Morning Session

Today our group visited Parco Horconymus Orca, and were given a lecture on Freedom, citizenship righta and civil economy by Dr Gaetano Giunta, President of Fondazione Communita de Messina. Mr Giunta pointed out that classical economic models (such as Simon Kuznets’ theory that inequality will first rise in the initial stages of economic development and then begin to decline as nations urbanize and industrialize) have all failed to distribute the fruits of economic growth and to create welfare equally to all groups in the society. Economic, social and cultural inequality hinders both human and economic development.

The foundation is promoting forms of social economy , solidarity and human development. It has formed a social cooperative that has invested in renewable energy (Marine power and solar panels). The profits from the sale of this energy are used for employing people from the criminal asylum with lowered working capacity. This example shows us how it is possible to promote social inclusion by operating outside the logic of the market.

After the session we made a tour of the park facilities and saw two art exhibitions. We also learned about the unique nature of the straits of Messina. Our lunch was organized by H.O. Youth Cooperative of the Parco Horconymus Orca. Here we are relaxing and waiting for our lunch on the beach.

Evening Session

The second working group session of the day was about discrimination in the labour market by Dr. Sergio Villari from the University of Messina. Discrimination means the exclusion of some groups (ethnic, sec, religion) from the distribution of social goods. Gender discrimination is a group of attitudes that keep alive an asymmetric division of social labour. Racial discrimination is unfair treatment of groups because of their cultural characteristics. Race, in fact, is not an empirical category but a social and cultural construct, an invention by a racist person wanting to justify his attitude and political implications. Race creates a hierarchical structure of social groups. Positive discrimination means the favoring a group based on this construct.

Discimination consists of biographic, social, structural and legal factors. For example, migrant women are discriminated against based on several factors, and often face double, triple or quadruple discrimination.

Biographic: theory of human capital claims immigrants have insufficient human capital (education, language) to succeed in the host society. Critique: second gen immigrants have the same problems. This theory has been abandoned.

Social: the theory of social capital explains discrimination by the migrants not being able to mobilize economic, cultural and social resources that would improve their or their children’s lives. However, also the surrounding society needs to be considered when analyzing causes for discrimination, not just the migrants resources. Structural factors also have a role to play.

Structural: functioning of the labour market. Migrants are often discriminated in the labour market: they receive more precarious jobs with lower salaries, worse working conditions and opportunities for promotions. Labour demand: stereotypes that immigrants are suited for certain types of jobs. Halo effect occurs when employers extend their prejudices to an entire group of migrants. The working conditions and career paths of migrants are also different from the natives’. They face inferior job classifications, unfair distribution of tasks and shifts or contracts, irregular work, and overrepresentation of immigrants in certain types of tasks. There may also be a glass ceiling that hinders their career development. Trade unions initially tried to restrict entrance of immigrants into the job market, then promoted equality of treatment, equality of opportunities and in the fourth phase this would extend to the globaöl level. The 2^nd and 3^rd phases in Italy only within the last 10 years.

Legal factors: Citizenship laws may limit the migrant’s rights. Residence permit in Italy, are temporary and based on documented job stability. Irregularity, uncertainty may lead to blackmail and exploitation of the immigrants.

The second speaker, Mr. Tindaro Bellinvia,Migralab Organization, talked about the discursive practices and power in the treatment of Senegalese and Bangladeshi street vendors in Pisa. According to the speaker, this issue, instead of handling it as a question of trade regulations, is treated in the media within the discourse of security which arose in the 1990s in the context of Neo-liberalism. These discursive practices lead into the division of public space into areas for the wealthy and “no-go” areas, a “Punitive City”. All this raises the question of economic liberalism’s concept of freedom – Freedom, yes, but for whom?

Enrico Pistorino, member of the MOV il Ponte Association and also member of the Board of directors of CESV Messina, talked about the House don Orione of Messina whose task is to receive immigrants and help them to find a job, arranging with them personalized projects of integration. Volunteer’s work and private donations are really important for running the House since the local government’s action is carried out only in presence of great fluxes of immigration which cause a situation of emergency and because of the lack of public funds available. Volunteers are involved in cooking and cleaning and do their best to give information, support and suggestions to migrants who look for a job. Unfortunately there are only few beds in the House and sometimes it could happen that some immigrants are excluded till a place become available. Anyway, the volunteers are always open to give hospitality to some of them, not letting anyone sleep outdoors.

The last speaker was Idriss Elshafie who comes from Sudan and who works for one of the three main Italian trade union organizations called Cgil. He arrived in Italy in 1986 to study and became a member of the African students’ Union. He understood very soon that Italian laws on immigration are characterized by a good deal of confusion since Italian government has tried many times to regulate such a delicate subject. Idriss began his work as volunteer in hospitals and in prisons where he helped foreigner people who spoke only the Arabian languages to communicate with the Italian public operators working there. His task was to translate from a language to another but actually he acted also as a intercultural mediator, trying to prevent immigrants from being discriminated. Today he’s still committed to promote and guarantee immigrants’ rights but mostly in the field of labour market.

The day was very informative and interesting, though we think some of the evening presentations were quite theoretical. We also got to enjoy the beautiful nature of the straits of Messina.

Katja Frösen, Hanna Salokannel,Vytaute Murinaite, Valeria De Pascalis

Allegati:

File	Descrizione	Dimensione del File
Thursday 13.10.2011	Report Day 3	171 Kb