Beyond Assimilationist Tendencies

Abstract

This essay analyses how young migrants, who are settled in Northeast Italy and come from different countries and regions of the world, actively deconstruct racialized knowledges in order to question the discrimination and racism experienced in the context of settlement. The qualitative research explores, through postcolonial and transnational perspectives, citizenship as participation in social life – focusing on young migrants’ involvement in associations and formal and informal groups. The essay engages with issues of participation in Italy and reports on young migrants’ attempts to construct critical awareness and plural dialogues in a postcolonial and globalized society.

• assimilationism
• citizenship
• Italy
• migration
• postcolonial participation
• racism

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank all participants in this study: in particular, the interviewees for their valuable contribution and the colleagues of ROCC (Rete Oltre i Confini di Cittadinanza) (Network beyond the boundaries of citizenship) with whom I have shared significant experiences. Moreover, I thank my family for their support during these demanding years, and also friends, experts and professors and anonymous peer reviewers for their useful feedback.

Notes

¹The Lega Nord is a right-wing Italian party and a separatist movement.

²In Italy the granting of citizenship is based on jus sanguinis (right of blood), while jus soli (right of the soil) is applied only in special cases, e.g. when parents are unknown or stateless (see Ministero dell'Interno 1992).

³For instance in Iran, during the period of ‘westernization’ between 1934 and 1935, the importation of gendered practices from Europe, like deveiling and dressing in modern fashion, ‘not only created feminized subjects but also required them to perform heterosexuality in public space’ (Moallem 1999, 325).

⁴Nine females and fifteen males ranging in age from 18 to 35. Two interviewees were never involved with associations or formal groups.

⁵The intercultural approach is still a work in progress (Council of Europe 2008).

⁶An Italian expression (often with a negative connotation) that denotes citizens from outside the European Union.

⁷For example, the public event about discrimination and racism ‘L'Eterna guerra contro l'altro’ (‘The everlasting war against the other’) led by Gian Antonio Stella (a journalist) on 23 April 2012 in Padua.

⁸For example, the public event held by Sergio Frigo (a journalist) in support of the citizenship rights campaign ‘L'Italia sono Anch'io’ on 26 February 2012 in Padua.