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POLITICS-ITALY: Elections Bring New Hope for Migrants
By Sabina Zaccaro
ROME, Apr 8 (IPS) - Italy, which once saw a net population loss due to emigration, has in just a few decades become a magnet for immigrants seeking a better life in Europe, making immigrant rights a hot-button issue in campaigning for the Apr. 9-10 elections.
The latest poll, conducted on Mar. 24 right before a two-week blackout on opinion surveys started, put Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition about five points behind his centre-left rival Romano Prodi's Union coalition. Some 10 percent of voters were still undecided.
Berlusconi's right-wing government has consistently taken a hard-line stance on immigrants. With the restrictive Bossi-Fini immigration law, approved in 2002, the government introduced a tough policy that only allowed foreign workers with existing job contracts to obtain a residency permit.
This year, the government has offered 170,000 permits for immigrants to work in Italy. In March, nearly half a million of the estimated 2.4 million undocumented workers here tried to apply. Mostly from North Africa and Eastern Europe, they represent four percent of the population of a country with the lowest birth rates in Western Europe, at an average of 1.3 children per woman.
The 2002 law imposed an annual quota on foreign workers and allows the expulsion of undocumented people. According to the law, employers have to hire labourers directly from their countries of origin. But many of them are already in Italy, and cannot afford to return home to get official entry visas.
Experts have pointed out that the law does not reflect the reality of thousands of immigrants already working illegally in Italy, and the opposition parties highlighted this as evidence that the Bossi-Fini law has been a failure.
The current government has refused to consider welcoming foreign-born workers as a solution to Italy's demographic decline. The situation is further complicated by the high unemployment rate here - only 57 percent of people aged 15-64 have jobs, the smallest proportion in Western Europe.
While Prodi said the country cannot do without foreigners in a speech last month, Berlusconi personally spoke out against immigration. "I do not want Italy to become a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural country," he declared.
Franco Pittau, coordinator of the annual immigration statistics report commissioned by Caritas/Migrantes, a social wing of the Catholic Church, told IPS that, "Of course, the current government has recognised that this country needs foreign workers. But the related strategies are deficient. In fact, the only way to get the visa for an immigrant is to have already found a job."
All those applying for legal status last month were already living in Italy, and many were unemployed. According to Pittau, "The law should guarantee special permission to look for a job - a solution proposed by the European Commission too."
"But the most important thing is integration, the capability of living together. It is a common interest, if we think of our country in the next 10 or 20 years. And this needs to be reflected in the policy strategies," Pittau concluded.
Some officials in the current administration have made no effort to conceal their hostility toward undocumented workers.
"If the Italian government had not acted with determination, our country would be overrun with illegal immigrants," Interior Minister Raffaele Pisanu recently told Parliament. "The desperate people who think they can land in Italy illegally must know that they will be sent back to where they came from as soon as they have received humanitarian aid."
"Our policies may seem cruel, but they will convince many people not to undertake a dangerous trip to European soil," he concluded.
The centre-left opposition has put forth a number of foreign-born candidates in the general election. Their immigration platform is based on a "start from scratch" approach, that includes repeal of the Bossi-Fini law, consistent and organic regulation of the right to asylum, laws defending religious faith and freedom, and the right to cast administrative votes as the first steps to build true integration.
Parties in the conservative government coalition have not confirmed the presence of any foreign-born candidates in their lists. Their immigration policy draws on a more effective implementation of the Bossi-Fini law itself.
One of the most hotly debated issues between the coalitions is immigrants' right to vote. As things now stand, they cannot vote in general elections, but in a sign of the growing importance attached to immigrant's voices, they do have representatives on the city councils, who participate actively in political decisions even if they cannot cast votes.
Irma Tobias Perez is one of four foreign-born town councilors elected in 2003 by the large immigrant community in Rome.
"We don't wish to impose our religious and cultural identities on our new country, but we demand sweeping reform of immigration policies, granting foreign residents the right to vote in administrative elections," Perez told IPS.
Immigrants also want state-subsidised Italian language courses, better health care coverage, legislation making it easier to acquire Italian citizenship and housing, and a comprehensive law on political asylum.
"We are their voices," she continued. "We bring their needs to the political agenda of the cities, working close to Italian local government councilors whose help and interest is really precious."
According to Perez, in the last five years under Berlusconi, the government has not been open to dialogue with the immigrant community to discuss legislative tools to achieve genuine integration.
"They don't have the political will to integrate foreigners," she said.
The government seems to be mainly worried about the high number of people landing on Italian shores. During the election campaign, Berlusconi often pointed out that while he has been prime minister, "Illegal immigration has declined 51 percent".
According to Senate President Marcello Pera from the centre-right Forza Italia party, giving foreign nationals a say in local elections "is a shortcut to true integration".
"We need to integrate first, and grant voting rights to those who have already fitted in by learning Italian and respecting our principles. The immediate right to vote is a shortcut and instead of helping the process of integration probably helps the interests of the political proponents of such an idea," he said Thursday at a press conference in Turin.
Campaigning ended on Friday, and the polls will open at 8 a.m. Sunday for Italy's 47 million voters. Official results will be made available starting from late Monday on.
(END/2006)
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