Italy and Greece: Between Individual Integration and Institutional Exclusion

1
Italy and Greece Between Individual Integration
and Institutional Exclusion

• Dr. Anna Triandafyllidou
• ELIAMEP
• 31 May 2007

2
Greece and Italy differ in...

• Their size (geography and demography)
• Nature and strength of national identity
• Political organisation (centralised vs. Regional)
• Structure of the national economy (Italy has a
  strong industrial and SME sector while Greece has
  a weak service oriented economy)

3
But they are similar in...

• Their geographical position at the southern
  border of the EU
• Their geographical morphology that makes the
  control of border crossing particularly costly
• Lack of previous immigration receiving experience
• Large informal economies and internal structural
  imbalances in the domestic economy (rigid labour
  markets, lack of labour force in some sectors and
  excessive supply in others)

4
Which has led to

• Repeated regularisations instead of any planned
  management of flows
• Delayed development of immigration and immigrant
  policies (but Italy started earlier than Greece!)
• Little competition between migrant workers and
  natives over jobs
• Persistence of irregular stay and work despite
  overall normalisation of the immigration
  phenomenon and the development of related
  policies for management of flows and integration

5
Immigrant participation in public life

• Main fields of civic activities
• Main groups that are civically active
• Relationship between participation in ethnic
  organisations vs activism in host society
  organisations
• Concluding remarks

6
Main fields of civic activities

• Italy
• Social and political activism
• Cultural associations
• IN
• Trade unions
• Local/regional elected consultative bodies
• Ethnic/immigrant associations

• Greece
• Providing information/advice
• Facilitating the acquisition of legal status
• Cultural/religious celebration
• IN
• Ethnic/immigrant associations
• Very limited participation in mainstream
  organisations

7
Main nationalities that are civically active

• Italy
• Albanians
• Nigerians
• Size of community does not seem to play a role
• Specific patterns of settlement, employment and
  education play a role

• Greece
• Filipinos
• Poles
• Overall experience of Communism is a negative
  factor
• Length of stay has an encouraging effect

8
Relationship between participation in immigrant
and mainstream organisations

• Italy
• Catholic/voluntary civic participation is
  declining
• Immigration offers a new field of civic and
  political activism
• Activism in mainstream organisations builds
  social capital used to set up an ethnic
  association
• Natives and foreigners work together in civil
  society

• Greece
• Weak civil society, informal voluntary activism
  that is issue-related
• Separation of the public sphere immigrants are
  excluded from mainstream organisations (trade
  unions and parties)

9
Concluding Remarks

• In Italy
• Integration of immigrants in mainstream
  organisations
• Pioneering role of some regions that allow
  immigrants to vote in local and regional
  elections
• But restrictive naturalisation policy
• More research is needed to evaluate the
  integration measures taken to date

• In Greece
• Immigrant activism develops against the odds
• insecure legal status
• exclusion from mainstream organisations
• selective naturalisation policies
• Research should check the conditions and factors
  necessary to mainstream immigrant activism incl.
  the role of EU funding