As we walked into the Piazza Vittorio, the diversity of the piazza was clear. There were Italians, Asians, Eastern Europeans, Middle Easterners, Africans, individuals from all walks of life. Initally, I was struck by the diversity as well as the many youth concentrating the piazza. After talking to my first interviewee, Antonio, I quickly learned there is a University in the Piazza Vittorio which explained the youthful population.
With a goal of interviewing one individual that had immigrated to Italy and one native Italian, my partner, Brittany, and I peered into the piazza and decided to approach two college-aged boys. As we approached them and introduced ourselves it was clear one of them, Antonio, fluently spoke English. Antonio shared with us that he was from Calabria and had migrated within Italy to Rome to attend university. Continuing to ask him questions, Antonio's leg began to shake as he spoke. It was apparent he was nervous, so we attempted to calm his nerves by telling him how good his English was and sharing with him a few stories of our own; such as how we chose our respective colleges, where we grew up, and why we decided to come to Rome to study abroad. After sharing a few stories of our own, he began to freely share his own experiences.
He shared that he hopes to stay in Rome for about seven years and hopes to finish his education here. When we asked why, specifically, he chose to migrate to Rome he said “There's no life in Calabria.” He said that Rome is a much more lively city. With our base-level questions out of the way, it was time to ask Antonio his opinions about immigration and politics in Rome.
Initially when we asked, “What do you think about immigration?” he simply responded, “My grandparents are immigrants.” He shared that his grandparents had moved to Toronto, Canada for a job. Although he shared with us that his grandparents are Canadian immigrants, when we asked him his opinion on immigrants coming to Italy, he stated that all immigrants are bad and they simply come to Italy to steal jobs. When we asked his opinion on American immigrants in Italy, he also stated that they are bad and no matter what country they come from, they steal jobs that Italians need to survive. Antonio's opinions on immigration were very ironic. Although Antonio's grandparents immigrated to Canada for the sole-purpose of a job, he opposes any and all immigrants in Italy because they steal jobs. Making his opinions on the economy in Italy clear, it was time to ask Antonio what he thinks the biggest political problem in Italy is. He was quick to state that the biggest problem is the lack of jobs. In Rome, he said that there are no jobs and said that means in Calabria there are zero jobs. Basically, he stated that as you go further south in Italy, the job situation goes from bad to worse.
After taking a short break and heading to a bright red table in the Piazza Vittorio to collect our thoughts, Brittany and I walked back over to Antonio to ask him a few final questions about his 'Southern roots.' We asked Antonio if he ever feels discriminated against in Rome because he is from Southern Italy. He was quick to say that while he does not feel discriminated against in Rome, when he travels further North, they recognize his different accent and act racist toward him.
What I found to be most interesting was Antonio's opinion on the North and South divide in Italy. The discussion of this divide in many ways mirrors the divide that there is in the United States. Antonio shared that the way Southerners are recognized as Southern is by their accent. This is similar to in the United States how Southerners have a much different accent from Northerners. The differentiation of accents can lead to racism in the United States as well as in Italy.
Ending our interview with Antonio, we continued to walk around the piazza to find another youth to interview and asked about their opinions on the city of Rome. After wandering around and observing the piazza for a while, we approached a college-aged female and asked her if she was native to Italy. She quickly responded with immaculate English that she had immigrated to Rome from Morocco when she was seventeen. While her father has been in Rome since 1987, Basma and the rest of her family were able to join him in 2007. Basma, a name meaning 'smile', was quick to open up to us about her enjoyable experiences in Italy thus far. While she is an immigrant, Basma stared that she feels accepted in Italy and has yet to experience much discrimination from Italian citizens. Studying oriental language and Abrabic, Basma hopes to move to either France or London once she graduates from university. Similar to Antonio, she stressed that there are no jobs in Rome where she would be able to use her degree and, therefore, would likely once again have to immigrate to a new country.
Basma's experience reflected Castles and Miller's article “ The Age of Migration.” This article states that there are five core reasons why migration occurs: “people migrate as manual workers, highly-qualified specialists, entrepreneurs, refugees, or as family members of previous migrants,” (Castles 3). Looking at immigration in the context of these five ideas, Basma's experience correlates to that of an immigrant that migrated in order to join a family member. While her experience was as a migrant joining a family member, her father's experience was that of an entrepreneur. Her father chose to move to Rome with an entrepreneurial spririt in order to open up a clothing store. Comparing the “Age of Migration” to Basma's family's experience presented many parallels.
While I was initially scared to approach strangers in the Piazza Vittorio and nervous my lack of Italian would pose a problem for my communication with anyone that would be there, I quickly learned my nervousness was unnecessary. After talking with Antonio and Basma, I learned that they are my peers and very open to sharing their opinions and dreams with me. Perhaps what I was most surprised about was both Antonio and Basma's English language skills. I was very impressed and envious that they were both able to speak another language so flawlessly. Although immigration is not the easiest subject to talk about, they both seemed to be very open to me.
Interestingly, Antonio and Basma had very different opinions on immigration. Antonio, being a native Italian, expressed his thoughts about how bad immigration is for the country of Italy while Basma shared her affinity for Italy and how accepted she has felt as a Moroccan immigrant living in Rome. I think that both Antonio and Basma were somewhat surprised that me, being an American student, would even care to ask about their opinions on immigration. They were very open to talking to me about the topic because it was not something that they were regularly asked their opinion about. If they were to be asked by a fellow Italian about their opinions on immigration, I do not think that their opinions would have been any different from what they shared with me. Being a peer of theirs, I think it was much easier for them to express their opinions to me. The only difference there may have been was their word selection. Since they were limited to the word and expressions they knew in English, if they were speaking in Italian they may have expressed their opinions using a different vocabulary.
Getting out of my comfort zone and pushing myself to approach new people in the Piazza Vittorio was a very enlightening experience. Talking with fellow youth in Rome confirmed many of the issues we have been discussing in class. Antonio's negative opinions about immigration reiterated the majority of opinions we have learned in class that many Italians have. I was most surprised that neither of the two people I interviewed mentioned that there is a lack of rights for immigrants and other minorities throughout Italy. When I asked about political problems throughout Italy, both Antonio and Basma's mentioned the state of the economy but did not mention the state of the government.
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