From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Wed Mar 12 2003 - 09:13:56 MST
Anders Sandberg:
>I think France and other more central nations actually may have more
>prejudices, but the potential of becoming a real part of society
>there is larger for an immigrant.
Perhaps. I'm one test case, so I can tell you more after a longer
time here (Italy). I've heard again and again from my colleagues
that I've encountered "special situations" with reference to the
attitudes of the questura (police), and the attitudes of the local
people with flats to rent. I can't figure out all of the reasons for
my persistent difficulties with finding a good accommodation and
with simple things like getting a resident permit (well.... I'm
embedded in a queue of a million people who are getting the same
piece of paper, for one thing).
Is it because I'm a woman and a American, they think that I'm stupid
and rich? Or because I'm nonEU, that I'm a criminal? Or because I'm
simply not from this town, that I'm not to be trusted? Believe it or
not, these are real attitudes, here. The word: 'extracommunitari',
which simply means "person from outside of the EU" is almost a slang
term for criminal. This country is probably not absorbing well the
millions of immigrants who have entered in the last years, and this
is one result.
Germany didn't have the kinds of obstacles that I've encountered
thus far as an immigrant-nonEU, but then I never tried to work there
as a permanent employee in a country's national research institute.
Generally, the current immigration procedures in Italy give the
U.S.'s INS a good competition for being excessively heavihanded, but
then, once one is in Italy, and passes through the initial
processing, then many or most rights are granted to immigrants as
are those granted to Italian citizens. I don't think that's true in
Spain, for example. I don't know about Portugal.
<rant>
One of the first heavihanded facets of Italy with respect to
immigrants is the fingerprinting law. I am not sure what it is
supposed to help, but I think the idea is for it to feed into an
EU-wide database of immigrants, so that one can track
asylum-seekers. I wish that the Italians would look at their own
actions that result in a large number of Italians emigrating out,
and add to that their flat birth-rate and their pension scheme
heading for disaster. *Who* is going to pay those pensioners
pensions, if not a new generation?? It is the immigrants that are
having the babies, not the Italians. It is the immigrants who are
willing to work in the fields and do the dirty jobs that Italians
don't want to do.
For the fingerprinting law, I read (Italy: Facts and Figures) that
52% of Italians support it. I wonder if such a large number would
support it if they knew what it actually was? The process is not
mere fingerprint: it is a full fingerprint/palmprint/handprint. Two
sets, now on file with the Frascati Police; my hands were dripping
with ink when I finished. Now what was that supposed to prove, I
wonder? I put it in the same category as the stripping procedure at
U.S. airports, that is, a large-scale theatre that is supposed to
make the country's citizen *think* that something is being done to
solve some people's fears, but a little analysis would show how
empty that is.
</rant>
However, if you were a government creature, you might try to make a
little money for the government from the immigrants (who don't often
pay taxes), which is exactly what Berlusconi's government did.
Sometime last Fall (not sure when), Berlusconi's government passed a
law that allowed any of the 3 million illegal people in this country
to pay 400 euros, fill out some papers, and have a legal permit of
stay. One million of those followed through, giving the government a
bit of money in the process. Presently the Questura are only through
the applicants up to December of last year, so I have several months
ahead of me in the queue. All of the papers (in the country I think)
funnel through the Roma Questura. My papers are mixed with them,
because I'm considered foreigner like them, it doesn't matter that I
have a legitimate job with a legitimate work visa, it seems. It also
doesn't seem to matter to the Questura that traveling out of Italy
is an important and necessary part of my job, so I'm in a position of
being illegal if I perform my job functions (or even spend time with
my family).
The law basically says this:
If you've started the application, you must remain in Italy while
it's being processed. (The law also says that they must complete the
processing in 20 days) If a person goes abroad, and wants to come
back, then they must start the whole process again to get the
permesso di soggiorno. If you want to see what the law really says
go here:
http://www.poliziadistato.it/pds/cittadino/stranieri/stranier.htm
[You can get the document in English, by clicking on the lower part
of the window on the English button.]
But Italy is a country where life rarely follows a direct path, so
one could try this loop: if the police break the law, (which
they are, by not processing my papers in 20 days), then if I break
the same law, it doesn't count. The principle is 'factum principis',
which says that a citizen does not do anything illegal if he/she
does not respect a law which was not respected first, by the State
itself.
OK, enough monologue.
I've attached below a newsletter regarding more immigration
information in some southern European countries.
http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/Archive_MN/aug_2002-12mn.html
August 2002
Volume 9 Number 8
Spain, Italy, Portugal
Spain-Morocco. Tensions between Spain and Morocco increased after
Morocco on July 11,2002 occupied an uninhabited island 200 yards off
its coast that is claimed by Spain. Spanish special forces stormed
the islet a week later, and took the six Moroccan soldiers prisoner;
they later withdrew, leaving the islet uninhabited.
Morocco said it had set up an "observation post" on the islet to
deter illegal migration into Europe across the 12-mile strait of
Gibraltar dividing Spain from Africa and the Mediterranean from the
Atlantic. Under a 1956 agreement, Spain kept the coastal enclaves of
Ceuta and Melilla, Spanish autonomous regions, which it has held for
centuries, as well as several islands offshore. Morocco promised not
to re-occupy the islet. However, Spain is close to a deal with the
UK on shared sovereignty over Gibraltar, which has 30,000 residents,
and analysts speculated that these negotiations prompted the
Moroccan move on the islet.
Any Spanish-Morocco agreement will have to deal with the
phosphate-rich Western Sahara, annexed by Morocco after Spain's
withdrawal in 1975 but claimed by the Saharawi people represented by
the Polisario Front.
Some 250,000 Moroccans live and work legally in Spain, and 1.5
million more Moroccans pass through Spain every summer on their way
home from other European countries. Morocco is a major source and
transit country for migrants headed to Spain and Europe. The
government says that 13 percent of Morocco's 10.5-million workforce
are unemployed and Moroccan universities produce thousands of
graduates considered overqualified for the work available. Morocco
has relaxed visa rules for Algerians and Tunisians, where
unemployment is 30 to 35 percent.
Between January and July 2002, Spain intercepted 5,600 foreigners on
its coasts.
Italy. Italy enacted a new immigration law, the Bossi-Fini law, in
July 2002 that among other things, requires that all non-European
Union immigrants be fingerprinted and allows the use of naval ships
to patrol Italian coastlines and to intercept smuggling ships.
Non-EU foreigners must have contracts from Italian employers before
their arrival. The law links residence and work permits- a foreign
worker who loses his job also loses his work permit. There are new
restrictions on family unification (only children under 18 can join
families), and on immigrants' access to public housing. The new law
makes it harder for immigrants to get their pension contributions
back if they leave Italy before retirement age.
Penalties for being or employing an illegal migrants are being
raised, and entering Italy illegally more than once can lead to
prison terms of up to four years, while smugglers can be punished
with up to 12 years jail plus a fine of E15,000 for each clandestine
migrant they bring to Italy.
Italy's 2002 immigration law was prompted in part by a wave of much
publicized burglaries, blamed on immigrants, in prosperous northern
Italy. Illegal immigrants are 20 percent Italian prisoners.
About 150,000 non-EU workers were hired in 2001, about 20 percent of
labor force growth. The Italian employers federation, Confindustria,
said: "Italian industry can't survive without the help of immigrant
workers."
Portugal. Portugal enacted a new immigration law in July 2002 that
establishes limits on the entry of non-EU foreigners based on
economic criteria. It favors the entry of skilled foreigners.
Foreigners who entered Portugal after November 30, 2001 will not be
able to adjust their status to legal resident. These 30,000 to
60,000 unauthorized foreigners, many employed in the booming
construction sector, as Portugal builds stadiums and infrastructure
to host the 2004 European soccer championships, are to be deported.
Employers found with undocumented migrants will face higher fines
and will be liable for the costs of deportation.
Announcing the new law, Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso
said: "Immigration in Portugal is completely out of control.
Portugal is a small country, it cannot have its doors wide open,
there must be limits."
A previous law, passed in January 2001, allowed foreigners to apply
for temporary work and residence papers once they were in Portugal.
The number of foreigners legally in Portugal almost doubled, rising
from 220,000 in 2000 to 430,000 in 2002, as 180,000 illegal migrants
-- many of them from Ukraine and other eastern European countries --
acquired residency permits in 2001.
Most foreigners will have to live in Portugal for eight years before
they receive permanent residence-- five years for those from Brazil
and Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa.
"Portugal says immigration up 7.7 pct last year," Reuters, July 24,
2002. Gavin Jones, "Right-wing alliance passes controversial
legislation despite wide opposition from church and employers,"
Financial Times, July 22, 2002.
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "We haven't the money, so we've got to think." -- Ernest Rutherford
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