Culture And Media
Italy: Immigrants use radio to cross cultural divide, says expert
Italy is home to more than 3.5 million immigrants who come from North Africa, Asia, Latin America and other parts of Europe. Radio has given them a voice in their new country.
Rome, 18 April(AKI) - Ethnic radio stations provide an important cultural outlet that empowers migrants in Italy, according to a leading sociologist.
Isabella Clough-Marinaro, from the American University of Rome, said it's important for migrants as well as Italians to have a pluralistic media, especially since the election of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"Immigrants need to have space where they speak in their own language, and keep their cultures alive, so that they don't feel forced to assimilate, and give up their roots, " Clough-Marinaro told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Clough-Marinaro was commenting on the growth of ethnic radio stations in what is an increasingly diverse society.
Italy now has at least 40 radio stations or radio programmes that broadcast in languages from Romani to Bengali, as well as Italian.
Despite that, Clough-Marinaro said government policies fail to support migrants adequately.
"Italy is way behind other countries in terms of any kind of integrational policies," Clough-Marinaro told AKI.
Because some radio stations broadcast in Italian instead of the migrants' native languages, Marinaro said the programmes should be in both to prevent the community from being isolated.
"If you only have media in the language of the minority, they will be ghettoised," she told AKI.
"It has to be part of a much broader project of integration which means they should be allowed to speak in Italian, but also in their own language."
Clough-Marinaro paints a bleak picture of Italian politics under the new government and sees difficulties for immigrants ahead.
"The political situation doesn't help, under the last Berlusconi government, the right-wing saw immigration as a security issue, a crime issue," she told AKI.
"The new government is not going to do very much to emphasise the important element of immigrants, especially with the Northern League having such strong weight."
Berlusconi won the election but his working majority has been delivered with the support of the anti-immigrant Northern League which won eight percent of the vote.
On Tuesday, Berlusconi said that Italy would close its borders to illegal immigrants.
Bajram Osmani, a prominent member of the Roma (gypsy) community, is the director and host of The Roma Voice or Romano Krlo, broadcast via Radio Onda D'Urto from the northern Italian city of Brescia.
Osmani arrived in Italy in 1991 from newly-independent Kosovo, after escaping a tense situation in the Balkan country.
He uses his radio programme to promote Roma culture in Italy, where the group is underrepresented in both the public and private mainstream media, although many in the community are Italian citizens or were born in Italy.
Most radio stations and broadcasters are volunteers and do not receive any funding from the Italian state, which makes it difficult for them to succeed.
"This is a voluntary programme. In western Europe, you do it on your own, or you are out," said Osmani to AKI.
In eastern Europe, the Roma community is better organised. They have radio and television shows transmitting in the Romani language, magazines and other means of communication.
Osmani broadcasts news that is important to the Roma community, such as information about immigration processing - an issue that is fundamental for Roma immigrants in Italy.
While Osmani was not concerned about the new Berlusconi government , he said he appreciated the Serbian government for giving the Roma community an opportunity to participate in the forthcoming elections on 11 May.
During the elections in January 2008 in Serbia, two Roma candidates won seats in parliament.
Clough-Marinaro, an expert on the Roma community, said the Roma are subjected to serious media discrimination across Italy, and nothing would change until the country was penalised for its action.
"Unless something serious happens to force the media to stop this systematic discrimination, one radio programme is going to be a drop in the ocean," she told AKI.
Last year, the Italian government passed a controversial decree ordering the rapid expulsion of European Union citizens deemed a threat to public safety after the brutal murder of a woman, allegedly by a Romanian illegal immigrant in Rome.
The murder stoked tensions and anti-immigrant sentiment across the country.
In an apparent racist "revenge attack", masked assailants brandishing knives, clubs and chains, stabbed and beat four Romanians outside a supermarket in the capital days after the murder.
Isabella Clough-Marinaro, from the American University of Rome, said it's important for migrants as well as Italians to have a pluralistic media, especially since the election of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
"Immigrants need to have space where they speak in their own language, and keep their cultures alive, so that they don't feel forced to assimilate, and give up their roots, " Clough-Marinaro told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Clough-Marinaro was commenting on the growth of ethnic radio stations in what is an increasingly diverse society.
Italy now has at least 40 radio stations or radio programmes that broadcast in languages from Romani to Bengali, as well as Italian.
Despite that, Clough-Marinaro said government policies fail to support migrants adequately.
"Italy is way behind other countries in terms of any kind of integrational policies," Clough-Marinaro told AKI.
Because some radio stations broadcast in Italian instead of the migrants' native languages, Marinaro said the programmes should be in both to prevent the community from being isolated.
"If you only have media in the language of the minority, they will be ghettoised," she told AKI.
"It has to be part of a much broader project of integration which means they should be allowed to speak in Italian, but also in their own language."
Clough-Marinaro paints a bleak picture of Italian politics under the new government and sees difficulties for immigrants ahead.
"The political situation doesn't help, under the last Berlusconi government, the right-wing saw immigration as a security issue, a crime issue," she told AKI.
"The new government is not going to do very much to emphasise the important element of immigrants, especially with the Northern League having such strong weight."
Berlusconi won the election but his working majority has been delivered with the support of the anti-immigrant Northern League which won eight percent of the vote.
On Tuesday, Berlusconi said that Italy would close its borders to illegal immigrants.
Bajram Osmani, a prominent member of the Roma (gypsy) community, is the director and host of The Roma Voice or Romano Krlo, broadcast via Radio Onda D'Urto from the northern Italian city of Brescia.
Osmani arrived in Italy in 1991 from newly-independent Kosovo, after escaping a tense situation in the Balkan country.
He uses his radio programme to promote Roma culture in Italy, where the group is underrepresented in both the public and private mainstream media, although many in the community are Italian citizens or were born in Italy.
Most radio stations and broadcasters are volunteers and do not receive any funding from the Italian state, which makes it difficult for them to succeed.
"This is a voluntary programme. In western Europe, you do it on your own, or you are out," said Osmani to AKI.
In eastern Europe, the Roma community is better organised. They have radio and television shows transmitting in the Romani language, magazines and other means of communication.
Osmani broadcasts news that is important to the Roma community, such as information about immigration processing - an issue that is fundamental for Roma immigrants in Italy.
While Osmani was not concerned about the new Berlusconi government , he said he appreciated the Serbian government for giving the Roma community an opportunity to participate in the forthcoming elections on 11 May.
During the elections in January 2008 in Serbia, two Roma candidates won seats in parliament.
Clough-Marinaro, an expert on the Roma community, said the Roma are subjected to serious media discrimination across Italy, and nothing would change until the country was penalised for its action.
"Unless something serious happens to force the media to stop this systematic discrimination, one radio programme is going to be a drop in the ocean," she told AKI.
Last year, the Italian government passed a controversial decree ordering the rapid expulsion of European Union citizens deemed a threat to public safety after the brutal murder of a woman, allegedly by a Romanian illegal immigrant in Rome.
The murder stoked tensions and anti-immigrant sentiment across the country.
In an apparent racist "revenge attack", masked assailants brandishing knives, clubs and chains, stabbed and beat four Romanians outside a supermarket in the capital days after the murder.
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