Edoardo Patriarca, president of the Steering Committee of the Migration Festival
“Beyond the sea, beyond the walls. A horizon of hope for a new city” is the theme of Migration Festival this year scheduled from 22nd to 31st October (here is the complete programme).
A “widespread” event, which also includes media partners Christian familywhich involves several cities in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto and born from the collaboration between the Migrantes Foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Porta Aperta of Modena and over 50 local bodies and organizations which aims to be a voice expressed by civil society on migratory phenomena. The basic idea is to contribute to the public debate on the topic, so as not to leave the discussion only to social and political forces which by their nature have legitimate specific or partisan objectives not directly linked to the profound reality of the phenomenon.
Edoardo Patriarca, former senator and spokesperson for the Third Sector Forum, is the president of the Steering Committee of the Festival which turns ten this year and continues to go against the grain.
Patriarca, what does this achievement mean?
«Meanwhile, it is already in itself a sign of hope. It means that we were able to hold our ground on a divisive issue that was not at all easy to deal with. I would say that there are three objectives that we have set ourselves in recent years and which we reiterate even today, in this not very happy season regarding immigration. If I have to make an honest assessment, I would say that in these ten years, despite the proposal that we have repeatedly put forward, we have not made much progress. Maybe we even did some backwards.”
So what are these objectives?
«The first is to overturn the narrative that has loomed over the migration phenomenon for years. I’m talking about all that rhetoric linked to fear, security, border control, the theme of identity, the fear of others and of encounters. It is a cultural operation that seeks to restore value and meaning to abused words, violated in their profound meaning. Because identity is important, of course, but it is only really important if it meets other identities. Borders are important, but they are important if they can be crossed, if they make us imagine an elsewhere, if they do not become walls or barriers.”
Pope Leo also underlined the values of welcome and integration for Italian society in the recent meeting at the Quirinale with President Mattarella.
«The Pontiff touched on the theme of identity, saying that the identity of a people is built and looks to the future if it meets other identities. And this is the history of Italy, which unfortunately the current government and the current majority deny. This is why this year we have strengthened the educational and pedagogical aspect even further. We have expanded the network of collaborations with universities – from Modena to Florence, Ferrara, Rovigo, Perugia, up to Sapienza – precisely because the topic of multiculturalism needs to be treated carefully. We receive more and more requests for meetings with schools to reflect on how to educate in meeting cultures. There are many children who come from other countries and will live in ours. It is a reality that we can no longer ignore.”
And the second objective?
«Telling things as they are, telling the truth, countering the falsehoods and lies that are still spreading. From Istat data and Caritas reports, we can safely say that there is no invasion in this country. We have the lowest rate of foreigners in Europe. It is not true that foreigners steal jobs from Italians. It is not true that the issue of security is mainly linked to people who come from other countries. We must disprove this logic by taking on the real problems. Warning: we must not deny the issue of safety, but address it with truth and honesty. Let’s think about the logic of the border: if we talk about threats to the southern borders of our country, but then we look at what is happening in Ukraine on the eastern border, which threatened borders are we really talking about? Are the boats arriving from Tunisia really the border to be guarded?”.
There is also an economic question to clarify.
“Certainly. We are indebted to the families of migrants who are in our country. In terms of GDP, it is more what they produce than what we give in supporting them. We are indebted to them, not vice versa, as is often said. The data says exactly the opposite: they are producing more than many others. This too is a story that must be exposed.”
What is the concrete political agenda that arises from the Festival?
«With the help of the scientific committee chaired by Massimo Ambrosini, we have rewritten an agenda of concrete points so that the migration phenomenon is addressed with foresight and structurality, not as an emergency. We ask that it be possible to arrive in this country regularly, with a passport and plane ticket, with the possibility of looking for work with a serious project. We portray the topic of citizenship, considering that almost 11% of the children who attend our schools are in fact without citizenship. We propose again the theme of migrant women, of trafficking, of the need to adjust the rules to prevent this shame.”
One of the topics discussed in this edition is that of religious freedom.
«Yes and it is crucial. Religious freedom is increasingly under threat around the world. Here in Modena the Islamic community wants to open a mosque and there is resistance. We say that religious freedom applies to Christians and applies to everyone, not because we are good or kind, but because this is a pillar of democracies. When religious freedom is threatened, a pillar of democratic society is crumbling.”
Also address the thorny issue of prisons.
«Recent decrees have filled prisons with minors of foreign origin. Let’s say that, in addition to putting them in prison more or less rightly, we need to think about the aftermath, about how these very young kids should be reinserted. Perhaps it is better to follow different, alternative recovery paths. And then there are the unaccompanied minors: the government has cut funding to the municipalities but these children are practically abandoned. We are squandering a resource: there are almost 22 thousand kids in a country that will lose population in the next few years, that will no longer see children being born. Throwing these young people away like this with the logic of “I’m throwing away the key” is a sign of moral decay and a lack of vision for the future of the country.”
One of the strengths of the Festival is its diffusion across the territory.
«Yes, last year there were fifteen cities between Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, this year there are even more. For the first time we are stopping in Bologna, on 30 October, with a discussion panel in which we managed to involve business associations to tell them – who rightly complain about the lack of millions of workers – that they must also take responsibility for animating and supporting inclusion policies. It’s not just a question of workforce to be used in the company – a language that I don’t like at all – but of people who work and who then, when they leave, need homes, family reunions, structures that help them. Even entrepreneurs must be political subjects, participate in this comparison, and above all they must not consider foreigners just labor and that’s it. Housing policies are issues that also concern business organizations.”
