Blog 7: What and who is Italian?

 Rome, Naples, Berlin, Paris: All very different cities with very different outlooks on immigration, youth, and education. While in Italy, there is a very clear definition of who is Italian and who is not, in other countries, such as Germany and France, there does not seem to be a definition of who is belongs in their country and who is an outsider. After visits to MACRO, a modern art museum in Rome, visiting Campo Nomadi in Naples, and studying the borders within the city of Rome; it is clear that Italy is backwards in regards to their acceptance of immigrants and the education of outsiders. In a global context, compared to other countries in the Western world, Italy's identity is shifting from that of a contemporary city to a city that is simply frozen in time.

Trash in Campo Nomadi- Naples, Italy

In class discussion and lectures, the question is consistently asked: Is Italy a contemporary city?After visiting Campo Nomadi in Naples, it became clear to me that Italy is far from a contemporary country. As we entered into the Roma camp, we walked on a trash covered ground. Once we entered into the actual camp, we were met by an abundance of children running around the camp on Friday afternoon at two o'clock. As I looked at my watch and thought about what I was doing at two o'clock on a Friday afternoon when I was a child, it occurred to me that there was something wrong with the fact that children were running around at that time in the afternoon instead of learning in a classroom at school. As I inquired as to why the children were at the camp without parental supervision instead of in a classroom, I received the answer that sixty percent of the population of Campo Nomadi is Roma children and the majority of them are without parents and cannot attend school on a regular basis because there is no regular transportation from the camp to the schools. For me, this answer signified that Italy is far from a contemporary country and without government intervention, funding, and protection laws for immigrants as well as Roma, the country will be unable to develop into a progressive country at the forefront of global issues. Furthermore, when immigrant and Roma children are able to attend school, they are unable to learn the Italian language. The short story “You Wicked Wooden Eyes, What Are You Looking At?” from Multicultural Literature in Contemporary Italy shares how Italian is taught to immigrants, “I began to worry right away, because I know it in my head and I understood immediately that he speaks it very badly. Who knows why they don't seat me next to an Italian so that I can learn from him,” (Orton 132). This story signifies that often immigrant children are not being placed in classrooms conducive to learning and being integrated into Italian society.

After visiting MACRO, Rome's Museum of Contemporary Art, my opinion that Rome is not a contemporary country strengthened. Its physical location coupled with an installation installed inside by Dan Perjovschi, an cartoonist from Romania, denoted to the fact that Rome's issues regarding immigrants and the Roma people have developed into a global issue. With drawings such as this one:

Dan Perjovschi Cartoon- MACRO Rome, Italy

it became clear that one of the objectives of the installation was to bring to the forefront the issues that many immigrants within Italy face. This particular cartoon, showing the invisible space that is filled by the Roma is a bold statement relating to the identity of Italy as a whole and confronts the question: What and who is Italian? With the Roma forced into encampments, paralleling the forcing of the Jews into Nazi concentration camps, it is clear that the Italians want to preserve their identity strictly as Italian and not allow the infiltration of other cultures and traditions into their society. Other cartoons in Perjovschi's installation depict pictures of stick figures chained to a table full of purses. This cartoon represents the immigrants role in Italian society strictly for the purpose of selling black market goods to tourists throughout the city. Since citizenship is nearly impossible for immigrants to obtain in Italy, it is hard for immigrants to obtain jobs outside of the black market. The Italian government makes it virtually impossible for one to “earn a living” (Orton 39) as demonstrated in the short story “Give Me Back My Coat” by Adrian N. Bravi. This short story illustrates the struggles of an immigrant and their struggle to earn a living and obtain a job in society.

Looking at Perjovschi's work coupled with my travels outside of Italy has allowed me to gain perspective on a country whose politics were previously unknown to me. As I traveled to cities such as Berlin and Paris, it was much more clear that immigrants were integrated into society and not pushed to the borders as an outsider forced to earn a living by entering the black market. In both Berlin and Paris, there were no street vendors attempting to sell goods to tourists. With a lack of the street vendors that are so prevalent throughout Rome, it was clear that immigrants must be much more integrated into society as accepted members of daily life in France and Germany.

The ideas of immigrants coming into society also brings up the issue of gentrification. There is no denying that gentrification is gradually changing the borders of Rome. A prime example of gentrification within Rome is the Jewish Ghetto. Formerly an area where the Jewish were confined behind the banks of the Tiber and forced to worship in secret, the neighborhood has developed into an area for the elite. After the Jewish were forced out of the Jewish Ghetto during World War II, the area gradually became gentrified and was no longer reserved for the Jewish minority. Today, many of the immigrants in Rome settle in neighborhoods close to Termini such as Piazza Vittorio and Esquilino. These neighborhoods are extremely close to the city center and in danger of being gentrified in the near future if opposition to immigrants continues in Rome. However, if Italians continue to have low birth rates and high rates of emigration, I would argue that traditionally Italian neighborhoods face the possibility of being gentrified by immigrants new to the city.

In regards to youth, Rome's youth culture and identity is diminishing as time progresses. With a birthrate that is the lowest in Europe, Italy is a dying population. Their low birthrate along with their extreme resistance to immigrant integration into society, has shifted the identity of Italy to that of an old country. The youth that do exist in Italy often emigrate to other countries within Europe because they are unable to find jobs within Italy that suit their educational experience. As youth flees Italy and the immigrant population increases, it makes for high tensions within the country. Since jobs within Italy limited, the elderly are retiring later, meaning that when youth graduate from college, there are no jobs for them to take over.  

From my perspective and experiences in Italy, I agree with Sharra Wasserman that Italy will develop into a contemporary country. With the Vatican looming over Rome and the ancient history laced throughout the entire country, I do not think that Italy will be able to break from its ancient shell without an extremely liberal Prime Minister. Currently having Silvio Berlusconi as the Prime Minster of Italy is only setting them further behind the rest of the contemporary Western world.