Theorising Return Migration
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ROBERT SCHUMAN CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES Overview Report on Tolerance and Cultural diversity Concepts and Practices in Italy Maurizio Ambrosini Elena Caneva University of Milan 2012/23 5. New Knowledge Country Synthesis Reports EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, FLORENCE ROBERT SCHUMAN CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES Overview Report on Tolerance and Cultural diversity Concepts and Practices in Italy MAURIZIO AMBROSINI AND ELENA CANEVA UNIVERSITY OF MILAN Work Package 5 – New Knowledge on Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Europe D5.1 Country Synthesis Reports on Tolerance and Cultural diversity - Concepts and Practices © 2012 Maurizio Ambrosini and Elena Caneva This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the research project, the year and the publisher. Published by the European University Institute Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Via dei Roccettini 9 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole - Italy ACCEPT PLURALISM Research Project, Tolerance, Pluralism and Social Cohesion: Responding to the Challenges of the 21st Century in Europe European Commission, DG Research Seventh Framework Programme Social Sciences and Humanities grant agreement no. 243837 www.accept-pluralism.eu www.eui.eu/RSCAS/ Available from the EUI institutional repository CADMUS cadmus.eui.eu Tolerance, Pluralism and Social Cohesion: Responding to the Challenges of the 21st Century in Europe (ACCEPT PLURALISM) ACCEPT PLURALISM is a Research Project, funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Program. The project investigates whether European societies have become more or less tolerant during the past 20 years. In particular, the project aims to clarify: (a) how is tolerance defined conceptually, (b) how it is codified in norms, institutional arrangements, public policies and social practices, (c) how tolerance can be measured (whose tolerance, who is tolerated, and what if degrees of tolerance vary with reference to different minority groups). The ACCEPT PLURALISM consortium conducts original empirical research on key issues in school life and in politics that thematise different understandings and practices of tolerance. Bringing together empirical and theoretical findings, ACCEPT PLURALISM generates a State of the Art Report on Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Europe, a Handbook on Ideas of Tolerance and Cultural Diversity in Europe, a Tolerance Indicators’ Toolkit where qualitative and quantitative indicators may be used to score each country’s performance on tolerating cultural diversity, and several academic publications (books, journal articles) on Tolerance, Pluralism and Cultural Diversity in Europe. The ACCEPT PLULARISM consortium is formed by 18 partner institutions covering 15 EU countries. The project is hosted by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and co-ordinated by Prof. Anna Triandafyllidou. The EUI, the RSCAS and the European Commission are not responsible for the opinion expressed by the author(s). The Department of social and political studies was founded as the Department of Sociology in 1983. In 2000 it assumed its new name of the Department of Social and Political Studies in order to recognise and emphasise the interdisciplinary nature of the Department, which incorporates teachers and researchers right across the social sciences and political disciplines (sociology, political sciences, psychology, political philosophy, anthropology and organization studies). Maurizio Ambrosini is a Professor of Sociology of Migration at the University of Milan. He is the Director of Mondi Migranti, the first Italian journal on the Sociology of Migration. Elena Caneva is a Research Fellow at the Department of social and political studies at the University of Milan. Contact details: Prof. Maurizio Ambrosini, dr. Elena Caneva, Department of social and political studies University of Milan, Via Conservatorio, 7 20122 Milan, Italy Fax: + 39 02.503.21240 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] http://www.sociol.unimi.it/ For more information on the Socio Economic Sciences and Humanities Programme in FP7 see: http://ec.europa.eu/research/social-sciences/index_en.htm http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/cooperation/socio-economic_en.html Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 2 Keywords ................................................................................................................................... 6 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 7 2. Tolerance and cultural diversity discourses and practices ..................................................... 8 2.2. Italy from an emigration country to an immigration country .............................................. 8 2.3. National identity and State formation ............................................................................... 10 2.4. Cultural diversity challenges during the last 30 years ....................................................... 13 2.4.1. The native minorities .............................................................................................. 14 2.4.2. The religious minorities ......................................................................................... 15 2.4.3 Immigrants .............................................................................................................. 16 2.5. Definitions of tolerance in Italy ........................................................................................ 26 2.6. Concluding remarks .......................................................................................................... 30 3. Tolerance and diversity challenges in School life ................................................................ 32 3.1. The history of the Italian education system and the intercultural approach ...................... 32 3.2. Italian schools today .......................................................................................................... 35 3.3. Methodology and Research Design .............................................................................. 40 3.4. Case study 1: the preparatory classes ................................................................................ 42 3.4.1. The motion proposed by the Northern League Party ............................................. 42 3.4.2. The findings ............................................................................................................ 43 3.4.3. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 51 3.4. Case study 2: the Egyptian school ................................................................................ 54 3.5.1. The debate around the Egyptian school of Milan and its closure ......................... 54 3.5.2. The findings ............................................................................................................ 55 3.5.3. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 64 3.6. The management of cultural and religious diversities in the Italian education system 65 4. Tolerance and diversity challenges in Political life ............................................................. 72 4.1. The national context: immigrant laws and the political participation of migrants ....... 72 4.2. The local contexts: some experiences of political participation .................................. 74 4.3. The role of immigrant associations and trade unions ................................................... 75 4.4. Local policies of exclusion ........................................................................................... 77 4.5. Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 78 4.6. The political challenge: the birth of the local policies of exclusion .................................. 79 4.6.1. Processes and actors involved in the local policies of exclusion ........................... 83 4.6.2.The aims of local policies of exclusion: frames of mayors and local politicians.... 87 4.6.3. Opposition to the local policies of exclusion: frames of civil society actors ......... 92 4.7. Conclusion: municipal xenophobia and multiethnic society ............................................. 96 5. Concluding remarks ........................................................................................................... 100 References .............................................................................................................................. 107 Annex 1 .................................................................................................................................. 129 List of interviews on School Life ........................................................................................... 129 List of participants to the discussion group on School Life ................................................... 130 List of interviews on Political Life ........................................................................................