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Honors Theses Student Research
2011
From Victims and Villains to Protagonists: Immigration and Citizenship in Modern Italy
Rachel Gleicher Colby College
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Recommended Citation Gleicher, Rachel, "From Victims and Villains to Protagonists: Immigration and Citizenship in Modern Italy" (2011). Honors Theses. Paper 606. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/606
This Honors Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. From Victims and Villains to
Protagonists: Immigration and
Citizenship in Modern Italy
Rachel Gleicher
Colby College
May 6, 2011
Senior Honors Thesis
International Studies Department
Advisor/First Reader: Maple Razsa
Second Reader: Allison Cooper Table of Contents
Prologue …………………………………………………………………...……3
Citizenship and Insurgent Citizenship……………………………………...…..6
Methods and Overview…………………………………………………..……11
A Quick Note on Terminology……………………………………………..…12
Chapter 1: Context ……………...……………….…………………………...14
From Emigration and Internal Migration to Immigration……………………..14
History of Immigration and Immigration Related Legislation…………….…..18
Current Statistics on Italy’s “Foreign” Population……………………….……27
Chapter 2: Immigrant Representations ……………….…………….……...29
Immigrants in Italian Newspapers…………………………………………….30
Immigrant Representations by Italian Political Parties………………………..35
The Northern Leagues’ Influence on Public Opinion …………..……………..36
Culturalist Racism …………………………………………..…………………37
Immigrants as a Resource Drain ………………………..……………………..43
Immigrants as Criminals ……………………………..………………………..45
Immigrant Representations by Italian-Run Social Service Organizations….…48
Case Study: Trama di Terre ……………………………………………….…..49
Chapter 3: Immigrants’ Resistance ………………………………..….…….59
The Autonomy of Migration………………………………………….………..59
Positive Discourse: Resilience, Rights Based vs. Help-Based Advocacy….….66
Intercultural Centers……………………………………………………….…...72
Associazionismo…………………………………………………………..……78
Conclusion …………………………………………………………….....…….87
Acknoweldgements……………………………………………………………..91
Works Cited …………….………………………………………………….…..92
2
Prologue
I first became interested in the topic of immigration in Italy in January 2010
during a con