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Migrants face tougher times in Meloni’s Italy
STORY: Life is tough for asylum seekers in Italy – most are denied refugee status, barred from legal employment and, polls suggest, face discrimination.Now life for migrants looks set to get even tougher.Fresh from her election victory, Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni is expected to become prime minister later this month at the head of a right-wing coalition that has vowed to crack down on immigration and tighten Italy’s borders.Among promised measures are accelerated repatriations and more stringent asylum rules.Meloni has also called for a naval blockade of North Africa to prevent migrants from putting to sea and for renewed curbs on charity rescue ships.Members of the opposition have hit back at the proposals with trade unionist and newly elected left-wing parliamentarian, Aboubakar Soumahoro calling the plans “impossible”. ”GDP in Italy has not increased by keeping people on ships. Poverty has not decreased in Italy by stigmatizing migrants, and those who, in this case, the left, were supposed to do the exact opposite, have not cancelled those decrees. So there is nothing new, the decrees have never been cancelled and they must be cancelled”.The speed and scale of any Italian clampdown is likely to depend on who becomes interior minister.Meloni’s main political ally, Matteo Salvini, who heads the rightist League, held the job between 2018-19 and introduced a raft of anti-immigration measures.Some of these have since been watered down and he has said he wants the position back to reinstate his so-called security decrees. But political sources say Meloni is resisting his demand and wants a less confrontational approach, in the hope of getting European Union backing.Papa Mamkeur Wade from Senegal, told Reuters he waited 11 years before finally receiving an Italian residency permit in July that allows him to get legal employment. But it is only valid till 2024 and he fears it will not be renewed by the new government.”This success should not be used only to talk about immigration, and say that migrants are criminals as Salvini said. That’s not true. In 15 years, I have never even stolen a candle. I always tried to live a decent life, as best I could, but I never succeeded because of financial instability, because I always had to look for a piece of bread to bring home. Some days I succeeded, some days I didn’t.”Italy has taken in 171,000 Ukrainians since February – more than the number of boat migrants in the past three years.Meloni has called the Ukrainians “real refugees,” telling parliament in March that the government should “take advantage of the moment” and expel all “illegal migrants.”President of aid group ”Baobab Experience” Andrea Costa feels that race is a factor in the government’s decision-making. ”Is it a coincidence that the migrant we have helped in every Italian city has darker skin? I’m afraid not. I’m afraid it’s not a coincidence, and I believe that there has been years and years of xenophobic and racist propaganda to which, in my opinion, the centre-left has not been able to respond.”In her 2021 autobiography, Meloni said mass migration diluted ethnic identity and that Italy should favor welcoming in Christians.Soumahoro, a black Muslim from Ivory Coast, would not fit her national identikit. He came to Italy in 1999, worked as a laborer and gained Italian citizenship a decade ago. Now, as an elected parliamentarian, he has vowed to fight any bid to curb migration rights.
