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Tunisian Migrants and Their Experience of Racism in Modena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Faïçal Daly
Faïçal Daly*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Bristol, 12 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UQ, UK, Telephone: 0117 923 7336, Fax: 0117 970 5022, [email protected]
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Summary

Based both on the author's personal testimony of living, working and studying in Italy for ten years, and on his more recent sociological fieldwork, this article explores various dimensions of racism in the north Italian city of Modena, paying special attention to the experiences of Tunisian immigrants. The methodology comprises interviews with Tunisian immigrants and their employers, observations in bars and other public places, analysis of racism in the workplace, monitoring of the local media and reference to the national political debate. The findings reveal that being on the receiving end of racism, hostility and violence are regular facets of the everyday lives of Tunisian immigrants in Modena, as well as being part of a wider local and national anti-immigrant discourse.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 4 , Issue 2: Special Issue: The Italian experience of immigration , November 1999 , pp. 173 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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References

Notes

1. Strictly speaking, the term officially applies to other non-EU groups such as North Americans and Japanese, but in practice it is used to refer above all to African and Asian immigrants.Google Scholar

2. During this ten-year period, I studied for my first degree in economics at the University of Modena, which included my tesi di laurea on the living and working conditions of non-European migrants in Modena: Daly, Faïçal, Indagine sulle condizionl lavorative degli extracomunitari a Modena, unpublished graduation thesis. University of Modena, 1990. I also functioned as a migrant activist: in 1988 I helped to set up the non-European students‘ association and in 1990 I was active in setting up the Tunisian migrant workers’ association in Modena.Google Scholar

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11. To be more precise, mainly in Northern Italy where, in the 1950s, similar posters were directed against the southern Italians who were migrants in the North.Google Scholar

12. Again, there is a need to be more precise. The slogan is really that poor black people, or extracomunitari, ruin business. A rich black American would be welcome! Google Scholar

13. Although in many public and media perceptions Tunisians are not distinguished from other North African immigrants, in the North of Italy Tunisians are often seen as more closely linked with drug-trafficking.Google Scholar

14. This incident is described in Franchini, Roberto and Guidi, Dario, Una città in bianco e nero: extracomunitari a Modena, Ediesse, Rome, 1990, pp. 24–5.Google Scholar

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27. Cited in Fekete, Liz and Webber, Frances, Inside Racist Europe, Institute of Race Relations, London, 1994, p. 14.Google Scholar

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32. The Italianising of ‘unfamiliar’ Arabic names is worthy of further comment Tunisians are above all labour migrants and it is illuminating to note that despite the employer's satisfaction with their work, he does not conceive of them as equals. Instead, he denies their ethnicity by naming them in a way which erodes their culture and dignity but which somehow makes him feel more comfortable. This links back to Balbo's notion of Italy as a monocultural society unable to come to terms with diversity.Google Scholar

33. Il Resto del Carlino, 21 September 1996.Google Scholar

34. La Gazzetta di Modena, 25 February 1996.Google Scholar

35. Il Resto del Carlino, 27 February 1996.Google Scholar

36. See for example Bonifazi, Corrado, ‘Changing public attitudes to immigration’, in Birindelli, Anna Maria and Bonifazi, Corrado (eds). The Impact of Immigration in the Receiving Countries: Italy, International Organisation for Migration, Geneva, 1993, pp. 5–10; Franchini, Roberto and Guidi, Dario, Premesso che non sono razzista: l'opinione di mille modenesi sull'immigrazione extracomunitaria, Riuniti, Rome, 1991; Marletti, Carlo, ‘Mass media e razzismo in Italia’, Democrazia e Diritto, 6, 1989, pp. 107–25. This criticism applies especially to Italian newspapers but not, of course, to all of them.Google Scholar

37. Vasta, , ‘Rights and racism in a new country of immigration’, p. 96.Google Scholar

38. Once again it should be mentioned that this newspaper is one of the most ‘fascist’ in Italy.Google Scholar

39. La Repubblica, 11 April 1996.Google Scholar

40. Koch, L., ‘Impact of the reversal of the migration situation on the social structures of certain countries: the case of Italy’, International Migration, 27, 2, 1988, pp. 191–201, especially p. 199.Google Scholar

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42. Here are some extracts from this letter which begins ‘Dear Moroccan and Tunisian pricks’ … ‘it would be best if you went back to your shit country … how can you be so deficient that you don't eat pork or drink wine … you are such bollocks that you believe in Allah and Mohamed … Try and wash yourselves more often you crowd of idiots … You are a bunch of queer parasites because you've got plenty to say but you'd sell your arses for money.’ The letter concludes: ‘You are a bunch of foolish, ignorant half-wits. Wash yourselves more often, parasites!’ The signature is illegible.Google Scholar

43. Bonifazi, , ‘Changing public attitudes to immigration’, p. 6.Google Scholar

44. Vasta, , ‘Rights and racism in a new country of immigration’, p. 85.Google Scholar

45. Institute of Race Relations, European Race Audit, 1997, p. 17.Google Scholar

46. There is a small but growing literature on the Albanian migration to Italy. For two articles which deal with the changing reactions among the media and public opinion towards the Albanians see Zinn, Dorothy L., ‘Adriatic brethren or black sheep? Migration in Italy and the Albanian crisis, 1991’, European Urban and Regional Studies, 3, 3, 1996, pp. 241–9; Jamieson, A. and Silj, A., ‘Albanian immigration to Italy: a “criminal” invasion?’, Ethnobarometer Working Paper No. 1, Consiglio Italiano per le Scienze Sociali and European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations, Rome and Utrecht, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47. Andall, , ‘New migrants, old conflicts’; Campani, ‘Immigration and racism in southern Europe’.Google Scholar

48. Fekete, and Webber, , Inside Racist Europe, p. 52.Google Scholar

49. See, for example, Wrench, John and Solomos, John (eds). Racism and Migration in Western Europe, Berg, Oxford, 1993; Vandermotten, Christian and Vanlaer, Jean, ‘Immigrants and the extreme-right vote in Europe’, in King, Russell (ed.), Mass Migration in Europe: The Legacy and the Future, Belhaven Press, London, 1993, pp. 136–55.Google Scholar

50. Balbo, Laura, ‘Il modello italiano per gli immigrati’, Politico e Economia, 9, 1991, pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

51. Kazim, Paul, ‘Italy: two perspectives. Racism is no paradise!’, Race and Class, 32, 3, 1991, pp. 84–9, p. 87.Google Scholar

52. Quoted in Ruzza, Carlo and Schmidtke, Oliver, ‘The Northern League: changing friends and foes, and its political opportunity structure’, in Cesarani, David and Fulbrook, Mary (eds). Citizenship, Nationality and Migration in Europe, Routledge, London, 1996, pp. 179–206; quotation p. 185.Google Scholar

53. Quoted in Bocca, Giorgio, ‘Razzisti e terroni a Milano’, La Repubblica, 29 April 1997, p. 2. Even in Modena, a signpost on the outskirts of town carries the slogan ‘Meridionali maiali, padani ariani’—Southerners are pigs, Italians of the Po Valley are Aryans.Google Scholar

54. Koch, , ‘Impact of the reversal of the migration situation’, p. 198.Google Scholar

55. This point is powerfully argued by Zolberg, who stresses that, although conventional social psychological studies tend to stress that racism and xenophobia are statistically associated with low education and social status, it should be remembered that racist doctrines are wrought by intellectuals and elites; these elites, concerned to maintain the cultural status quo, have often played a major role in institutionalizing discrimination, limiting integration and initiating restrictive immigration policies. This diagnosis seems to fit the Italian situation rather well. See Zolberg, Aristide, ‘The next waves: migration theory for a changing world’. International Migration Review, 23, 3, 1989, pp. 403–30, especially the discussion on p. 411.Google Scholar

56. Koch, , ‘Impact of the reversal of the migration situation’, p. 198. Of course this statement of Koch's, now somewhat dated, should not be taken as excluding the possibility that, in some countries and places, ‘difference’ can instead be asserted as a self-protective strategy against the racism of the dominant society.Google Scholar

57. Sorman, Guy, En Attendant les Barbares, Fayard, Paris, 1992, pp. 192–4.Google Scholar

58. Sciortino, , ‘Immigration into Europe and public policy’, p. 96.Google Scholar