Redesigning Italy: The New Flow of Immigration


Redesigning Italy: The New Flow of Immigration

by Guido Bolaffi*

Immigration will prove to be an extremely delicate problem for
Italy during the coming years, one that is going to affect the political
sphere as well as society and its institutions. The complex nature of
entrance and settlement patterns of migrants in Italian cities is a
phenomenon about which we still know very little. It will soon be seen
that the makeshift measures that have hitherto been taken, in what
can only be termed as a sort of political and administrative form of
laissez-faire, will no longer be adequate. There are two primary reasons
for this. First, Italy cannot adopt immigration policies which are not
in conformity with those of other European nations. Second, and most
important, the very nature of modern immigration represents a serious
challenge to a bureaucracy like the one in Italy, which tends to be
slow in making decisions and not very flexible when it comes to carrying
them out.

Even though the geographical location of Italy-with its very long
coastlines-may make it easier for illegal aliens to reach our shores, it
is a gross exaggeration to claim, as some have done, that this per se
constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to the control of immigration.
One need only look at Great Britain which, despite the fact that it is
an island, has for more than a century stringently regulated the access
of foreigners to its national territory. In more blunt terms, the slackness
and negligence which over the years have characterized our approach
to immigration, as if we secretly hoped the problem would somehow
go away by itself, shows just how influential certain sectors of the
Italian political milieu continue to be. Specifically, these sectors, in
order to avoid making tough or unpopular decisions, invariably choose
the path of least resistance, preferring to pay increasingly more in terms
of social costs and the dissipation of public resources.

The most recent and perhaps most significant example of this
"thoughtlessness" on the part of our decision-makers may be seen in
the political deadlock which has arisen between the government and
various parliamentary groups over whether or not to grant yet another

* Capo dell'Ufficio Immigrazione del Ministero degli Affari Sociali; Roma,
Italia (Director of the Immigration Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs of
Italy, Rome, Italy).



IND. INT'L & COMP. L. REV.

amnesty to illegal aliens already residing on Italian soil. One should
consider this important point: the deputies in favor of amnesty do not
belong to any one political group, nor do they share a common ide-
ological or cultural bias; they form what is known as a cross-party party
with members coming from every zone of the political spectrum from
the Christian Democrats (the PDS), all the way to the extreme left.
These political groups campaign inexplicably in favor of the same
measure, each camp motivated by its own set of deep-rooted ideological
prejudices. In no other country in the world would those in power
have gone so far as to cast doubt on the very credibility of the institutions
they represent by considering a measure which, without actually chang-
ing the existing legislation itself, would have pardoned those who had
effectively broken the law and automatically penalized those who had
obeyed it. In my view, this is an act of sheer irresponsibility, even
more so if we consider just how controversial is the subject of immi-
gration. When it comes to immigration, we have to be very careful.
The recent electoral victories of right wing xenophobic parties in Europe
should have made it clear that inter-ethnic conflict is not something
which is confined to the economy alone; it has repercussions in the
area of politics and culture as well, which could eventually trigger.
dangerous reactionary backlashes on the part of institutions and bring
about a kind of "identity crisis" among groups which have traditionally
been thought to be firm supporters of democracy.

If we look at those countries which have already had to deal with
immigration in the past, we see immediately that there are no easy
ways out, and no miraculous cures. No single piece of legislation,
however well-framed, will be able to provide an ultimate solution. More
than any other social issue, immigration has shown itself to be far
more complex, and liable to change at a faster rate than the measures
which have been taken by governments to cope with it. Immigrants
themselves have been quick to take advantage of the inevitable loopholes
in any law. The flexible nature of the problem poses serious challenges
to the Italian bureaucracy which tends to insist that the letter of the
law be respected, while often neglecting to enforce the spirit behind it
or adapt itself concretely to an ever-changing situation. For example,
despite the fact that two immigration bills have already been passed
by Parliament, no one has yet been officially charged with the task of
actually counting how many immigrants are entering the country.
Perhaps even more surprising is that, despite the increasingly tighter
policing of our borders, many immigrants continue to be listed as living
in Italy long after they have decided to go back to their native countries.
We seem to be interested in knowing who is coming in, but not in

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THE NEW FLOW OF IMMIGRATION

who is leaving. The outcome of this is that we cannot really say how
many "legal" aliens there are or how many are unemployed because
a number of them continue to show up on government employment
agency lists when in reality they no longer reside in the country.

That there are "two Italies" holds true for immigration as well.
In the industrialized North, foreigners are gradually taking advantage
of the official placement agencies and the protection of trade unions.
The South, on the other hand, continues to absorb ever-increasing
numbers of illegal aliens who, upon arrival, vanish into the secret ranks
of the unofficial, "under-the-table" labor market. This state of affairs
was highlighted by the recent episodes of inter-ethnic violence which
broke out in the regions of Foggia and Caserta. A recent report by
the organization Federmeccanica on the state of the automobile industry
also confirmed that integration of foreigners is taking place at "two
speeds." Four and one-half percent of businesses were shown to have
immigrants from outside the EEC on their payroll while the total number
of immigrants in this sector was around one percent of all those em-
ployed. An interesting fact was that only a part of the jobs these
immigrants actually performed were listed as menial or unskilled, while
a not insignificant number of immigrants were in positions requiring
medium or high level of skills. This is why trade unions and employers
are currently negotiating agreements over how many immigrants can
be hired in the factories. It also shows that the influx of foreign workers
is not caused merely by a demand for unskilled labor, but by the
existence of areas where professional training courses for Italian citizens
have failed to meet the needs of the labor market. Foreigners thus
constitute a shadow-labor force which serves as a kind of ballast and
emergency reservoir.

Until recently, the phenomenon of immigration in Italy showed
characteristics which were quite peculiar and unlike those of other
industrialized nations. In other countries, foreign labor tended to grav-
itate to highly industrialized areas where factories were in need of
workers that could no longer be found among the nationals. In Ger-
many, France, and the United States, the governments herded new
arrivals into those areas most needed by the economy. In Italy just
the opposite occurred. A large number of immigrants found precarious,
black-market type jobs in regions of the country which were the least
industrialized and had the highest levels of unemployment. This rather
paradoxical situation was brought about by the sort of off-hand de-
regulation with which our government attempted to manage the growing
number of arrivals. In addition, despite the current recession, the
economy in the North is nearly at full employment. This means that

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new vacancies in factories or in the service sector-and not just those
positions requiring a low level of skills-are going to be taken by
foreigners. Thus, it is hardly surprising that if companies in the North
are able to tap this reservoir of foreign workers, there will not be any
more incentive for them to set up plants and create jobs in the South
where unemployment is high; the nearly two million Southern Italians
who are out of work will, as a result of immigration, be simply passed
over. We should not underestimate another negative effect that the
growing presence of illegal aliens will have on the South's shaky ec-
onomic development. Recent studies have shown that the presence of
"first generation migrants," many of whom are without working papers
and who are ready to take any sort of job whatever the salary, has
negative economic consequences. Specifically, such a situation tends to
have a slow-down effect on the modernization process of traditional
types of businesses, encourages the "black-market" economy, and in
some cases even encourages businesses to go "under-the-table." The
reason for this is that while the presence of foreigners has little effect
on official union-backed wage negotiations, the tendency is for foreigners
to undercut wages in the non-official sectors of the economy.

Italy, unlike other countries with a strong democratic tradition,
has not yet given birth to any nation-wide anti-immigrant movement
which is ready to capitalize on the potential animosity out-of-work
Italians might feel against foreigners. The simple reason for this is that
the most backward and conservative elements of the economy, because
they know how important this ethnic reservoir is, have set themselves
up as liberal champions of immigrants and oppose any attempts by
the government to get a handle on the problem. What is the result of
all this? We have a unanimous facade of anti-racism, a complete
consensus, where everybody agrees with everybody else and there is
no opposition. This is a process of political camouflage which the ruling
classes of the South have been known to adopt and which up to now
has been successful because of the specific political conditions of our
country. Until very recently, Italy has been a country which exported
immigrants, a fact which has inspired a sense of "incomprehensible
solidarity" among organizations like the confederate trade unions which,
unlike unions in other countries, support an open-borders policy and
multi-cultural integration. Our decision makers, both from the left and
right side of the political spectrum, simply do not know what to make
of a situation where Italy, for the first time in history, is actually
attracting brains and brawn from abroad. So, except for some vague
threats coming from Umberto Bossi's Lombard League, everybody
seems to agree that immigration is a good thing. In fact, however,
there are growing differences between those in favor of a more disci-

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plined approach and those who think that we should simply let eve-
rybody in. What is behind all this?

The recent massive waves of immigration have created two main
problem areas which Italy must face. One has to do with politics and
culture, the other concerns socio-economic questions. Even though these
two areas are interrelated, the potential dangers inherent in each are
different, with some being more urgent and others less so. It stands
to reason, therefore,. that any policy aimed at integrating immigrants
is going to have to take all of this into account. Millions of people of
different races and creeds, with customs vastly different from our own,
people who do not even eat the same food as we do, are bound to
have an enormous and permanent impact on the way we define ourselves
and our national identity. This is not going to be an easy or painless
process. It is going to be complex and no one can stop it. Even the
future of our democracy is going to be influenced by it. Therefore,
people who look at the problems exclusively in terms of economics and
statistics are missing the point, as are those who see the problem as a
purely cultural one. Neither attitude is going to be particularly effective
if we wish to prevent the outbreaks of racial violence that continue to
occur in other countries. In the struggle to stamp out racism, should
not we err on the side of doing more rather than doing less?

Another potential for conflict comes from the supporters of an
open-borders policy, who in the name of the high-sounding ideals of
multi-racial and multi-ethnic society say that everybody should be
permitted to come. There is something "radically chic" about this
position. It is a kind of "ivory-tower" intellectualism which fails to
take into account the very unpleasant reality of the hand-to-mouth
existence many clandestine immigrants actually lead and the daily
humiliation and exploitation they have to endure, which for many
women can mean physical or even sexual violence. This is especially
true in the South, where the state is not yet in the position of being
able to guarantee even the most basic rights, such as jobs or social
services, even to Italians themselves. It is better not to unduly inflame
the public by using expressions like "free immigration," as if we could
simply ignore the necessity for economic integration and the availability
of social services. Multi-racial, multi-ethnic societies are only possible
where there is a social contract in existence which regulates interchange
between members of a society which has rules and in which everyone
respects the law. This can only come about if people are committed
to building a common future together.

Is Italy going to be able to consolidate its diverse views to create
a policy on immigration? This is starting to look less like an ideal goal
and more like a dire necessity, given the explosive growth of the

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phenomenon. Success is by no means certain. First, the problem is of
an entirely different order, the likes of which we have never had to
deal with before. There is a kind of "Protean" double nature to it,
in that, as it grows quantitatively, it also transforms qualitatively. If
immigrants represent a structurally permanent and growing part of the
labor market-a fact which the government seems only recently to have
discovered-the character of immigrant labor is in a state of continuous
flux. The most important reason for alarm, however, is the wide gap
existing between the obsolete means the state has at its disposal and
the kind of problems that have to be addressed. Until recently, Italy
was alone among the industrialized countries to be spared this dubious
by-product of prosperity. The waves of foreigners from the Third World
or Eastern Europe storming at our gates are a sign that Italy has
definitively joined the ranks of the affluent nations of the "North."
But unlike them, our institutions are still lagging far behind. The
danger is that they will not be up to the task of handling a phenomenon
which is having such an enormous impact on our economy and our
society. If a country does decide to open up its borders to immigrants,
three essential things are necessary.

First, a central authority or body must exist whose job it is to
coordinate the implementation of social and economic policy and which
is equipped to control migrant flows into and out of the country. Under
the new ministry of Social Affairs, an agency like this is already in its
early stages and, before long, could be working to full capacity. Second,
the nature of immigration and the fact that more family groups will
be arriving means that different branches of the public administration
will have to become active simultaneously; organizations representing
education, labor, social affairs, health and justice will have to work
together and not simply ignore each other-or even worse, compete.
Third, the passing of the Martelli law means that the age of makeshift
measures and last minute improvisation has definitely come to an end
and a new, tough era has begun.

Italy will have to decide who it wants to let in and on what criteria
such entrance should be based. Above all, Italy will have to come up
with some kind of policy for integrating foreigners so that those people
who in the next few years do decide to settle down in Italy know just
where they stand.

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