Word: italianity
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...riots in Rosarno, which reportedly began after three Italian teenagers fired air rifles at two African immigrants, unsettled a nation that prides itself on its bella figura - the beautiful image. About 2,500 migrants live in the Rosarno valley in the southern Calabria region, moving with the seasonal agricultural jobs. Many have political asylum or are otherwise legally in Italy, but legal or not, the migrants are managed by a Mafia-run employment system, the caporalato, that operates like a 21st century chain gang. Saviano says that those who object to low wages or poor working conditions are simply eliminated...
...immigrants arrive in Italy from impoverished African or Eastern European countries and find themselves trapped in a system in which they work 10- to 14-hour days for about $3 an hour. They live in tents or shacks pitched inside abandoned buildings, without appliances, plumbing or health care. Italian society supports the system by keeping the immigrants on its margins. Services are few and far between, mainly provided by religious organizations. Non-Italian police are rarely seen, and only one nonwhite serves in Parliament. Many immigrants simply do not report crimes against them. Disappearances are frequent - the Polish government...
...Mafia to keep them as low-priced labor, they create this atmosphere of tolerance," Saviano says. "They actually live better down there than in Milan. They are treated and paid like slaves, but the human relationships are warmer than those you would find in Milan. Africans say the Italian girls look them in the eyes in Calabria, while in the north they wouldn't." (See pictures of migrants being forced out in France...
...everybody is sympathetic to the migrants. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League Party, blamed the riots on his country's lax approach to undocumented workers. "For years illegal immigration - which feeds criminal activities - has been tolerated and nothing effective has ever been done about it," he said. Never mind that the IOM estimates that at least half of the evacuated workers now held in reception centers obtained regular working papers. Or the fact that migrant workers make up a vital part of many industries. "It's very difficult to crack down on illegal...
...Read "An Italian Town's White (No Foreigners) Christmas...