Art in Migration: Neva Cocchi / The Phantoms FactoryThis article is also published in a thematic block Living on a Border within the art in migration magazine collaboratively published by Soho in Ottakring and KITCH. The texts and photos are contributed by the authors from every partner organization of the Living on a Border project.
It's hard to say how many undocumented migrants live and work in Italy, but they must be between 500000 and one million, while in Europe they are approximately 5 million and a half. "Clandestini" is their name in Italian, meaning not only "illegal people" but also criminal, terrorist, drug dealer, thief or, in other words, danger. This is the way they are portrayed by press and many politicians. Fear, racism and a new feeling of nationalism which was unknown in Italy less than ten years ago are the effects of this evergreen campaign. But who are in reality these Clandestini, as they are commonly called by everyone? They are men and women working in Italy without a job contract, they are cleaners employed by private houses or big cleaning companies, they are construction-workers, they are factory-workers, they are porters, they are "badanti", meaning that they look after an older person assisting him/her 24 hours per day. They are invisibles: they live, they work, they send money home, but they have no right to stay in our country and therefore they have no voice. Without an employment contract the payment is never fair or certain, very often workers are not paid and can not argue the pay: they are illegal and the boss can denounce them to police, they risk detention and eviction. A tragic "side effect" of being an irregular worker is the high danger of job injuries and lethal accidents during the working time. In a country where an average of four workers die at work everyday, the most affected category is represented by immigrants working in the construction industry, often employed for one day only. They work without safety equipment, loaded with the hardest jobs having to move from one construction side to another without the necessary professional skills. Their death is never declared, they work like invisibles and they die as invisibles.
With a shocking reportage in a mainstream Italian magazine, L'Espresso, the journalist Fabrizio Gatti unveiled the massive exploitation of migrants employed during the tomato harvest season in several regions of Southern Italy: hundreds and hundreds of immigrants hard-working in inhuman conditions, under the threatening tabs of armed gorillas, for a few euros per day. For a long time Medecines Sans Frontiers denounced the massive exploitation and the humanitarian crisis going on every year, but authorities never intervened. This does not surprise us; actually it is the whole labour system to rely on this illegal workforce in Italy, from south to north, from the farming to the building trade, from the tourist business to the assistance and care field. Similarly to the United States, where illegal migrants from Mexico are the backbone of the liberal market system, undocumented immigrants' labour force in Italy is vital to the economic system where competition between producers acts on salary reduction, precarity and the decrease of rights at work.
"Badanti" represent another category of invisible immigrant workers. Female, aged about 45, coming from Ukraine, Moldavia or Belarus, with a Master's Degree of no value in Italy: this is the typical "badante" living and working in an Italian family where she looks after the granddad. There are about 1 million of documented badanti - the figure rises day by day - those without papers must be several hundreds thousands. Italy is the European country with the higher rate of people over 65, nevertheless the social welfare system is unable to face the ageing process of the Italian society, based so far on the enlarged family system which no longer exists. These migrant women leave their families to help Italian families, leave their parents and sons to look after someone else's parents and sons. These sacrifices are not well paid back, as they live as invisibles. Many of them work without papers, accepting any work and salary condition, without going back to their families as they would be stopped at the border while trying to re-enter Italy. Like all immigrants, they ask for a regularisation process, too, but are only able to use the shortcut of Flows Decree, the law that nearly every year allows some quotas of workers to enter Italy. The application to get a quota is complicated, the procedure is slow, but the most humiliating aspect for migrants, is that they must behave like phantoms, pretending to be living in their country of origin, pretending that they are coming to Italy for the first time. According to the Flows Decree, the immigrant is invited to Italy by an employer, once the permission is given by the Italian government the immigrant can get the entry visa at the Italian embassy in her/his home country and pass the border. This is the official proceeding, the real praxis is different: the employers gets the permission for a person already working for him without employment contract, once the permission is given, the worker must get out of Italy irregularly, like a phantom, he goes to the Italian Embassy where he pretends to go to Italy for the first time and then he enters Italy regularly. If something goes wrong and he/she is caught by Borders Police or the embassy, he/she is expelled from Italy for ten days. Badanti of Caffé Babele - a project born in Reggio Emilia to promote the inclusion of women of the Eastern Europe in the local society - asked the Italian Government to change the Flows Decree proceeding, they made a public "coming out" saying "We are not invisibles, we want our papers and rights!".
Despite the massive criminalisation of undocumented migrants, being illegal is not a choice. It is the only opportunity to immigrate to Italy. The majority of documented migrants living in Italy stayed for a very long time without papers, waiting for a regularisation or the shortcut mentioned before. Italian policies on immigration are cutting down legal ways to come to Italy: family rejoining is getting more and more complicated, there are no visas for job searching, visas for workers are allowed every two years during the Flows Decree and asylum seekers are rejected. Italian policies on immigration create illegal migrants.
An illegal migrant is very often a woman or a man who saw the face of death while coming to Europe: she/he saw her/his mates drowning in the Mediterranean Sea, hibernated to death in fridge-cargos, choking in a truck, but this is yet another story.
Neva Cocchi is active within Melting Pot Europa.
ITALIANO Sono circa 700 mila i migranti senza permesso di soggiorno che abitano e lavorano in Italia. Sono chiamati clandestini, termine che nell'immaginario comune, diffuso da media e politici, equivale a criminale, terrorista, spacciatore. L'irregolarità, però, non è una scelta, ma l'unica via per arrivare in Italia, dal momento che la legge sull'Immigrazione ha ristretto ogni possibilità di raggiungere in maniera regolare questo paese, producendo, ogni anno, migliaia di migranti irregolari che nel nostro continente cercano migliori prospettive di vita. I "clandestini" altro non sono che fantasmi, donne e uomini invisibili riducibili in schiavitù perché non possono ribellarsi e protestare: verrebbero denunciati, incarcerati in un centro di permanenza temporanea e poi espulsi. Sono fantasmi anche quando incontrano la morte, sui luoghi di lavoro così come nei terribili viaggi in mare o a bordo di tir sovraffollati per raggiungere il sogno dell'occidente.
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