PROPOSTA DI CAMPAGNA I.E.C. IN ITALIA SU MIGRANTI E RICHIEDENTI ASILO/ PROPOSAL OF AN I.E.C. CAMPAIGN ON MIGRANTS

PROPOSAL OF AN INFORMATION EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION INITIATIVE

ON BEHALF OF MIGRANTS IN ITALY (AND EUROPE) 

I should like to address just an aspect of the overall complex scenario of international migrations, that is, the question of the social, cultural, emotional and political integration  of the refugees, asylum seekers and so-called economic migrants in the Italian context.

We all know that, given the current international conflicts and crises, the impact of epochal climate changes already deteriorating fragile agricultural economies, given high rates of unemployment and lack of opportunities in “developing” countries, inflows of migrants will continue and increase in the future, all over the world, over Europe and in particular in Italy, owing to its geographical coordinates.  It is not necessary here to mention numbers, but we are speaking of hundreds of thousands of human beings arriving every year, people who risk their lives and go through incredibly hard vicissitudes and are obliged to pay absurdly high sums to the organized international crime. Too often, they pay with their lives their daring to hope for a better life. The worsening climate conditions all over the planet, in particular impacting already the poorer rural areas of Africa, Asia and South America, will produce many more climate refugees in the near future.

However, the majority of the Italian people, and in particular those more prone to lend ears to populist and xenophobic discourse, have very vague ideas about the living conditions of those who are “forcibly displaced”, apart from  the  TV images of Iraqi, Afghan or Syrian civil wars, or some documentary on some African country. They travel to spend vacations in Kenya, South Africa, Morocco or Tunisia with organized tour operators, barely speak one foreign language, rarely two. This explains at least partially the success of some Italian parties like the League or Brothers of Italy and conflictual outbreaks and clashes as those in Rosarno a few years ago. Others live in small urban areas, already deprived of decent services and amenities and fear that the accommodation of a few foreigners will worsen already precarious living conditions. But there are also well-off families who refuse hospitality.

These are people hardly reading national newspapers, let alone international newspapers; their world vision stops very near the threshold of their own apartment or semi-detached houses. It is not only an Italian phenomenon, though, the rise of these nationalistic and ultimately selfish attitudes. We are witnessing a rising trend in many European countries towards more restrictive policies towards hosting increasing refugees and migrant inflows: even generous Germany is backtracking, and we see how the “Front National” in France is gaining ground. Poland and Hungary are ruled by rightist xenophobic leaders. We need to counter this surge of intolerance and mistrust towards strangers that threatens to pervade Europe. 

As far as Italy is concerned, it is therefore to be welcomed the news that our Ministry of the Interior is launching a Plan for a better distribution all over Italy of migrants and refugees, with quotas for Municipalities, according to their population, on a voluntary basis. The key-phrase is “on a voluntary basis”. Mayors are very sensitive to prevailing moods in the towns they manage and represent, as they want to keep their popularity, and in order to favour acceptance by a wider audience of such a move towards hosting strangers it is necessary that a new awareness of a wider world outside their windows be aroused.

Who among them has ever heard of conditions prevailing in Maiduguri, Diffa, Juba or the Gambia? Who has an idea of what is still going on in Darfur, of the shambles of 28 September 2009 in Conakry? Of the current crisis in R.D.C., In Kashmir, In Burundi or what is life like in Peshawar?

That is why I think that, in parallel with the above-mentioned plan of distribution of refugees and migrants, another initiative is necessary in order to increase the chances of success of the acceptance and integration of the strangers into the local context. Information, Education and Communication (I.E.C.) campaigns have proved effective in the last decades with good results, and have mainly fulfilled expectations. We can also remember the IEC campaigns on behalf of people living with AIDS, or of the Social Marketing initiatives on breastfeeding, or the prevention of STD’s and AIDS in African countries and in South East Asia. IEC campaigns are designed on top of K.B.A.P. (knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and practices) surveys, we may add also stereotypes and prejudice.  In Italy, we can surely gather a sufficient know-how in order to launch an articulated and effective campaign involving, in the forefront, the main interested party, the refugees and migrants themselves, in the short-medium term. Beyond moderately using mass media, the IEC campaign should concentrate on a panoply of multiple educational tools and involve a grassroots approach and vis-à-vis communication. Expertise in the international field is certainly available, and I am sure there will be many adult education and international cooperation consultants who will be very happy to volunteer for free to design, organize and participate in such an exciting and useful undertaking.

It would do a world of good to our country and Italy may become an example to follow in Europe.

Update 9 November 2016: The number of people drowned during the dangerous crossing of the Mediterrenean had reached the appaling figure of 4,233 on 7 November.(https://missingmigrants.iom.int/mediterranean). Please note that many more may have died onroute on land from their countries towards the coast of the Mediterranean, or in Lybian prisons, or in unknown shipwrecks.