Urban Cultural Policy and Immigrants in Rome

Abstract

By 1980, Italy, just like other countries in Southern Europe, had begun its gradual, almost unacknowledged transformation from being a country of emigration to one of immigration. As of 1 January 2004, immigrants constituted about 4.5 per cent of the total population (Caritas and Migrantes, 2004: 97), many of them people fleeing from political instability and ethnic conflict in their countries, while others have mainly economic motivations. Nevertheless, Italy still lacks clear immigration and settlement policies. Current policies have given very little room for cultural integration of immigrants and their active participation in cultural life. While the rights of autochthonous cultural minorities have been fairly well safeguarded in Italy since the postwar period, and guaranteed by the Constitution (article 6), the issue of developing innovative policies aimed at the protection and promotion of cultural identities among the new immigrant minorities has not yet been seriously tackled at the national level.