Pro-Immigrant Associations and Anti-Racism in Italy: Conflict and Cooperation in the Front Line

Abstract

In southern European countries such as Italy, in which immigration is a relatively new phenomenon, the development of a significant movement mobilising against discrimination and defending the rights of immigrants has been rather recent and rather less developed that in its northern European counterparts. Anti-racist movements are generally formed as a counter-mobilisation in relation to patterns of racism, discrimination and exclusion. Such movements have become more relevant in Italy since the 1980s, when for the first time in the history of the modern Italian state, large numbers of immigrants began to establish themselves on its territory. Partly because of the shame of the fascist racial laws and the axis with the Nazis, the question of race was a political taboo in post-war Italy. In the new democratic order that followed the liberation from Fascism, racism was not viewed as a significant social or political issue. This began to change in the 1980s when a number of associations began to emerge in defence of the new immigrants, in the face of hostility from certain political actors and sections of the population, and widespread and entrenched discrimination in the labour market, housing and the provision of a range of services. However, as this chapter will illustrate, the number of national or local organisations campaigning specifically on the core issue of anti-racism is relatively small,