If it is true that ” Poverty and exclusion of one individual amounts to the poverty of society as a whole “, the recent events in Rosarno made all of us “poorer”. Obviously, “all of us” is referred to us ,” full citizens” of a Europe that has just declared 2010 the ‘European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion”. And, above all, these facts lead to a reflection on the attitude that our country intends to take towards those who, coming from countries where humiliations and deprivations destroy the “person” and where surviving is purely random, “insist” on “our soil”, the Italian one and, as often happens to those who are accustomed to be humiliated, continue to be. Unfortunately, in this case, we can not even rise to the justification of cultural diversity, because these people, these immigrants have not had the opportunity to express their culture, because too busy trying to survive. The only “cultural” dimension that can be identified is that touch on the attitude of the natives towards “the other”.

In today social environment, soaked with pluralism and diversity, “native” people seem to have felt the need – perhaps motivated by “fear” that sometimes surprises us when we “see” the reality and the shocking conditions in which “the other” lives, as if approaching him we could get stuck contaminated – to affirm their estrangement from the ‘other’, the newcomer, the immigrant. But the contact has in fact already happened, since it is immediate, unconscious, it is an integral part of our daily life. It happens sometimes, especially in urban realities of limited dimensions, as the case of Italy, that those who live there for a long time, perhaps decades, consider that reality as something that belongs to them. As citizens who settled on that land long time ago and who contributed, not without hard work, to its “construction”, imposing themselves the respect of rules that safeguard that good, individual and common at the same time, are not sufficiently inclined to give “space” to the newcomers, to those who come from outside, to those who did not contribute to the construction, to immigrants. But the reality is not static, it evolves and it is continually changing, and those immigrants are part of this change helping every day to the growth of that reality.

It is true that in Italy the phenomenon of migration started only in the mid-’80s, many years later than they occurred in the countries of Northern Europe, a destination for international migration since the late ’50s, at the time of postwar reconstruction and at the beginning of the economic boom of the ’60s. Italy, traditionally a country of emigration, had to manage migratory flows into, totally unexpected and “spontaneous” – in the sense that it had not been generated by incentive policies promoted by our governments – and, unlike what happened in other European countries, there were no specific regulations on the subject. The first immigration law was promulgated in 1990 (Martelli Law), followed by a further Act in 1998 (Turco-Napolitano Law), replaced by the current of 2002 (the Bossi-Fini).

According to Eurostat sources, foreigners – intended as citizens who are not nationals of the country where they reside – representing 6.2% of the EU population. In absolute terms, this means that, to January 2008 they amount to 30.8 million, of which 11.3 million from non-EU countries (6 million from other European countries, 4.7 million from Africa, 3.7 million from Asia and 3.2 million America). In Italy, according to ISTAT, in 2008, the number of immigrants (both EU and non) living in Italy has increased by 13.4%, for a total of 3,891,295 units to January 2009. The highest number of foreigners coming from Romania (18.2%) and Albania (11.7%). Followed by those from Morocco (+10.3%) and Asian countries like China, India and Bangladesh (+18.6%). The figures are lofty and they reflect a geographic relocation of world population as a function of the new global geo-political structures, the ongoing nature of crisis areas and the sharpening of scarcity in some regions of the world.

The analysis of migration and its management are therefore extremely complex. A first consideration may be that relating to economic and social dynamics that underlie it. The reasons that impel people to migrate, sometimes to flee their country, are numerous, but the key is finding life contexts that give dignity to the person as such, and basically the possibility of a job. The economic and social dimension plays an essential role in the integration process. The ability to play a decent work in a friendly and respectful social environment is one of the fundamental vectors through which carrying into effect the integration of immigrants into society. Working means to interact in a given context, to be part of a cultural and social environment. Failure to enter into employment or leave it long give rise to phenomena of marginalization and social disadvantage, which becomes favourable conditions for the emergence of conflicts of cultural or religious identity. Economic integration is therefore essential for social integration.

The European Union is one of the richest regions in the world. However 17% of Europeans still has limited resources and is unable to meet their basic needs. Poverty and social exclusion are therefore also present in Europe. The fact that the European Union in 2010 has focused the European Year on combating poverty and social exclusion reflects the growing awareness of the existence of economic and social dynamics, often negative, that underlie the emergence, albeit in different ways depending on context where they emerge, a social disease that is increasingly strong.

Economist – Expert in International Strategy and E.U.