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Discussion on: Italy's Inspiring Fifty

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rhymes profile image
rhymes • Edited

It's interesting how you equated minorities with immigrants :)

Italy is quite behind with integration, mostly because foreign immigrant don't want to stay,

I would say Italy is behind on inclusion, for many reasons that I feel are totally off topic here. It is true that some immigrants don't want to stay but the data mostly refers to those seeking for asylum in the EU that, because of Dublin's accords, are obligated to be registered and processed (and sometimes are sent back to) in the first country they enter. If we want to talk about people in Italy that don't want to stay we could start talking about the exodus of "native Italians" but that's a story for another day

Talking numbers: 8% of the population (5+ millions) is made of foreigners, if you only include people born outside the EU the number is 4 million (6.7%). So, foreign immigrants are here and want to stay (13% of companies are created by immigrants for example, schools are increasingly populated by a different array of nationalities and cultures). I think it's a false assumption the idea they don't want to stay (or at least an outdated one). It's also a little dangerous if you think about it for a second. If I'm a politician and I convince myself that immigrants don't even want to stay, why should I create inclusive policies in the first place ? ;-)

is just that number-wise there are more chances because there are more white women

Sure, but again, mine was just a thought related to the fact that minorities are not that visible in many spaces. It's more a question of representation than of hard numbers.

I'm sure things will change in 20 years, the country is already different from 20 years ago.

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vikkio88 profile image
Vincenzo • Edited

I agree with you in full, speaking of

interesting how you equated minorities with immigrants

All minorities used to be immigrants, don't you think is a correct statement?

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rhymes profile image
rhymes • Edited

All minorities used to be immigrants, don't you think is a correct statement?

No, although in my post I was referring to racial minority, the word minority isn't just for racial minorities. It refers to gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability and other aspects. A few examples:

  • children born here from immigrant parents are not immigrants, they might just be part of a minority, but they didn't immigrate from anywhere. Statistics tend to pile them with immigrants but they aren't
  • some jewish italians didn't immigrate from anywhere also, but they are still a religious (and sometimes ethnic) minority
  • lgbtq people are a minority, but they can be as the same time part of the majority population, or have come here on a boat persecuted by some goverment, or any other intersection of life
  • italy has always had ethnic minorities (link in Italian), we just don't talk about them that much :-)
  • dark skinned immigrants from southern Italy to the Americas weren't considered white for a long time (so even the term white has changed I guess :D)

It's a truly complicated topic (it touches culture, religion, heritage, genetics, history and so on) and I'm not the most qualified person to talk about it but I would thread carefully because stereotypes and assumptions are what usually box in any type of minority

Thanks for asking, that's what I do when I'm in doubt :D

ps. in a sense the answer should be yes. If we go back far enough in time, since mankind started on the continent we now call Africa, then all minorities used to be immigrants at some point ;-)