Immigration Might Revitalize the Ghost Towns of Italy

Despite some Italians' Wishes, Migrants are There to stay

By: Sydney Albert
Produced & edited by: Madeline Keener

Thousands of ghost towns dot the Italian landscape - some have been abandoned for decades, while others are still visited by a handful of locals whose families once lived in them. Some were devastated by natural disasters and others by war. Some were depopulated as the residents moved away in search for a better life – a trend that is continuing today as Italy struggles with a stalling economy. 

Young Italians from the poorer central and southern regions of the country are flooding out of small towns, searching for better opportunities and education elsewhere.

There have been several attempts by private investors and volunteers to renovate and revive these villages, largely focused on saving the historic art and architecture that can still be found in these locations – several of the towns date back to medieval times or later. Other towns that have found themselves on the brink have received a breath of life from refugees.

The town of Riace suffered from emigration for decades. Decades ago residents started moving north to the bigger cities or overseas looking for work, and the more people left, the worse the little town’s state of affairs became. 

“In 2000 our school was shut because we had so few pupils. Now it's flourishing."

The success of Riace has gained the attention of other towns in need, as well as international recognition.

Migrants in Riace, Italy are helping the 

formerly depopulated village to flourish once more.

Photo Courtesy of Piervincenzo Canale via Flickr

The population had dropped by more than 80% when Domenico Lucano, a schoolteacher at the time, started welcoming refugees in 1998. Lucano proposed that Kurdish refugees who had arrived by boat stay and take over the homes and apartments left by former residents, and helped them integrate by implementing a “refugees welcome” project. Later elected mayor, Lucano has since been credited with saving his small town. “In 2000 our school was shut because we had so few pupils,” Lucano once told BBC News. “Now it's flourishing."


The success of Riace has gained the attention of other towns in need, as well as international recognition. Camini, a neighboring village that suffered from a similar case of depopulation, has also seen benefits from welcoming refugees that include filled classrooms and jobs created. German director Wim Wenders made a movie called “The Flight” based on how Riace and Badolato, another southern Italian town, opened their abandoned houses to refugees.

The Migration Trend is Causing a Strain on the Peace

Controversy and tension remain. Riace, Camini, and Badolato are all in the Calabria region in southern Italy, an area that in 2010 was host to violent race riots in the town of Rosarno. After the riots ended, local authorities in the town were criticized for ignoring the use of illegal immigrant labor and the poor conditions that the immigrants were allowed to live in. 

The Guardian reported that all remaining immigrants in the town were removed for their own safety in a type of “ethnic cleansing.” Local crime syndicates were pointed to as the ones responsible for exploiting the workers.

Established mafia gangs in southern Italy have long relied on cheap foreign labor for economic gain, and successful integration of immigrants threatens their access to such a workforce. Mayor Lucano has reported that he has faced intimidation for welcoming refugees, pointing out bullet holes by his front door. He told BBC News that the mob dislikes his integration model because they can see that it works and it challenges their grip on the region.

In addition to losing cheap labor, immigrants can also bring competition with them. Cosa Nostra, a Sicilian mafia group, has declared war on migrants in Sicily as African gangs have apparently started to operate on turf they formerly dominated.

69% of Italians surveyed by the Pew Research Center
had an unfavorable view of Muslims.
Photo Courtesy of Piervincenzo Canale via Flickr

Xenophobia is not limited to criminal organizations – several right-wing parties have led protests against what some in Italy are referring to as an “invasion.” The Northern League party, which has even been noted to stand against southern Italians for not living up to their standards of “whiteness,” is staunchly anti-immigration. 

Many Italians resent the migrants for taking up resources and feel that the migrants don’t give enough back. A recent survey by the PewResearch Center showed that 65% of Italians felt refugees were a burden on the country because they took jobs and social benefits.

When migrants are unwilling to follow certain procedures, such as having their fingerprints taken, the police do nothing, which is perceived as a result of “over-tolerance.” And then there are the stories of immigrants who threaten native Italians that are spread over Facebook and Twitter. 

The same survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 47% of Italians believed refugees were more to blame for crime than other groups, despite limited reliable data that would prove such feelings worthy of merit.

Despite the Negativity, Migrants Have a Friend in High Places

Refugees have found a powerful ally in Pope Francis. The head of the Roman Catholic Church has preached that accepting migrants and refugees is a moral issue, and after a trip earlier this year, he took 12 Syrian refugees back to the Vatican as an example. Religious groups have followed his lead – the Community of Sant’egidio has offered resources and taught language skills to refugees in Italy as well as the rest of Europe.

According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 131,974 migrants and refugees have arrived in Italy since the start of 2016 alone, and more are coming every day. The Italian newspaper La Stampa has reported that 2,026 of the country’s 8,000 municipalities have hosted migrants as of June this year.

Italy is still trying to figure out how to handle the influx of migrants and refugees. With many young Italians seeking opportunities abroad, Italian journalist Maurizio Ricci believes that foreign labor and the integration of foreign families is crucial to maintaining the economy of a country with an aging population. 

Sylvia Marchetti, a freelance journalist based in Rome, has pointed out the abandoned towns that dot Italy’s landscape as a possible solution. Though many of the ghost towns need a lot of work, it might be beneficial to renew old accommodations rather than to build completely new ones.

Next Stop, Germany: An Account of Immigrating to Germany

By: Andrew Davis

Produced & Edited By: Megan Laird          

          
         As a western European country, Germany has seen a rise in immigrants over the past few decades.  But this has not always been the case, even for the location that was recently named the "world’s favorite country." Germany has struggled with its xenophobia, but lately it has become easier to become a German citizen. 

Troubled Past

         Following the atrocities of World War II, Germany was left with a decimated work force. To increase the size of available workers, the German government offered incentives for foreigners, mainly Turkish workers, to come and live in Germany.

         While this was supposed to be a temporary program, many Turks and other immigrants had already built up a life in Germany, and made permanent residence in the newly reformed country.

Baumholder, Germany
© Courtesy of: Military.com

         Today, 20 percent of Germany’s citizens have a heritage that is not strictly German. Immigration plays an important role for Germany’s economy, mostly due to the declining birth rate slowing population growth.   

         And while the German government is now promoting a “pro-immigration” platform, becoming a full German citizen still has its hurdles. 

Becoming German

         Heidi Seebohm was born and raised in America. Moving to Germany did not even cross her mind until after she got married. She and her new husband traveled across Europe for their honeymoon, with Germany being one of the stops.

         It was not until a couple months later that Seebohm found out she and her husband would be moving to Germany for his job. A transition she was nervous about.

“I was a little afraid I wouldn't make any good friends since I live off post and I thought it would be hard to get to know people speaking broken Germenglish back and forth. It's proving kind of true, but at the same time not so much because other wives and girlfriends of players on my husband's fußball team in the next town over are really cool and it's working out well enough.”

        

View from Seebohm's Residence
© Courtesy of: Heidi Seebohm

The couple ended up in Baumholder, Germany. It is a small town in western Germany that boasts a population of just over four thousand.

“The people in Germany walk on any road they please at any time of day or night, usually in dark clothing. I'm talking elderly men toting oxygen tanks on windy, hilly roads in dense fog. They are a bunch of honey badgers. They have an incredible sense of humor and they're mostly outgoing. I feel like in the states we have a "mind your own business" attitude that just doesn't exist here.”

         
         Seebohm quickly got a job working at a local bar, the “Tavern on the Rock,” a quaint tapas bar located in the small town. Seebohm said that getting a job was not the tricky part, it was getting used to the language barrier.

“We use a lot of hand gestures and it typically goes smoothly enough. The Germans are so easygoing and we would only have a problem if we didn't know how to laugh at ourselves.”

National Pride

         Seebohm is the perfect example of how Germany is trying to leave its historically xenophobic past. In 2000, the German government passed new immigration laws that made it easier for foreigners to gain full citizenship.

         However, for a country that has always struggled with showing its national pride, getting used to non-western European or American immigrants has actually been a fairly easy adjustment. A regular to Seebohm’s bar, a young man from Somoa named Salima said that he has not experienced any negative reactions from native Germans despite being from the Pacific Islands.

         “Most people don’t even realize I’m not full German until I speak. My accent gives it away.”

         Germans are quickly becoming known as open and are excited to share their culture with new citizens.

“Every single one has been friendly....some are guarded at first but when I try my German speaking they usually smile and we fake it till we make it (example: ordering food in a town where there are hardly ever soldiers passing through and no one speaks any English. Hilarious for all parties),” said Seebohm. 

Obtaining Citizenship

        

Scenic Trails Near Seebohm's Home
© Courtesy of: Heidi Seebohm

Even though Germans are open with the idea with immigration, actually becoming a German citizen still requires a bit of work.  In order to become a naturalized citizen, they have to live in Germany for at least 8 years. And just like in America, there is a written test that needs to be passed.

         However, unlike in America, German citizens cannot hold dual citizenships unless it is with another European Union country or Switzerland. This means that becoming a full German citizen takes a long-term commitment.

         Germany is one of the more progressive European countries when it comes to opinions on immigrants, but they still have their share of anti-foreigner thinking, especially in the eastern part of the country where unemployment is still high. 

Brighter Future

         Seebohm is excited to start the next phase of her life in Germany with her new husband. As of right now she does not have any plans on returning to the United States, but she said that nothing should be ruled out.

“We are planning on staying in Europe but all my family is still in the US. If anything I’ll plan to visit as often as I can.”

         Many Eastern Europeans are flocking to Western European countries, like Germany, for the better opportunities they offer. And while Germany may not have the most accepting past, the new Germany is an exciting place to start a new life.

“We have a small community with a ton of neighbors who know us and we can walk everywhere,” said Seebohm, “I love it, I’m so happy where we ended up.”

Two generations of Vietnamese both choose to stay in Germany

By: Chu Wu
Produced and edited by: Molly Nocheck

Among all the Asian immigrants living in Germany, Vietnamese people form the largest community.

Minority Rights Group International shows that by 2004, there were 83,526 Vietnamese, among which 17,893 were born in Germany. The number has increased in the following years, reaching 90,000 to 10,000 in 2008, according to The Voice of Vietnam.

Human rights issues and poverty in Vietnam and relatively better living condition in Germany keep these people stay in this Europe country, away from their hometown.

The first generation of Vietnamese immigrants arrived between 1970s and 1990s.

The reasons for immigration varied between West and East Germany, Melanie Moltmann explains. She is the specialist in Vietnam-Germany political and economic relations at German Federal Foreign Office.

Just as in the case of many Vietnamese immigrants in the US, many of those in West Germany were refugees from the Vietnam War. Others in East Germany were participants in the Guest Worker Plan between German Democratic Republic (GDR) and North Vietnam.

The plan was signed in 1980 to provide training to Vietnamese by East Germany to show its support for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The population of Vietnamese in GDR surged from 2,482 in 1980 to 59,053 in 1989.

“I moved to Germany in 1996 when I was 8 to live with my father in Dresden,” said Anni Do Thi, a Vietnamese living in Germany, who is now in his 20s.

Dresden used to be a part of GDR before the reunification in 1989. Anni’s father participated in the Guest Worker Plan in 1988.

“The situation in Vietnam (1980s) was bad. If you didn’t have money for school or good connections, it was hard to find work and get money,” Anni says.

Nguyen Hue Nhat wrote in his book – The commission of crimes of the Vietnamese Communists in Germany – “the Vietnamese communist media had brainwashed the people with propaganda depicting the West as a paradise for making money”.

“Vietnamese always think that Europe and America are better places to live and earn money,” Anni explains.

Ngo Xuan Nguyen had been living a poor life in Vietnam before he joined the working plan. He seized the opportunity of working in Germany as the greatest opportunity he could ever get, his daughter Diana Ngo says.

The Ngo Family. Photo Credit: Diana Ngo. Academic Fair Use.

Mr. Ngo fixed broken items in a factory and lived with four other Vietnamese in a room of 50 square meters. Back then in the early 1990s, these foreign workers could only live in several districts appointed by the government.

He believed there was no way for him to get out of poverty if he stayed in Vietnam. Therefore, he enjoyed the life in Germany without wanting to return back to his home country.

Most Vietnamese in Germany in 1990s held the same opinion. When the Berlin Wall fell and the new government tried to send back workers back to Vietnam, they tried their best to stay.

There would be no way for them to start a good life in Vietnam with the government suppressing political dissent, lack of freedom of expression, and injustice. Everything was about money and connection.

“You can bribe people,” Andi says.

Despite the problem neo-Nazis and their anti-foreigners attitude, the first generation of Vietnamese immigrants chose to stay in a western country where they believed they lived a better life.

Many of the Vietnamese immigrants managed to stay successfully, including Anni’s father and Diana’s parents.

“It is a big community. Every Vietnamese knows about each other. We are polite and hardworking people. We have our nice lovely communities, but we are trying to integrate into Germany as well,” Anni likes Germany.

Young people like Anni were sent to Germany in a very young age for family reunion and more importantly, for a better education.

“After school I had to learn because education is the reason I came to Germany,” Anni spent his spare time studying and helping in the household, like cooking, washing dishes and clothes.

The young generation of Vietnamese immigrants in Germany is more like Germans, not Vietnamese. They were born or grew up in this European country and seldom go back to Vietnam. They like the life in Germany.

Many young Vietnamese were born and grew up here in Germany, including Anni Do Thi, Thu Ha Tran Thi and Diana Ngo, Photo Credit: Diana Ngo. Academic Fair Use

Thu Ha Tran Thi is a Vietnamese girl born in 1992 in Germany. She says her childhood was so happy with different Disney movies. She gave up her Vietnam citizenship and became a legal German citizen half a year ago.

Anni will apply for German citizenship in the near future. “I think German is much better than Vietnam. Here in Germany, if you have no job, the state will pay you. In Vietnam, you have to find work or die in poverty.”

There are over 40,000 people like Miss Thi between 1981 and 2007, giving up Vietnamese citizenship and get German nationality.

Jamaica Number One Country in LGBT Individuals Seeking Asylum To U.S.

Written By:Rachel Zabonick

Edited By:Dave Talmage

“Among all the countries we’ve had clients from, Jamaica ranks number one in persons seeking asylum from their home country,” due to the level of discrimination they face caused by extremely high levels of homophobia, said Steve Ralls, Director of Communications for Immigration Equality, located in New York, NY.

According to Immigration Equality, an organization “that advocates for equality under the immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT), and HIV-positive individuals,” in 2010 the organization had 30 LGBT cases of individuals seeking asylum in the U.S. from Jamaica. For comparison, said Ralls, “Russia had only 7 cases.”

Immigration motives examined

There are two reasons as to why Ralls believes Immigration Equality receives so many cases from Jamaica. “One is an issue of geography. In order to apply for asylum, you must be able to reach the United States border. The Caribbean’s proximity to the U.S. means that individuals in Jamaica have more access to get to the border,” he said. “We are also seeing increasingly more disturbing reports from our clients about the climate there.”

According to Maurice Tomlinson, a Legal Advisor for Marginalized Groups for an Aid-Free World and a gay-rights activist in Jamaica, acts of violence that members of the LGBT community have experienced include murder, rape, home invasions, and beatings. “Lots of this has happened in the past year,” he said.

Ignorance boiling over

Mr. H (only identified as Mr. H on condition of anonymity), is a blogger who identifies himself as a gay member of the LGBT community. He said that ignorance has a lot to do with the levels of violence and discrimination he and other members have experienced. “Ignorance has a lot to do with it, and misconceptions of lifestyle. Gay men are seen as predators. That negative perception has been said by the tabloid press- paints a very ugly picture,” he said.

Religious indoctrination, which does not support homosexuality, and much of Jamaica’s music fuels discrimination as well, said Tomlinson. “Music has a tradition of being very violent, especially against homosexuals,” he said.

Prince Jones, an employee of The Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG), in Jamaica, said that “there is great discrimination and lots of violent acts from the general Jamaican community, especially from members of the police force, and pretty much all uniformed groups.” J-FLAG’s (located in Kingston, Jamaica) mission is “to work towards a Jamaican society in which the Human Rights and Equality of Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays are guaranteed.” Immigration Equality has also, “heard numerous reports of police violence, because of the general climate of homophobia,” said Ralls.

Fear of violence fuels silence

LGBT individuals are reluctant to report acts of violence to the police if they become victims of violent crime, said Ralls. “Reporting violence will lead to their own outing, which often leads to further violence,” he said. “This becomes a vicious cycle.” According to Ralls, if “ousted,” members of the LGBT community often face discrimination from their families, and some families even disown LGBT family members when their sexual orientation is discovered.

J-FLAG has received some cooperation from uniformed groups, said Jones. According to Mr. H, police support, “comes and goes. To be fair, some of them are trying (to be supportive), but it comes and goes,” he said.

Another issue facing LGBT individuals is the lack of support from the Jamaican government, said Mr. H. “The government tends to play to the hand of the so called ‘majority,’ and what they’re saying is they don’t like homosexuality.” Currently, members of the LGBT community are lobbying the government to take an official stance, said Tomlinson.