Italy has an extremely harsh and brutal immigration policy which recently become an interantional scandal when it was condemned by the European Human Rights Commision as “racist” and “cruel”. The enormous flood of immigrants (mostly refugees but the Italian goverenment doens’t distinguish)from North Africa and the Balkans provoked a popular reaction partcilarly in the North (wealthy hypocrite area) againt the “extra-communitarians” (code word for all non-Italian and non-Catholic races and religons). Oh yes, I’m going to be very blunt here folks!! So the Berlusconi government made a deal with Muamar Gheddafi in which they decide to forcibly repatriate illegal immigrants coming from Libya and Libya woud set up appropiate shelters. The shelters were never set up but the tens of thousands of people from all over Africa, if they manage to survive the voyage on thin boats acroos the Meditteranean, are forced to turn back and wind up lost in the middle of the Libyan desert dying of thirst and famine.
ority of the Italian center-left.
Romano Prodi,leader of the Italian center-left coalition and major candidate to replace Silvio Berlusoni as Premier in the Administraive elections to be held next April, has decided to courageously defy the conventional wisdom and the prevailing European attitude of cracking down on Muslim and other forms of immigration (legal and illegal) in the wake of the horrible terrorist attacks which have taken place throughout the Western world.
Prodi, who has recently come out in favor of a complete withdrawal of all Italian troops from Iraq if elected in April, has also declared that, under his leadership, a majority center-left government would also revoke the Bossi-Fini laws which were introduced three years ago by Gianfranco Fini (head of the ex-fascist National Alliance) and Umberto Bossi (head of the separatist, neo-Nazi Northen League) and passed overwhelmingly by the right-wing dominated Parliament.
The Bossi-Fini laws, which originally provoked tremendous controversy in the rest of Europe for being extraordinarily harsh and racist, have since come to be considered fairly tame by post-London bombing standards.
Here are the law’s key provisions as detailed by an article in La Repubblica:
PERMESSO di SOGGIORNO (a sort of equivalent to a green card in the US): given only to foreigners who can demostrate that they already have obtained a work contract. The “permesso di soggiorno” is cut to two years from the previous three; if during this period the foriegner has lost his employement he must be either leave the country or be considered an illegal immigrant.
QUOTAS: by the 30th of November the Presidente of the Counsel (Premier), after participating in the unified National-Regional Conference, must publish a decree announcing a fixed quota on the number of “extra-communitarians” (immigrants from outside the EU) who shall be allowed to enter. The decree is not a obligatory, however, and it is theoretically possible that for one year the Premier may decide not to let in any foreigners or to let in more than usual as he sees fit.
SPONSOR: the figure of the immigrant sponsor is eliminated. Immigrants can no longer get favorable treatment based on having “sponsors” already resident in Italy.
House Cleaners and Babysitters: it will be possible to regularize one house cleaner per family as well as an unlimited number of babysitters on the condition that the presence of elderly or diabled persons who have need of their services has been certified. The denunciation (declaration of irregularity) must be presented within two months of the implemention of the new law.
Rejoining of family members: The extra-EU citizen, who has everything i order with respect to permissions, may ask permission to be joined by their spouse, by underage children, or by adult children at the expense of the of the citizen and on the condition that they are not able to provide for themselves.
IRREGULARS: The irregular (i.e. any person with documents but without permesso di soggiorno) shall be forcibly expelled by way of “accompaniment to the borders”. He shall be physically and materially placed on an airplane or a ship which will bring him back to his place of origin.
CLANDESTINES: The clandestine (any person who does not even possess documents of identification) will be conducted to appropriately constructed Centers of temporay residence (the CPT’s which I’ve already written about) for up to 60 days, during which his identity will be determined in order to repartriate him to his nation of origin. If his identity is not discovered, it is to be “intimated” to the clandestine that he should leave the country within three days..
DIGITAL FINGERPRINTS: all foreigners who ask for a “permesso di soggiorno” will be subject to digitalized fingerprinting, in order that he may be recognized if any documents have been falsified.
CRIME OF CLANDESTINE REENTRY: Any non-EU citizen who reenters Italia clandestinely after an expulsion, has commited an crime punishable by prison term.
It is an interesting exercise to compare many of these provisions to what is now becoming something of trend in immigration legislation in many parts of Europe as a result of the extraordinary, disproporponiate panic aroused by the scare-mongering of politicians of the left and right in the wake of the bombings in Madrid and London.
We shall see if the majority of Italians buy the scare-mongering or if they prefer the more responsible approach of racial tolerance and openness endorsed by Prodi and the majority of the Italian center-left.
Do you know if there are any proposals to change the provisions for claiming dual citizenship and immigration to Italy using jure sanguinis?
A number of my normally apolitical relatives have shown increased interest in my genealogical research into our family’s Italian heritage since the 2004 election…
Absolutely not,no!! There are no such proposals that I’ve heard about. Anyone who has a parent born in Italy (myslef) has the right to automatic citizenship and hence the right to vote in Italian elections.
I have to warn you though!! Reading through the info in your link there, is says that the process of proving ancestry can take 2 weeks to a year. If this is the published information, you can safely assume that, in actualt fact, it will take you at least 2 years to infinity. (;
The Italian bureaucracy is very very scary!! This is espsialy true of anythign having to do with the embassies and consulates in my experience.
It can be done,but it is extremely painful.
Consult your local Italian consulate.
I started investigating after the 2000 (s)election.
IIRC in the case of grandchildren, one grandparent had to be an Italian citizen when your parents were born. An Italian national advised me to obtain papers on the grandfather(s), if possible, then grandmother(s).
This year I hope to obtain birth information for my maternal grandfather – a very small town in Piemonte – and little in the way of a web page.
I did obtain birth and death records of my paternal grandfather via e-mail (province in Toscana), writing in both Italian and English. Never received an acknowledgment, but the documents arrived in the mail 6-8 weeks later.
Good luck.
As it’s clear from the comments of gilgamesh and venice ca, it’s not that difficult to acquire Italian citizenship if you have an ancestor somewhere in the cupboard.
It’s worth pointing out that both Spain and Portugal have protested about recent trends in South America promoted by Berlusconi consulate appointees there. One of Berlusconi’s laws allowed for citizens abroad to vote and be represented in parliament. South America seemed a great place to lard the precincts with cherry-picked voters. Representatives of Berlu’s party put together an attractive offer- join our club, and we’ll streamline your request for citizenship.
Funny enough, a lot of northern Italian communes seem to have no problem putting together those distant relative papers.
The only catch is that there are a hell of a lot of people in South America that caught on and weren’t necessarily of Italian descent (whatever that means.)
Which brings us back to why Spain and Portugal- or the rest of Europe for that matter- are not that happy about Berlu’s novel law. Once you’re Italian, you’re European. And not surprisingly most South Americans that piggyback into Europe on Italian law elect to live in Spain and Portugal.
One Spanish official even pointed out that it would be great way for “terrorists” to infiltrate Europe…
Excellent observations about the abuses and mainpulation that Berlusoni engages in re the overseas voting laws.
It’s also intersting that the “anti-terrorist” Berlusconi
and his majority criminal FI delegation in Parlaiment rejected a European intitiave a while back to integrate the interantional rogatory laws. This was not even justified with any substantive arguments: everyone in Italy knew that the reason it was rejected is that Berlu and his cronies have enormously profitable but extremely legally dubious international, especially off-shore, business dealings which could have eventually subjected them to prosecution outside of Italy of the rogatory law had passed.
Ah well, you can’t let anti-terrorism interfere with your pro-mafia agenda, can you??
I’m sure readers here wouldn’t mind a list of Berlu’s self-serving laws that blatantly favour the mafias, high finance criminality, laundering and recycling, arms traffic and the overblown terrorist menace.
I think you refer to the European arrest warrant and a major coordination between the European states through Eurojust. Berlu and his lega buddies have blocked all progress on that front. Unless there have been recent developments, Italy’s seat in Eurojust is still vacant.
Berlu did pass a ridiculous law written with his lawyers’ feet that would have invalidated international rogatories. It was immediately challanged by the courts, I believe in one of the Previti trials, and thrown out by an upper court ruling. (Fall guy Previti, by the way, has been condemned through all grades of justice.)
Another trick Berlu uses, or rather his Minister of Justice, the racist leghista Roberto Castelli, is to simply not allocate sums for international rogatories. One of Berlu’s recycling cases involving dubious banking movements in the Bahamas simply expired because of the statute of limitations. The reason? The ministry never paid the expenses requested by the Bahamas. No payment, no rogatory.
Of course that’s just one of many aspects of Berlu’s concept of creative judiciary.
Yes, you’re right. It was the blockage of the interantional arrest warrant. The attampt to block the rogatories failed. but,as you point it, what difference does it make, of they don’t pay the expenses.
The fundamental point is that Berlu and his cohorts spent the entire first three years of their governement passing so many ad personam laws and getting so many institutionalizing so many exceptions for legislators “in carica” (e.g. the infamous Lodo-Maccanico)that I canìt even rememeber them all or keep up with the new ones.
His judical philophy is based on the idea that the juducial system is controlled by a cabal of communists (toghe rosse) which are out to get him personally. His judical “counterreform” include things like phycoattitutinal examations for all magistartes becuase he thinks they are all “mentally unbalanced.”
It politicize the process of selecting judges for the CSM and makes it subject to the authority of the Justice Mininster, among other madness.
Thanks rom wyo.
During the worst of the economic crisis in Argentina I read an article about the reverse migration back to Italy by the children and grandchildren of Italian nationals.
Your comment makes perfect sense – Italy would be their easiest entry point to Europe.
Thanks Gilgamesh.
It’s heartbreaking to read of the immigrants trying to make it to Lampedusa; the shipwrecks, drownings, and then the Lega calling for cannon fire to stop the boats.
At some point Italy has to face its declining birth rate and aging population. I will be very interested in reading about the response to Prodi’s proposal.
Please keep the reports coming.
As I wrote in another comment to someone asking the same question (about how the majority of Italian people stand on this issue), all I can really say for sure is that the center-left (including Prodi) have actually called for repaling many of these provisions, if not the whole law,
for some time. Since the center-left is still ahead of the CDL in the polls by about 9 points and that hasnìt changed for some time, right now it the majprity of Italian must either approve of Prodi’s position or they are too preocciupied by other issues such as economic growth and jobs to pay much attention to immigration.
But, considering that it’s one of the few issue that unites the League with AN and FI (but not the UDC), the right could tutn into a major election issue at some point: ie. scare-mongering with reagrd to Muslima terrorists and so on.
Forgot to post this news over here:
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Prodi : Will change Italian immigration trend
by gilgamesh
Mon Sep 12th, 2005 at 12:24:10 PM EDT
Edit My Story…
I’m really hoping Prodi is Italy’s next Premier, and this is real interesting news, from the diaries (with edits for emphasis) ~ whataboutbob
Romano Prodi, leader of the Italian center-left coalition, and major candidate to replace Silvio Berlusoni as Premier in the Administrative elections to be held next April, has decided to courageously defy the conventional wisdom and the prevailing European attitude of cracking down on Muslim and other forms of immigration (legal and illegal), and has stated he will liberlize current immigration laws, in the wake of the horrible terrorist attacks which have taken place throughout the Western world.
Prodi, who has also recently come out in favor of a complete withdrawal of all Italian troops from Iraq if elected in April, has also declared that, under his leadership, a majority center-left government would also revoke the Bossi-Fini laws which were introduced three years ago by Gianfranco Fini (head of the ex-fascist National Alliance) and Umberto Bossi (head of the separatist, neo-Nazi Northen League) and passed overwhelmingly by the right-wing dominated Parliament.
The Bossi-Fini laws, which originally provoked tremendous controversy in the rest of Europe for being extraordinarily harsh and racist, have since come to be considered fairly tame by post-London bombing standards.
Italy has an extremely harsh and brutal immigration policy which recently become an interantional scandal when it was condemned by the European Human Rights Commision as “racist” and “cruel”. The enormous flood of immigrants (mostly refugees but the Italian goverenment doens’t distinguish)from North Africa and the Balkans provoked a popular reaction partcilarly in the North (wealthy hypocrite area) againt the “extra-communitarians” (code word for all non-Italian and non-Catholic races and religons). Oh yes, I’m going to be very blunt here folks!! So the Berlusconi government made a deal with Muamar Gheddafi in which they decide to forcibly repatriate illegal immigrants coming from Libya and Libya woud set up appropiate shelters. The shelters were never set up but the tens of thousands of people from all over Africa, if they manage to survive the voyage on thin boats acroos the Meditteranean, are forced to turn back and wind up lost in the middle of the Libyan desert dying of thirst and famine.
Here are the law’s key provisions as detailed by an article in La Repubblica from July 2002:
PERMESSO di SOGGIORNO (a sort of equivalent to a green card in the US): given only to foreigners who can demostrate that they already have obtained a work contract. The “permesso di soggiorno” is cut to two years from the previous three; if during this period the foriegner has lost his employement he must be either leave the country or be considered an illegal immigrant.
QUOTAS: by the 30th of November the Presidente of the Counsel (Premier), after participating in the unified National-Regional Conference, must publish a decree announcing a fixed quota on the number of “extra-communitarians” (immigrants from outside the EU) who shall be allowed to enter. The decree is not a obligatory, however, and it is theoretically possible that for one year the Premier may decide not to let in any foreigners or to let in more than usual as he sees fit.
SPONSOR: the figure of the immigrant sponsor is eliminated. Immigrants can no longer get favorable treatment based on having “sponsors” already resident in Italy.
House Cleaners and Babysitters: it will be possible to regularize one house cleaner per family as well as an unlimited number of babysitters on the condition that the presence of elderly or diabled persons who have need of their services has been certified. The denunciation (declaration of irregularity) must be presented within two months of the implemention of the new law.
Rejoining of family members: The extra-EU citizen, who has everything i order with respect to permissions, may ask permission to be joined by their spouse, by underage children, or by adult children at the expense of the of the citizen and on the condition that they are not able to provide for themselves.
IRREGULARS: The irregular (i.e. any person with documents but without permesso di soggiorno) shall be forcibly expelled by way of “accompaniment to the borders”. He shall be physically and materially placed on an airplane or a ship which will bring him back to his place of origin.
CLANDESTINES: The clandestine (any person who does not even possess documents of identification) will be conducted to appropriately constructed Centers of temporay residence (the CPT’s which I’ve already written about) for up to 60 days, during which his identity will be determined in order to repartriate him to his nation of origin. If his identity is not discovered, it is to be “intimated” to the clandestine that he should leave the country within three days..
DIGITAL FINGERPRINTS: all foreigners who ask for a “permesso di soggiorno” will be subject to digitalized fingerprinting, in order that he may be recognized if any documents have been falsified.
CRIME OF CLANDESTINE REENTRY: Any non-EU citizen who reenters Italia clandestinely after an expulsion, has commited an crime punishable by prison term.
You will also note that there is no explicit distinction between immigrants and refugees who ask for political asylum in the legislation.
It is an interesting exercise to compare many of these provisions to what is now becoming something of a trend in immigration legislation in many parts of Europe as a result of the extraordinary, disproporponiate panic aroused by the scare-mongering of politicians of the left and right in the wake of the bombings in Madrid and London.
We shall see if the majority of Italians buy the scare-mongering or if they prefer the more responsible approach of racial tolerance and openness endorsed by Prodi and the majority of the center-left.
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Prodi : Will change Italian immigration trend | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden) | Post A Comment
Re: Prodi Bucks Trend on Immigration (none / 0)
We shall see if the majority of Italians buy the scare-mongering or if they prefer the more responsible approach of racial tolerance and openness endorsed by Prodi and the majority of the center-left
This is real interesting to me…what do you think will be the response?
Wake up to find out, you are the eyes of the world ~ Robert Hunter
by whataboutbob on Mon Sep 12th, 2005 at 09:07:23 AM EDT
[ Reply to This | ]
Re: Prodi Bucks Trend on Immigration (none / 0)
Actually this is not a new position. The majority of the center-left has supported changing sigificant parts of this legialtion for while now, as I understand the situation. Right now, the center-left is still pretty far ahead (9 points) in the polls, so it would seem that most Italians either support repealing these policies or they are just more concerned with other issues such as economic growth and jobs to attach much importance to it.
I suppose it could conceivably turn out to be a big issue up in the north, especially in Lombary and Veneto where the neo-Nazi Northen League runs things. LOL!!
by gilgamesh (expat at 6719 dot it) on Mon Sep 12th, 2005 at 09:15:42 AM EDT
[ Parent | Reply to This ]
Re: Prodi Bucks Trend on Immigration: Liberalize I (none / 0)
Actually the most interesting news [i]right now [/i]is that Prodi has endorsed civil unions for non-married couples, which presumably would include homosexuals.
WOWWWW!! In the POPE’S ITALY, for Christ’s sake!! I think he’s gone off his rocker now. He’s being slammed ferociously by the “center” part of the center-left. It looks like possible political suicide, folks.
Here’s the url=
artcile in Italian [/url]
He’s being called a “Zapatero” (synonymous with radical for the center and right, synonymous with Satan for the Vatican and its cronies).
here’s another observation I made on this emerging new hullaballoo concerning Prodi’s decisiion to include the PACS (patti di unione civili) or rights to civil unions for non-married couples in the Union’s campaing platform:
[quote]
Well oh well!! Not surpisingly, considering the extraordinarly powerful role that the
Vatican continues to play in Italian politics from the local level to the national, the civil unions issue and Prodi’s declartion of support for the right to civil unions even among homosexuals (egaaaad!!!) has been tranformed into another political “polverone”.
The bizzare allignment of interests which counterpoises the Catholic “Center” against the left and a substantial part of the right has resurfaced again just as it did on the question of atrifical insemation and the rights of the blastocyst.
Prodi has declared himself shocked, and rightly so of course, that even some members of his own coalition (Mastella and the other usual supects) have expressed moral outrage at the prospect of bringing Italy in line with the vast majority of the rest of the world,with the expetion of theocracies like Pakistan and Iran, on this issue.