Italy's tough rules and the staying permit

I have been criticised, sometimes, for writing against Italians about the treatment of immigrants in their country. Those critics argue, I should as well write about the good things Italians offer immigrants (fair and square). But somewhere along the lines I have poured out comments praising Italy’s Government(s) for their generosity in granting permit stay to illegal immigrants in the country more often than any other country in Europe.

I have nothing bad generally against Italians, more so to say, have Italian friends who have been of great help to many immigrants and I commend them for that. I will be among the last to label Italians, generally, as disrespectful and wicked to foreign nationals in their country having been helped greatly by an Italian family during my early experiences trying to make a living in the country. There are no ill-motives here but to write against the system of discrimination and laws which sometimes plays on like acts of segregation against immigrants in Italy.

The Government may have its reasons for putting certain laws in place in view of the difficulties they face about immigration. But that in no way give reasons for the recent harsh measures against immigrants.

The recent proposed rules, directly affecting immigrants, approved by the Senate which will officially become laws if further approved by the Chamber of Deputies, are most unfortunate and in some cases may have dire consequences against the health of all who live in Italy. Under some of these proposed tough measures; doctors will be given permission (willingly) to report to the police, illegal immigrants who come to seek medical assistance, also money transfer operators will be obliged to report to the police illegal immigrants who come for money transfers, the cost of fees for renewal of the staying permit to be increased to €200 – an increase over 100%. The approved proposals also indicates the permit stay to immigrants would be given with a points system which could be interpreted to mean an immigrant to be given the permit stay may be awarded, for example, 20 points. Any offence will reduce the points and when it comes to zero the permit is revoked, likely to be sent back home to the country of origin. This is unheard of anywhere in the world.

Many immigrants welcomed the Government’s new directives of renewing the staying permit as the application process was taken from the Police Headquarters (‘Questura’) to the Italian Post Office. The new process gave the applicant less difficulty not having to wake up in the early hours of the morning to queue before entering an office that opens 6 hours later to process the document. It was really a welcome relief, but no one expected to wait that long of a year and half to have the document in hand against the previous period of within 3 months. And as if that is not enough, in most cities, the renewed permit given to the applicant has some few days or weeks to expire or has already expired.

Some immigrants in this situation have expressed their anger about the Government handling of the whole process. One fuming immigrant could not understand why after waiting a year and half to collect his renewed permit it was given to him with an expiry date marked 3 months before of which he has to go through the whole renewal process, pay another fee and wait for another length of time (God knows when) to have the document.

I wish the Italian Senate in approving those tough rules against immigrants would have considered with the same measure the plight of those immigrants who keep on renewing their permit stay in this never ending story. That the Government will give similar thoughts to those immigrants who have suffered life long injuries working in Italy and have not been properly compensated and given the needed assistance, those immigrants who work in the country and have to wait till they are 65 years before benefiting from their contributions to the pension scheme but they may not live to see that age because of the risks they are exposed to on the job. And whilst we are still at it here, those immigrants who continue to work and pay their taxes, like other Italians, yet when it comes to Government grants and special bonuses they are excluded, those immigrants who despite living legally in Italy for many years cannot apply to do certain jobs, not even drive a taxi, because there is a law standing infront of them which says: ‘they are not Italian citizens’ …. the list could go further.

The Bossi-Fini law (legge Turco - Napolitano) on immigration about the staying permit made in 1998, clearly states, the application for renewal of the immigrant’s staying permit must be processed within 20 days. Unless otherwise, why does the applicant has to wait a year and half and also be given the document with an expired date printed boldly on it? Again I have not seen this anywhere in the world and there many nagging questions here. The Government may as well defend itself saying the numbers of immigrants have increased as compared to the past and that the authourities cannot cope with the demands on renewals, hence the long delay. But the answer to that is, in one period within 18 months (between 2006 and 2008) the Government raked in an amount of €120 million (one hundred and twenty million euros) from the back of some 170,000 immigrants in the country in the course of processing their permit stay documents. So where will you place that argument of more demands and less work force? They have to employ more people since it does seem the permit stay document has become a money generating system for the State.

We aren’t going anywhere on resolving the country’s problems about immigration if it continues to heap all its woes on the influx of immigrants into the country thus bringing in ridiculous laws. There must be a pragmatic approach not looking only at the negative impact of immigration but as well as their contribution to the society. The success story of a Ghanaian Association in Italy (Ghanacoop) now in big business and also employs Italian workers is one typical example of what immigrants can offer towards development of the country they live in and there are others contributing towards a worthy course in this direction in Italy.

If the Government goes ahead on its tough stand with stringent laws on immigrants they will be seen in a different light and that will open more grounds for its’ critics to label them as racists. This is not what they want to hear.