According to Interior Ministry Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, there are 700,000 illegal immigrants currently living in Italy, a statistic which causes great worry to public opinion. The ‘illegal immigrant equals delinquent’ equation has become irrefutable, and it seems that the ‘witch-hunt’, in the sense of persecuting our enemies, still holds a strong fascination today, making an alibi a fundamental role in a society led by fear. The well-known issue of security as a national emergency emerges from this context. It is, however, easy to forget that the majority of illegal immigrants are not included in this ‘delinquent’ bracket, on the contrary many of them are victims of a system based on a twofold exploitation:

1. Political exploitation. In the last electoral campaign, illegal immigrants were at the centre of the political and media debate. For example, we would not be exaggerating if we said that the Northern League’s choice to insist upon the dangers of illegal immigration had a successful and decisive impact on the outcome of the vote. In the first days of the Berlusconi government we witnessed tensions and diplomatic mini-crises (such as with Spain) surrounding the ‘crime’ of illegal immigration. Many judges have pointed out that such a crime is against the basic principles of justice: a person is sentenced based not on what they did, but on who they are. When confronting people’s ‘perception’ of fear, the preferred option is to drum on about the issue of illegal immigration rather than thinking about the concept of living with a lack of financial security (a precarious jobs with the risk of death, high cost of living, difficulty in paying mortgage instalments, a lack of nursery care, covering the costs of Italian politicians, nepotism, etc.), as it is harder to find effective cures to resolve a prickly problem such as persistent unemployment. When investigating political exploitation within the issue of illegal immigration, we can also include another international feature linked to Italy’s recent "friendship and cooperation agreement" pact with Libya. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi managed to gain compensation for the damages caused during Italian colonialism, using illegal immigrants as a weapon for ransom and pressure. It is clear that we are dealing with the exchange of goods.

2. Economic exploitation. An illegal immigrant’s fate is dictated from the start of their exploitation and desperation. International criminal organisations specialising in human trafficking have made the Mediterranean is a strong market for making a profit based on the lives of thousands of young people who want to reach Italian shores, and unfortunately there is no shortage of victims. In a report on victims of human trafficking, Fortress Europe have said that there were 270 deaths in the month of August alone. The treacherous journey can cost 10,000 Euros per person, an extortionate figure which roughly corresponds to seven years of wages for the average worker in Maghreb. After battling against the sea and temporary detention centres, illegal immigrants confront the world of work in Italy like ‘slaves fresh off the boat’. You only need to travel through tomato fields in Puglia or Campania to see an army of desperate souls led by an unscrupulous landowner. Meanwhile landlords prefer to rent houses out to illegal immigrants, which is obviously profitable because you can blackmail them and order them to leave at any moment. The chain of exploitation is long.

To summarise, not all illegal immigrants have a negative effect on politics and the economy – on the contrary, if they were not around, we would need to find them from somewhere, but regrettably the twofold exploitation which we have analysed also affects legitimate immigrants. Unfortunately the current Bossi-Fini immigration law makes it all too easy for immigrants to lose their chance of renewing their residence permit, and as a result they become illegal.

Amara Lakhous is an Italian-Algerian writer and anthropologist. He is the author of “Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio” (Europa Editions 2008) and has lived in Rome since 1995.

Translation by Helen Waghorn