Municipality of Venice

1

• Municipality of Venice
• Immigration and Promotion of Citizens Rights
  Service

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Citizenship and integration

• Gianfranco Bonesso
• Anthropologist Expert on Immigration Politics

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Immigrant situation in Italy

• Italy becomes a migration country since 1970
• (immigrants are more than emigrants)
• Immigrants regularly registered
• 143.838 (1970)
• 2.786.340 (2004)

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Venice (dec. 2005)

• Total population in Venice 269.780
• Non nationals 14.769
  (5,5)
• Most of the foreigners live in the historical
  centres Mestre and Venice
• Sectors of Employment
• Industry shipbuilding industries, construction
  firms
• Tourism hotels, restaurants, maids
• Services caregivers badanti

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Foreign citizens resident in Venice (2005)
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Some details on NATIONALITIES Main national
groups in Venice

• Asia East Europe Balcans
• Bangladesh 2.224 Moldavia 1.546
  Albania 879
• China 873 Ukraine 1.126
  Macedonia 878
• Philippines 703 Romania 933 Serbia and
• Sri Lanka 329 Montenegro520

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Variation in Venice (2000-2004)

• Immigrants presence in Venice
• from 5.683 to 13.008 ? 129
• Male ? 108
• Female ? 153
• Children (0- 4 years old) ? 176

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A PUBLIC RESPONSE TO MIGRATION
QUESTIONSDevelopment of the Immigration Service
in the Municipality of Venice

• First phase
• (1992/1995)
• Arrival of a large number of gipsy families from
  former Yugoslavia two camps were set up to
  handle incoming immigrants
• Increase of immigrant workers in the city

• Second phase
• (1996/today)
• Creation of two interdisciplinary frameworks to
  handle immigration matters and refugees

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Human Resources

• Immigrants Team
• 2 social workers, 2 educators, 4 help desk
  counsellors, 1 legal consultant, 1 person with
  cultural skills, 1 admin employee, 3 experts
• on immigration issues
• Refugee Team
• 1 social worker, 2 educators, 2 cultural and
  linguistic experts, 2 immigration and asylum
  experts, 1 language teacher, 1 admin secretary.
• PLUS 30 cultural and linguistic
  mediators/translators
• 4 Italian language teachers

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Immigration Service offers

• legal advice (offered both on front-desk and by a
  telephone line)
• linguistic/cultural mediation offered to schools
  and to social and health services
• professional and specialist social services
• specific aid for newly-arrived families
• training for operators, voluntary workers and
  citizens
• support for social problems
• Italian language classes and initiatives for
  young immigrants
• projects to promote intercultural relations
• in depth studies on immigration and migrating
  cultures in the city
• support to immigrant associations
• specific aid geared to refugees and asylum
  seekers
• The service also offers specific advice on
  immigration and migrating cultures
• to operators of public services and social
  private services
• to operators of associations and groups.

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Users of Immigration Service during 2005 Some
data
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Service Users

• Foreign citizens (individuals and families) -
  focus on recent arrivals -
• Italian citizens with immigration requests
• Institutions and services providers
• Associations, volunteers and private/social
  services
• Refugees and Asylum Seekers
• International and non governmental organizations

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How to get in Contact

• Front Desk (open to public 3 days a week or
  everyday by appointment)
• Individuals and Families Legal and
  Social Counselling
• Call Center (2 hrs every day) General
  Information
• Associations Requests of Support
• Schools Direct request from teachers
  in schools
• Services, Institutions, Private Organisations
• Direct Contacts for Support and Advice

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Ongoing Projects

• Oasi Orientation for newly arrived teenagers
• Mediazioni training for mediators
  information for foreigner women, actions with
  teenagers
• Everybody at School support to children at
  school
• Participation and Political Representation
  Project support to immigrants' associations and
  promotion of the right to vote

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Obstacles to Integration (1)

• ISSUES FOR MIGRANTS
• Strict rules for legal access and stay in Italian
  territory
• Housing
• Information in their own languages about citizens
  rights and obligations
• Employment temporary contracts, law-level jobs
• Access for families to social services,
  healthcare and education
• Equal opportunities in cultural, religious and
  linguistic fields
• Help for weak clients (single mothers, asylum
  seekers, children and unaccompanied minors)

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Obstacles to Integration (2)

• OTHER ISSUES
• Cultural separation and few common spacesin
  daily life (Cultural ethnicism as obstacle)
• Lack of family network
• Lack of oldest generation and of their knowledge
• Relation with the country of origin and the rest
  of the family still living there
• Relation with national community in Italy
• Re-establish ones own migrant project

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Key words

• Citizenship
• Holistic approach
• Empowerment
• Community network
• Advocacy
• Communication/mediation
• Participation
• Intercultural exchange
• Equal opportunity
• Collective and individual welfare

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Difference / EqualitySocial / Cultural

• To individualize issues related to migrant
  experience and to the condition of migrant
• To analyse issues related to cultural differences
  using a wide concept of culture
• To avoid projecting what we believe the culture

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Changes in migration field
Guest Citizen Emergency Project Reception
and solidarity Promotion of citizenship
Aims Plural citizenship
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Some Considerations about Counselling and
Information about Citizenships Duties and
Rights

• More than Information
• Counselling means
• Relationship with users
• Accompaniment of users to the realisation of
  their rights
• Follow up with users about their experience and
  outcomes
• Getting in touch with services to improve the
  possibilities for access

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Positive Impact of the Project

• Overcoming the charitable dimension of help in
  order to reach the valorisation of the resources
  of people (individual empowerment)
• Help in the application of the self-tutorship of
  rights (not only declaration but also and
  foremost application of rights)
• Experimentation and use of new professional
  figures, such as cultural mediators
• New spurs to the innovation of services and
  structures in order to facilitate the access of
  people (this simplification process is useful
  also to Italians)

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Positive Impact of the Project

• Professional training and updating for improving
  the skills and knowledge of the services in the
  territory
• Diffusion of a culture of legality, of
  citizenship, of rights and duties, of asylum,
  rather than one related only to the charitable
  mechanisms of help
• Counselling is related to the different
  dimensions of citizenship, its rights and duties,
  of the social and individual wellbeing, and thus
  is interested in people in their wholeness
  (social, economic, linguistic, cultural,
  relational needs)

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Some indicators for integration

• Numbers of residents versus temporary habitants
• Numbers of long term permits and italian
  citizenship applications
• Users of public services for all citizens
  (percentage of immigrant users)
• Comparison in school abandon and educational
  career between italian and immigrant young people
• Partecipation (exspecially women partecipation)
• Association projects and issues
• Intercultural conflicts (and solutions)
• Cultural and social mixed places

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Second generation. Universal Children

• My sons are universal children.
• They will be happy, will not have left a world as
  me, they will not have nostalgia as their
  parents, will not have need of things that they
  could not found here, they will have many worlds
  inside, more languages and more cultures.
• They will not be badly in different places. They
  will be children without rigid cultures inside of
  theirselves and for this reason more adaptable.
  They will be children of the world.
• a Srilankese Mother, Venezia 2002