Where Humanity and Tolerance Prevails

By Margaux Glovier

After returning from the fall Altiero Spinelli trip to Brussels, it is clear that migration is an EU policy issue still on everyone’s minds. This semester, my classmates and I have had the incredible experience of studying migration in Europe. We have written policy papers as advocates for the NGO, Human Rights Watch, in which we have created policy recommendations that are intended to improve living conditions in migrant camps. In each of our four fall semester classes, we have discussed the ways in which European societies have reacted to the significant spike in migration flow to Europe since 2015. In particular, both inside and outside of the classroom, EUPS students have also talked about populist politicians’ use of anti-immigrant sentiment to bolster their own political campaigns.

During our time in Brussels, civil servants in the Council of Ministers informed us during our lectures that migration to Italy has drastically decreased. Following an agreement with Italy, the Libyan Coast Guard attempts to find and detain any migrants that attempt to reach Italy by crossing the Mediterranean. Especially in these winter months, weather conditions are too perilous for any migrants to make the journey. However, as my classmates and I have witnessed firsthand, there continues to be a debate in Italian society over whether or not the Italian economy is capable of supporting the migrants that have arrived in Italy over the past three years.

Though the United States has significantly recovered from the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, here in Italy, the economy is still struggling. Youth unemployment is a major issue, reaching as high as 40% in many towns in the south. In this environment, tensions are high when it comes to the discussion of immigrants’ place in the job market. Riding this wave of discontent, the populist coalition government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Deputy Prime Ministers Matteo Salvini and Luigi DeMaio has come to power by taking a hard-line stance against immigration.

Despite the Italian government’s anti-immigration stance, Tuscany and Florence’s political climate reflect a different opinion. In the 2018 Italian general elections, Florence and greater Tuscany voted for center-left parties, while the vast majority of the country voted for the populist, anti-immigrant parties of the Northern League and the Five Star Movement. Tuscany is also one of the few Italian regions that provide public services to migrants who have not yet achieved citizenship, such as housing. In many other regions, like Lombardy, this is not the case.

Even though Tuscany has traditionally held a more open attitude towards immigrants, Florence has experienced its fair share of controversies. Just this past March, an Italian man shot a Senegalese street vendor to death while he was selling items on Florence’s Amerigo Vespucci bridge. The attack sparked multiple days of protests against racism that took place throughout Florence’s city center. Both migrants and Italians participated, chanting against Deputy Prime Minister Salvini and accusing him of promoting racism through anti-immigrant rhetoric. Though police determined that the attack was not racially motivated, the public reaction to the vendor’s death highlights the divide that migration policy has created in Italian society.

From what I have witnessed during my first semester at EUPS, many Florentines seem committed to supporting the migrants that have decided to call Tuscany their home. Just in October of this year, there was a massive student protest against Salvini’s anti-immigrant mindset that took place throughout Florence’s city center. The students held up signs with messages including, “Politicians should go back home, not immigrants” and, “Welcome refugees”. In particular, the students accused Salvini of being responsible for a rising tide of violent hate crimes against immigrants.

This is not the first time that protests in support of immigrants have occurred in Florence. After a Gambian migrant was shot at in the nearby town of Vicofaro, Tuscany, in August 2018, Florentines protested against this attack. Citizens carried banners past the Duomo that read, “Florence will always be on the front lines against racism!” These demonstrations are vastly different from the anti-immigrant feelings that are on the rise in many other Italian towns.

Based upon my academic and cultural experiences related to this issue, it is evident that migration is an extremely divisive issue in Italian society and politics. Though migration to Italy has decreased, instances of hate crimes and intolerance of immigrants are on the rise. In the EUPS program, we are lucky to study in a city where anti-immigration rhetoric and violence continues to be largely condemned. However, the tragic death that occurred this past March demonstrates that Florence is not immune to the anti-immigrant sentiments that are sweeping the country.

Italy is a country that has historically been unused to migration. In the previous century, Italians left their homeland en masse, emigrating to countries such as the United States. However, as a result of political and economic instability in Africa and the Middle East, the 2015 Migration Crisis has changed Italy from a country of emigration to a country of immigration. This phenomenon on its own would be hard for Italian society to navigate, but Italy’s unstable economic situation has made the policy issue of migration seem even more unsurmountable. With high rates of unemployment and low rates of economic growth, it is simply unsustainable for Italy to continue to be a hotspot destination for migrants.

Despite the continued challenges that migration policy poses to Italy, it has extremely heartened me that Florence has not given in to the anti-immigrant rhetoric that is present in many migration debates. Florence continues to stand up against hate crimes and violence, regardless of the economic burden that politicians attempt to claim immigrants bring. Florence’s stance has made me proud to be a student in this city. Though discourse on migration can and must continue, humanity and respect for all persons should prevail.

Margaux Glovier is a member of the EUPS Class of 2019. She graduated from Georgetown University in 2018 with a B.A. in International Affairs and has studied abroad in Florence twice before returning this year for graduate school.