for Italian citizenship and not get punished for having been there illegally. This worked on one level, since this reduced the number of workers in the underground sector, thus reducing the size of this unrecognized economy. Between 1986 and 1998, the Italian government held 4 amnesties, granting citizenship to about 700,000 people. But this did not solve the problem, it actually ended up attracting more migrants (…)Unfortunately, not only did these amnesties cost the government a lot of money, they made Italy's immigration policies appear lenient”.
“Another way these immigrants find ways into the country is quite creative; when their small boats are met by Italian coast guards as they are approaching the Italian shores, the immigrants find a way to make their boat sink, or cause the motors to stop working, so that there is no way they can be turned back. At this point, they know that the coast guard will have to rescue them by bringing them inland.”
“Some of the most visible problems being caused by this immigration are regional conflicts between groups of Italians and immigrants (racism, violence), fluctuating unemployment rates, increase of workers in unrecognized economic sectors, and the fact that the country is paying for a large amount of foreigners to be incarcerated in their prisons.” (taken from Illegal immigration in Italy)
During the last exchange we were supposed to discuss immigration with our American peer, Kristen…unfortunately, we had some problems with our connection and we spent almost all the remaining time talking about our final project and deciding on the topic it will deal with. Anyway, thanks to the forum I knew how Kristen considers this phenomenon and tomorrow we’ll probably compare our ideas about this very ticklish question.
“One tactic the Italian government used to get these people to come out of hiding was to hold amnesties for any illegal immigrants, a time where they could apply for Italian citizenship and not get punished for having been there illegally. This worked on one level, since this reduced the number of workers in the underground sector, thus reducing the size of this unrecognized economy. Between 1986 and 1998, the Italian government held 4 amnesties, granting citizenship to about 700,000 people. But this did not solve the problem, it actually ended up attracting more migrants (…)Unfortunately, not only did these amnesties cost the government a lot of money, they made Italy's immigration policies appear lenient”.
“Another way these immigrants find ways into the country is quite creative; when their small boats are met by Italian coast guards as they are approaching the Italian shores, the immigrants find a way to make their boat sink, or cause the motors to stop working, so that there is no way they can be turned back. At this point, they know that the coast guard will have to rescue them by bringing them inland.”
“Some of the most visible problems being caused by this immigration are regional conflicts between groups of Italians and immigrants (racism, violence), fluctuating unemployment rates, increase of workers in unrecognized economic sectors, and the fact that the country is paying for a large amount of foreigners to be incarcerated in their prisons.” (taken from Illegal immigration in Italy)
During the last exchange we were supposed to discuss immigration with our American peer, Kristen…unfortunately, we had some problems with our connection and we spent almost all the remaining time talking about our final project and deciding on the topic it will deal with. Anyway, thanks to the forum I knew how Kristen considers this phenomenon and tomorrow we’ll probably compare our ideas about this very ticklish question.
