Reflecting on my Skype exchange!

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This week I had my third Skype exchange with Chiara, my American peer! As time goes, I enjoy skyping with her more and more. Although this time we had a conference call made up of five people, we managed to discuss about our final project successfully!

First of all my Italian peers and I proposed Chiara our individual topics.

- Elisa suggested music as one of the main channels through which the culture of a country is conveyed. For example, she pointed out that in America there are many genres, and this reflects the multi-ethnic composition of America.

- Silvia N. proposed immigration, in particular the problems immigrants face when they have to find a job. For instance, Silvia underlined that in Italy skilled immigrants who have a long work experience or a qualified degree are often discriminated when they apply for a job.

- Silvia L., on the other hand, wanted to compare the situation of working women in the US and Italy, focusing on discrimination women suffer as for wages, job insecurity, positions they fill and involvement in politics.

- Finally, my proposal was abortion to see how Italy and America have faced this big ethical issue so far: the abortion laws, if health care covers abortion, abortion rates, and the influence of religion in the two countries.

As can be seen, our topics were all very interesting, but also very different! That’s why it took us much time before coming to an agreement! By the way, after discussing the pros and cons of each issue, we decided to develop women issue given that Chiara showed a particular interest in health care and abortion. Unfortunately, at that point Chiara had to leave the conversation, so we went on discussing without Chiara. Sarah told us that women issue was too broad and suggested us to narrow the topic and focus on one particular aspect.

Eventually, we decided to develop a wiki-page on “Women at work” by comparing the situation in the US and Italy. We immediately sent an e-mail to Chiara just to update her about our choice. Meanwhile, we sketched a first outline, divided the topic into subtopics and decided who’s doing what too. Thus, I’m going to present some data about working women (percentage of women who works vs housewives and of working mothers vs stay-at-home mothers, kinds of jobs women are usually employed in, wage discrimination between men and women); Elisa is going to deal with working mothers' rights; Silvia Lovato is going to discuss women in politics, and Silvia N. is going to talk about women immigrants.

During this weekend we are carrying out some research on the Web; we also established that, if we find useful sources, we bookmark them on delicious with a tag that is specific of our group. In addition, together with Chiara, we chose to communicate via e-mail because, in our opinion, it’s the more effective way since you can easily forward Chiara’s replies to all the members. In addition, we set out that each week one person will have the responsibility for writing to Chiara if there are any updates, or other important things she should know. That’s all for the moment! Now I’ll search for some sources…Hopefully, we’ll do a good job!

Immigration in Italy

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Italy faced the problem of immigration quite recently, in the 1970s; before Italy had been a country where people emigrated from, especially after World War II.

Since the end of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st century the rate of immigrants in Italy has been increasing year by year. In the 1990s the Italian government tried to solve the problem of illegal immigration by holding amnesties, which allowed illegal immigrants to apply for Italian citizenship and not get punished for having been there illegally. This reduced the number of illegal workers and, thus, black economy, but it did not solve the problem! Quite the opposite! This measure attracted even more immigrants who could easily come to Italy and be legalized!

From a geographical viewpoint, Italy’s position is strategic. In the centre of the Mediterranean and with over 8,000 kilometres of coast, Italy is a “door” to Europe for African people (Moroccans, Tunisians, Algerians) – though the trip across the Mediterranean often turns into an odyssey. According to ISTAT, on December 31, 2006 there were 2.938.922 immigrants in Italy (4,97%). Moroccans are the most numerous, followed by Albanians, Romanians, Tunisians and Senegalese.

Undoubtedly, immigration is a cultural and economic resource too. Many migrants have entered the labour market: in the North-East, they mainly work in factories in almost regular positions; in the South, non-EU people are mostly employed in seasonal jobs and in the underground economy, particularly in the agriculture and building industry. Many immigrant workers, especially women from Eastern Europe, are employed to do the housework in our families or to help old or disabled people.

Unfortunately, illegal immigration has brought to Italy new social problems too: many illegal immigrants are involved in criminal activities such as drug-pushing, prostitution and petty crime, especially in big cities. This has led to intolerance, racism and violence between Italians and immigrants and to an increase both in the number of workers employed in the black-market and in the money spent by the State to keep immigrants in prison or in the “Centri di permanenza temporanea”, centres where illegal immigrants are held before going back home.

The various immigration laws have never been able to regulate the situation of illegal immigrants: the first attempt was at the beginning of the 1990s with the so-called 'Martelli law', which aimed “to plan migratory flows into Italy in collaboration with the immigrants' countries of origin”. In 1998, the centre-left government issued the so-called 'Turco-Napolitano law' which established the procedures for the deportation of illegal immigrants who, once arrested, could be deported only after being judged by a magistrate. After the magistrate issued an order of deportation, they had two weeks to appeal against the decision, but immigrants often used this time to go underground and out of sight. In 2002, the centre-right government enacted the ‘Bossi-Fini Law’; it states that illegal immigrants must leave the country within five days after the arrest, and during this time they are held under the control of the police. Non-EU immigrants can come to Italy only if they have a ‘contratto di soggiorno’, i.e. a contract of dependent employment providing for accommodation and the payment of travel expenses to return to their homeland. When the contract expires, the immigrant worker should repatriate. The truth is that forced repatriation is not always carried out as it should be! Always in 2002 a decree-law provided for the regularisation of irregular immigrants employed as domestic workers or home-helper, and dependent workers involved in other kinds of subordinate employment. All regularised immigrant workers received a residence permit which lasted till the deadline of the employment contract, but in any case no longer than two years.

These days immigration has been a hot election topic, as the title of this article says. The spread of gypsy camps on city outskirts and the increase of crimes committed by illegal immigrants worry Italians a lot. That’s why immigration is a central issue among the right- and left-wing parties, which have opposing positions as always. Given his coalition with Lega Nord (Northern League), Berlusconi promises to deport all illegal immigrants and “crack down on gypsy camps and centres linked to the preaching of Muslim fundamentalism", while Walter Veltroni, the centre-left candidate, is for integration and wants to increase the duration of legal immigrants' residency permits and, at the same time, “to guarantee that expulsion orders for illegal immigrants are really carried out”.

Sources:

http://www-pub.naz.edu:9000/~cmnewell/

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2002/09/feature/it0209103f.htm

Thinking about my final project…ABORTION

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Besides elections, there’s another big issue which is causing a bit of upset in Italy during these first months of 2008: abortion.

Exactly 30 years after the Law 194, which legalized induced abortion in Italy within 90 days since conception, the issue is again very controversial. As for my project, my idea is to discuss abortion in Italy and America as objectively as possible; however, I read the whole 194 law before writing this post, and I’d like to express my opinion about it in a few lines. I’m a Catholic person perfectly convinced that abortion should never be used to interrupt a pregnancy that could be avoided at the origin through contraceptive methods, but I also think that, in some specific cases, a woman has the right to choose for her life and for that of her baby. I find the 194 a very “human” law. Already the title, “NORME PER LA TUTELA SOCIALE DELLA MATERNITA’ E SULL’INTERRUZIONE VOLONTARIA DELLA GRAVIDANZA” (and not “abortion law”), explicitly shows that its first aim is not birth control (see art.1). From a legal point of view, it’s a well-balanced attempt to safeguard the rights of the foetus and the woman and to respect the medical staff’s belief too, i.e. whether to practice abortion or not as a doctor. This is a good law; the problem is how it is applied sometimes! The ethical questions “Is abortion a good or bad thing? or “Is the foetus already a human being?” are very complex and sensitive issues; undoubtedly, they would be worth a post; however they’re outside the purpose of my project.

Let’s explain, on the other hand, when and why this big debate about abortion started in Italy. On December 18, 2007 the United Nations Organization approved the moratorium (“an official stopping of an activity for a period of time” from Longman Dictionary) on death penalty. This event led to “a great thinking” about the right to life and, consequently, about abortion in the mass media in Italy (read the article). In January, the cultural organization Web Radio on the Air started a huge provocation, the Universal Moratorium for the Abolition of the Punishment of Abortion. At the beginning of February, the editor of the Italian newspaper Il_Foglio, Giuliano Ferrara, took this provocation to set a new political party “Aborto? No grazie. Per la moratoria con Giuliano Ferrara ” which aims to bring the cause of abortion in the next Parliament (read the article or watch the video). Ferrara is widely supported by the Church, pro-life movements and all the people who are openly against abortion and consider it like homicide.

These months abortion is a hot topic also because of some bad news reported by Italian mass media. Some weeks ago, the TV programme Le Iene broadcasted a video about some doctors who declared to be conscientious objectors and, thus, refused to carry out legal abortion in public hospital, but then they accepted to perform back-street abortion till over 5 months of pregnancy in their private practices. One month ago, a gynaecologist committed suicide in Genoa because he was accused of performing illegal abortion under the payment of 500 euros to women who wanted to end an unwanted pregnancy without following the legal procedure (read the article). In Naples the police raided a hospital where a woman was having abortion because her child suffered from Klinefelter's_syndrome. The police had received an anonymous report saying that foeticide was being committed in that hospital, which then proved not to be true. This caused a big scandal within women’s movements too (see the article).

To sum up, 30 years after the achievement of legal abortion (1978-2008), Italians are still deeply divided between for and against abortion: someone defines abortion of unhealthy embryos as eugenics; someone else calls it genocide perfectly authorized and financed by the State; someone believes it is a fundamental right of the woman to choose whether to abort or not.

I think that the project I’m going to do with my peers in collaboration with the Dickinson College students is a great chance to compare Italian and American culture and see how these two coutries have faced this big ethical issue so far. Below you find a list of points that could be discussed in an objective way.

PROJECT PLAN

- A comparison between Italian and American abortion laws to see similarities and differences, strong and weak points (late abortion term, i.e. how late abortion can be performed legally, parental notification for minors and privacy for non-adults, government funding, i.e. if health care covers abortion, etc.) and, given that legal access to abortion vary somewhat by state in the US, to see which states are more restrictive.

- A look at the methods of abortion which are legalized in the two countries: for example I know that in the US and most European countries the abortion pill Ru486 has been legalized for several years, while it will probably be available in Italian hospitals only since this year.

- Statistics: the trend of abortion rates in the two countries, differences between North and South, native people and immigrants, teenagers and adults.

- Measures taken to prevent abortion (ex. family advisory bureaux in hospitals).

- The position on abortion of US and Italian candidates in 2008 elections.

- Abortion and religion: influence of the Church and Christian movements in the two countries (such as “Il Movimento per la Vita” in Italy e “Moral Majority” in the USA).