Italians have increasingly negative views about immigration.
Italy has been transformed in recent decades from a nation ofemigrants to a target country for mass immigration. The change hasbrought severe political and social tensions. In the first of a seriesof pieces from Italy, Aidan Lewis looks at how the Roma (Gypsy)community has been caught up in an anti-immigrant backlash.
Across the road from the Italian capital’s oldest ethnic Romasettlement, a group of middle-aged men stand sheltering from the rainunder the awnings of a local bar, smoking.
They make no effort to hide their hostility towards the residentsof Casilino 900, a sprawling collection of wooden shacks and caravanson the eastern outskirts of Rome.
“I’d get rid of them all,” says Antonio. “The Italians don’t want them here. We’re fed up.”
His companions signal their agreement. “They turn you into a racist,” offers Giorgio. “You’re lucky if they don’t attack you.”
Others in the neighbourhood are more moderate, or guarded.
But the palpable anxiety reflects tensions surrounding Italy’smore marginalised immigrant groups that have repeatedly spiralled outof control in recent months.
A series of what appear to be racially motivated attacks andreprisals have contributed to concerns that a creeping xenophobia isinfecting the country’s social fabric, aided by a political discoursethat often links Italy’s social and economic woes to immigration.
“Italy is living through a very difficult moment,” says Franco Pittau, a senior researcher at the Catholic charity, Caritas.
“When the overall atmosphere deteriorates, people who are already poorly disposed take advantage of it to do bad things.”