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| ROMANIANS IN ITALY, A TENSE SITUATION (1.11.2007) |
| (2007-11-02) |
| Last updated: 2007-11-02 9:17 EET |
As expected, on Wednesday the Italian government passed regulations allowing the expulsion of foreign citizens who commit serious crimes on Italian soil. Moreover, those who attempt return after expulsion risk up to 3 years in jail.
With Romania’s EU accession, the country’s citizens got the right to circulate freely anywhere in the community area, and can no longer be stopped at borders or denied a visa. In Bucharest, visibly concerned about Rome’s decision, President Traian Basescu has expressed hope that the law was not passed explicitly against Romanians and has warned that other countries can expect reciprocity in this matter. Maybe that is why Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato felt compelled to make clarifications: the law is aimed at protecting the image of honest Romanians, who suffer because of their law- breaking co-nationals. The straw that broke the camel’s back was a savage physical and sexual assault against the wife of an Italian admiral, committed by a Romanian immigrant of Roma origin.
This is the latest and most serious episode in a series of crimes committed by holders of Romanian passports. Pressured by public opinion, Prime Minister Romano Prodi promptly warned his Romanian counterpart, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, that the authorities are prepared to take firm action against criminal immigrants. The Romanian government has decided to send experts to support the authorities in the fight against criminals who mar the image of their co-nationals working honestly in Italy. There are over 300 thousand Romanians working legally in that country.
However, according to unofficial statistics, the real number of Romanians residing in Italy is three times bigger. The risk is that they are all going to be tarred with the same brush, due to the activities of an unfortunate minority. For months now, newspapers have widely covered stories of Romanian burglars, rapists and pick-pockets.
All in all, there are only a few thousand criminals out of the hundreds of thousands of builders, farmers, baby sitters and mechanics who are working hard for their families that have remained back home, in Romania.
They chose Italy because, as a Latin people, it’s easier for them to learn Italian, because the climate is pleasant and also because they very much counted on the locals’ good will. Italians, especially those in the southern parts of the Peninsula, have their own history of poverty and hardships, and from the 19th century onwards, they themselves started migrating towards France, the US or Latin America. Most were eager to integrate, though a minority formed some of the most violent gangs in Paris, New York and Buenos Aires. Back then, there were many papers and politicians who demonised Italians, en mass, because they had never heard words like Mafia, vendetta or omerta.
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