Immigrants or Foreign Residents--editorial

Immigrants or Foreign Residents--Editorial
On 1 March foreigners in Italy are organising a 24-hour strike to underline their role in the country and to protest against recent episodes of racism and discrimination. Inspired by a similar protest in France on the same day, the event is being coordinated by a network of local committees with the support of social networking sites such as Facebook. In early February the group “Primo marzo 2010 sciopero degli stranieri” had over 45,000 members.
There is currently much talk about how to integrate foreigners living and working in Italy and the language used to frame the debate is all-important. Many foreigners are referred to as immigrati, often with a negative connotation of people who live on the margins of the host society, performing menial jobs and finding themselves at the centre of social conflict of the kind that led to the race riots in Rosarno, Calabria, in January. The term straniero residente, foreign resident, with its more positive connotation of someone who plays an active part in the life of the country, is rarely used.

But what makes a person one rather than the other? It seems that the answer often depends on country of origin and skin colour. This magazine’s readers from the United States, Canada and Australia, like their counterparts from western Europe, have probably always considered themselves – and been treated as – foreign residents and may feel that most immigration issues don’t really apply to them. But what about the people labelled as immigrants? The domestic workers from Romania, who are in fact members of the European Union? The factory workers and small-scale entrepreneurs from Ghana? The pizza chefs from Egypt? The retailers from China? All may have lived in Italy for years, put down solid roots and have families. What must it take to call these people foreign residents too?

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