On Active Citizenship: Discourses and Language about Youth and Migrants in Italy

Abstract

The civic and political participation of young people and especially young migrants, who have limited rights of citizenship, is still a significant problem in Italy. Young people struggle to find opportunities and feel excluded from politics: the political agenda tends to see them more as a problem than as a resource. In this article, we illustrate the results of research to understand the dynamics of political and civic participation of young people and what the policy does in their favour. A content analysis of a corpus of European and Italian legislation, policy and planning documents has been undertaken. We also conducted six in-depth interviews with politicians and representatives of Italian nongovernmental organizations in order to investigate (a) policy priorities and institutional points of view, (b) consistency between these priorities and European programmes, and (c) European Union support for the policy actions and projects promoted in Italy about youth. The results showed a general difficulty for young people to ‘engage’ and be engaged in civic and political activities. There is also a gap between the political level and an effective investment which will recognize young people as a real resource.

Key Words:

• Active citizenship
• youth
• migrants
• Italy
• discourse

Notes

1 The four referenda ask the Italian public to vote on issues relating to water supply (two referendums), nuclear power, and ‘legittimo impedimento’ (in Italian criminal law, the possibility for the defendant not to appear in court because of concomitant political commitments).

2 http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/.

3 Ministry for the Interior, Ministry for Youth Policies, Ministry of Education and Further and Higher Education, ‘Ermes’ that is the portal of the Emilia Romagna region, Portal for Immigration of the Veneto Region, the ISMU Foundation, website of the Observatory on Immigration Piedmont Region; website of the Observatory for Integration and Multi-ethnicity of the Lombardy Region.

4 The National Civil Service became a specific and independent service starting from 1 January 2005 with the suspension of compulsory conscription pursuant to Law no. 266 passed on 23 August 2004.

5 Seventh Framework Programme, FP7-SSH-2007-1, Grant Agreement no: 225282, Processes Influencing Democratic Ownership and Participation (PIDOP). Partners: University of Surrey (UK), University of Liège (Belgium), Masaryk University (Czech Republic), University of Jena (Germany), University of Bologna (Italy), University of Porto (Portugal), Örebro University (Sweden), Ankara University (Turkey), and Queen's University Belfast (UK).

6 Nexus is an institute for development cooperation promoted by CGIL Emilia Romagna. Set up in 1993, it was recognized as an NGO by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 2007.