Milan, 18th April, 2010

We have received and are publishing a thesis written by Jasmina Munteanu for her degree. We suggest careful reading by scholars, politicians, activists and all those who wish to understand the phenomena of antiziganist and racist sentiments rife in Italy. These phenomena have followed a disturbing upward trend, particularly over the last few years, so much so they have created a deviant culture detached from the roots of democracy and European civilization. This culture has now found its way into the institutions, police forces, magistracy, schools, the world of labour and the media.

A culture that has become part of the shared opinions of the Italian people: people who continue to define themselves as tolerant and peaceful, but who have reached the point of considering the Roma people, migrants and vulnerable ethnic groups as  little more than subhumans or parasites to be fought, imprisoned, or expelled from the country. Jasmina Munteanu’s essay is based on precise data, with documents and eye witness statements of scientific worth. We believe it is a precious tool for understanding a frightening social phenomenon which is taking place, anachronistically, in the European Union – a union of countries that have vowed to retrieve the fundamental value of human rights and a respect for ethnic minorities.

While it is true that Nazi-Fascism led to a part of society accepting insane racist ideologies, it is also true that in its relations with the outside world, Hitler and Mussolini’s brutes always tried to keep the round-ups, the deportations and violations of human rights a secret. Those responsible for today’s persecution of the ethnic minorities in Italy, however, are expressing their unacceptable ideologies in public. Newspapers and TV channels are passing off cruelty, intolerance and racism as “security policies” or offering the tragedy of a people as a sort of macabre political-mediatic show.

Rome, Romanians, Roma

by Jasmina Munteanu

Between security and integration

Abbreviations 

EB Equality body

EC European Council

ECJ European Court of Justice

EU European Union

ERRC European Roma Rights Centre

MS Member States

NGO Non Governmental organisation

RED The Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC

Concepts

Assimilation The goal with total assimilation is a total integration of the immigrant in the arrival country. The immigrant should fully become a French citizen like the French example of total assimilation.

Caritas Italiana Is a Christian organisation active in 64 countries worldwide,

working to support poor people in establishing secure livelihoods. One of the areas in which they specialize is among others immigration.

EveryOne Group “is an organization of people who operate outside any political wing or faction and who are committed to fight discrimination and in particular the persecution of minority groups and in favour of human rights”, among these Roma people.

A Gypsy  is a nomadic person whose tribes came originally from India, entered Europe in 14th or 15th century and lives now all over the world”. “A person who moves from place to place as required for employment”. The political correct term to use is Roma, the word Gypsy has an unpleasant undertone excluding these people from the rest of the society, seeing them as aliens that are not able to integrate in the societies.  

Irregular migrant  Describes a person staying in a country’s territory without a  residence permit. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe prefers to use the term “irregular migrant” and not other terms as “illegal migrant” or “migrant without papers”.

Ius soli – gives the person the right to obtain citizenship in the country of birth, an example of a country with this system is France.

Ius sanguinis – the person can only become citizen by being born of a parent with the respective citizenship, an example of a country is Italy.

Nomad “A member of a group of people who have no fixed home and move according to the seasons from place to place in search of food, water, and grazing land”. “One of a race or tribe that has no fixed location, but wanders from place to place in search of pasture or game.” “Nomads” refers on Roma and Sinti people.

Roma The word used by the gypsies to define themselves, meaning man in the language Romani. Roma is the political correct term including different communities with different needs, potentials, living in different social, economic and political environments. They identify themselves as an ethnical group with a common history and language and the lack of an own territory.

Sinti Some of the Roma people emigrated into Northern Italy, Germany, Austria and Slovenia  in the beginning of the 13th century and are living in the country since then. They prefer to be called “Sinti”, coming from “Sindh” the religion of their provenience, the Western part of Pakistan.

Special thanks to:

Branka Likic-Brboric, Marzia Basili, Vanja Burlin,

Alfonso Giordano and Stig Burlin.

1. Introduction

The Roma people are one of the largest ethnic minorities in the European Union. They are divided into several groups, depending on their geographical and historical background. In the 15th century a large part of them settled in Romania and the rest started to emigrate in different countries of Europe. When Romania entered the European Union in January 2007, their Roma community also became EU citizens, having the same rights as the citizens within the other Member States. Romanian citizens are at the moment the second largest group of immigrants with the residence in Italy. Just in the region of Latium, where the capital of Italy Rome is situated, there are 92.258 Romanian residents. However, among these Romanians, there are also Romanian citizens of Roma ethnicity, being part of the so called “Roma people”. The number of Roma situated in Italy reaches up to 150.000 people, many of them living in settlements outside the city centres. There are different categories of settlements, depending on the regulation status they have obtained by the different municipalities: authorized, semi-authorized and irregular settlements with critical standards of living. With the justification of solving the emergent situation caused by the high number of immigrants in Italy, the Italian government has put in force a so called Security Package. This reorganisation gives municipalities the right to authorize or shut down the settlement using the police force in order to expulse the irregular Roma people.  The Italian media has during the last two years visualised many negative cases as crimes, harassment, burglary and raping involving Roma people. The prejudices that can be read between the lines have engendered my motivation to find out more about the Roma people in order to scrutinize the myth and separate the later from actual facts. In order to fight against discrimination based on race of ethnical origin, the Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC was formed in June 2000. The purpose of the directive is the equal treatment between persons apart from race or ethnic origin in the Member States, including the Roma people.

1.1 The aim of the study and Research Questions

The main aim of the study is to address the issue of discrimination of Roma people in the context of the European Unions enlargement and ongoing Europeanisation of the Italian migration regime. A current existing discrimination is assumed after reading reports from the European Commission with critics to the Italian government and its way of treating Roma people. The starting point for the research will consequently be the Racial Equality Directive and its implementation into Italian law. A closer look will be offered to the security measures taken by the Italian government and their impact on the Roma people’s living situation. The focus of the case study is the Roma people living in the Region of Latium in Italy in camps belonging to the municipality of Rome. Interviews with two non governmental organisations Everyone group and the Red Cross working for the improvement of Roma peoples life situation are used in order understand how the discrimination is taking shape. The main research question to be answered in the research is: Do the migration laws and the Security Package that Italy has approved follow the European Unions´ Racial Equality Directive and the European Data Protection Law?

1.2 Outline

A top-down structure will be used in the outline of the research, in order to start from the European Directives and see how Italy has implemented them and how this impacts the Roma people. The thesis is divided into four parts  The first part is dedicated to the theoretical approach and the main concepts used in the research, presenting facts about common European policies, the implementation into the Member States, the Italian administration, irregular migration, freedom and security and the inclusion of Roma politics into national law and policies.  The second part will spotlight European Union’s approach to migration with the creation of the Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC in order to fight discrimination in the member States, followed by its implementation into Italian law. The Italian migration laws are than presented: law Martelli 39/90, the Italian citizenship law, Turco Napolitano 40/98 and the Bossi-Fini law 189/2002 using documents from the Italian government and papers by other scholars.  The third part will focus on the regulation of the European data protection law followed by the Italian security package and the way it is put into practice by the Italian police and military force.  The fourth and last part of the paper will focus on the Roma people illustrating their provenience and presence in Italy, the public discourse their living situations in the settlements in and outside of Rome and three important episodes presented by the Italian media.

2. Research method and sources

In order to answer the research questions and meet the objectives various selected documents and published literature on the Italian migration regime in general and Roma situation in particular have been used. Part of the material was in Italian as for example the Italian Laws not available to find in English. This is not just a problem for the research, but also for the immigrants present in Italy. Hence, the first problem was the comprehension and the translation of the material into English. This can lead to a distortion or misinterpretation of facts if the proficiency of Italian is insufficient, as expressed by Karl. R. Popper “The modification of a single word can change the significance of an entire text”. Antiseri (1996) uses H.G. Gadamer to explain that translating a text from the original language, in this case from Italian to English, can never result in a pure reproduction of the original text. The end result is instead a reproduction of the comprehension of the facts given in the text of origin. The translator must take the responsibility of the interpretation of the text of origin.  This analysis of documents is combined with a qualitative study, mainly half-structured interviews with three persons working close to Roma people. The method of interview has been used in order to gather information about certain events and to find out the subjective estimation of the interview persons. As described in the method book by Teorell and Svensson (2007) a mixture of these two interview models is frequently used. The goal with an interview is to get a detailed and authentic answer as far as it is possible. There are several criteria’s set in order to achieve this as for example the interviewed person’s motivation to answer the questions, the sense of confidence for the interviewer and the possibility of the interviewed persons to give independent answers. The first contact step in order to ask for the permission of making an interview must clearly describe the scope with the interview and the value of the persons´ answers for the thesis. The questionnaire (Appendix 1) was delivered using written electronic post as the source of in order to avoid language misunderstandings and difficulties caused by not being able to follow the interview in person when the interview is made face to face or on the telephone. Using a questionnaire sent by electronic post has avoided the pressured situation the interview person has to confront when the interview is set in person.  This method does not give the interview person the possibility to put a question in case of encountering an unclear question or a question with many ways of interpretation.  Moreover, the method does not give the interviewer the occasion to make successive questions directly. The questionnaire used for the interview left a rather free space of comprehension and the chance to reverse if the interviewed persons contradict sections of the questionnaire. This was done in order to give them confidence since they are experts in their different fields of work. A half-structured questionnaire with a great number of questions has been used in order to graze on several perspectives of the work with Roma people. The questions were prepared taking in consideration the present situation of the Roma people by reading reports and finding information from different sources as internet, books, professors and lectures. The level of language used in the interviews was simple in order to avoid misunderstandings. Both answers and questions were written in Italian and were afterwards translated by the author using external help from a professional. These three interview persons were chosen in order to see the implementation of Italian policy and politics from three rather different positions. The interviewed individuals have been asked for the authorisation of using their name in the thesis but the choice of some of them to remain anonymous has been respected.

The first questionnaire was made with a Lieutenant Colonel (asked to be anonymous), responsible for the Security of the Roma and Sinti settlements that belong to the Municipality of Rome. A formal questionnaire paper was sent to him by electronic post on 9th May 2009 on the subject of security and control measures, identification process, authorization and legalization considering the Roma and Sinti settlements. The aim was to find out how the Italian Security Package directives are put into practice and if any difficulties are confronted. The Colonel did not answer the last four questions on the topic of the police force use of violence towards the people living in the “nomad camps” and the measures taken against persons that use violence towards the camps, for example right-wing groups. In his answer, received on the 16th May 2009, he used the words “nomads” and occupants for Roma/Sinti people and”camps” referring to the settlements. This can depend on the questions set where the word nomad was mentioned in absence of other well-known terms. Together with his answers, the Colonel delivered also a document describing the authorized and the semi-authorized camps in the Municipality of Rome. It was hard to get a picture of how policy and political measures have influenced the Security field from the answers received. 

The second interview person is a province delegate of the Italian Red Cross taking part of a group of volunteers working since two years in the nomad camps in the Municipality of Rome in order to help with sanitary affairs in general and give special assistance to minors. A questionnaire paper was sent on 11th May 2009 by electronic post with the aim of getting to know facts about the role of the Red Cross, security and control measures, the living situation in the Roma settlements, the Red Cross delegates personal experiences from field, the Roma people, the instruments given by the institutions and eventual solution ideas regarding Roma peoples´ living conditions and future. The Red Cross is a politically independent organisation and for that reason the delegate did not answer the questions pertaining to Italian politics in her reply of 15th May 2009. The Red Cross volunteers´ aim is to offer help to the people in the camps and this may give a “humanitarian image of the situation”. Same types of questions regarding security were used for both the Red Cross Province Delegate as for the Lieutenant Colonel in order to see the difference between their working positions.

The third interview person is Roberto Malini, responsible for the work with the Roma people within the “Everyone Group”, a non governmental organisation which bases its campaign on continuous study of the Italian and International human laws. The Everyoune group hands also in researches and motion texts to the European Parliament, the Commission and the Council. The questionnaire form was sent to him by electronic post on 8th of May 2009 in order to find out more about the role of Everyone group, the activist work, the Roma people, security and control measures, the Italian Government and Law in confront with Roma people, the Italian media, the public opinion and the implementation of the Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC in the Italian legislation. The same questionnaire was used for the interview with Everyonegroup and the Red Cross. The questions were classified in four different blocks, starting from personal experiences, media, Roma people and ending with the political field. The idea was to get a rather personal view of these individuals being in close contact with the Roma people, their picture of how the Italian government and politicians deal with the subject and their personal opinion for the future work. Malini replied on 17th of May 2009 and his answers could be divided into four blocks: cases that have gathered attention in Italy, the public opinion influenced by right-wing groups, the activist anti-discrimination work and the implementation of RED. The activist representing the Everyonegroup works on a political level with the rights of Roma and Sinti people and can give a broader depiction of the situation tackled when lobbying towards Italian politicians.

The answers of the questions will be used throughout the thesis in order to show the point of view of the three interviewed individuals in all different areas.  The opinions of the interview persons from the Everyone group and from the Red Cross are subjective and impact on the result of the paper colouring it and leading it in a certain direction. Their experiences are however the closest level that has been able to reach in order to present Roma peoples living situation. The person working for the Everyone group could be partial because he works in order to stop and prevent the discrimination against Roma people. His vocation might lead to accusations against the Italian government and the Italian politicians but it may possibly also correspond to the reality. In order to show a reliable picture, several reports sent by the European Commission to the Italian government will be used.

A study of three events discussed and enlighten in the Italian media has been done in order to show the way the media pictures Roma people and see if this also can be an element contributing to the negative picture of Roma people in the Italian society. It is important to underline that more than three cases have gained attention in the Italian media, but this three have been chosen because they have been mentioned by the European Commission and by the Everyone group.

3. New Migration Patterns

As an introduction of the area under discussion, this part of the study contains terms that are important in order to understand when studying the migration question within the politics of a national state. The use of a top down perspective with the impact of the European Union on the Member states and the aspects characterizing ethnical minorities are being discussed.

3.1 Common European policies

In order to create the rules for entry and exit of foreign citizens and to maintain the control and sovereignty of the state over its territory, the creation of immigration policies is fundamental. Integration of the immigration policies has been an important development within the European Union. Ette and Faist (2007) define the present phase of integration as an “increasing communitarisation” where the role of the national state in policy making has been reallocated to the level of European Union. Ette and Faist have designed two ways to describe the need of a European cooperation on immigration. As a consequence of an immigration that has become more complex to control, the states ask for a universal solution for their internal struggles. Secondly, the Member States require protection of their territories in order to solve the problems created by global movement and crime. This generates a will to collaborate creating a common European policy and law structure. Other reasons to collaborate are the conflicts between ethnic and minority groups; right-wing groups, the public opinion and scarce resources within the Member States pushing towards cooperation on supranational level. These national struggles have as a natural consequence the cooperation within the EU followed by the pressure from this community to reach the goals set. Ette and Faist use the term Europeanisation to explain to explain the influence of the EU toward its Member States. Europeanisation is based both on a top down and a bottom up procedure between the Member States and the EU.  They are two forms of Europeanisation, the prescriptive Europeanisation when the EU indicates what a MS is required to do in order to achieve a certain European level, offering none or just some freedom of action in the national policy making. Secondly, the discursive Europeanisation, in this situation the EU provides guidelines and offers the MS the possibility to elaborate its own policies. These are three steps used to define the procedure of Europeanisation:

1. “The development of a governmental system and the formation of particular policies at the European level”

2. The policies created in step one are influencing the internal policy-making process

3. The internal policies and politics are constrained to adjust to the European stage of progress

3.2 Implementation in the member states

Having these steps clear, we now take a look on the process of changing the policies and politics within the Member states. The study of Radaelli (2003) regarding the Europeanization of public policy is used by the Ebba and Faist in order to distinguish between four types of changes:

1. Intertia implies that a change has not occurred and can be a result of the disapproval of the MS towards the EU policies. As a consequence the MS have difficulties with implementation of directives, object towards EU-changes or remark on the directives given by the EU.

2. Absorption describes a movement of the national politics and policies towards the European conditions without an adjustment of the domestic policy and politics.

3. Transformation is the phase where the national policy or politics transform. An example of a policy change of this kind is the anti-discrimination directive of the EU (Racial Equality Directive)

4. Retrenchment can arise when the national governments diverge from the European immigration policy. An example is the Spanish quota policy on irregular migration. The same phenomena can be observed in Italy where a immigration quota is being decided by the government using guidelines from the labour market.

Finally, Ette and Faist stress on the fact that the migration policies are well-rooted into the role played by the national states that fails to control the outcomes of its migration policies when it focuses only on law-making at the national level. The construction of the EU is characterized by a reduced capacity of intervention when it comes to the internal affairs of the Member States. Therefore, the impact of the European Union on immigration policies within the MS is limited. 

3.3 The Italian administration

A closer look will now be given on Italy’s national administration. As described by Veikou and Triandafyllidou (2004), the implementation and enforcement of the Italian immigration policy is shaped “by the organisational culture and the structure of the relevant public services”. Some characteristics of the Italian administration and organisation are pointed out by Veikou and Triandafyllidou:

1. Division “between national and regional levels in policy making and enforcement of immigration laws” – decentralizing the decision making towards the regional offices.

2. Legal provisions unadjusted to changes of the society and required by policies. Political outbreaks that interrupt the immigration work with a long-term view.

3. The inertia of old attitudes characterizing the administrative structure being under transition towards a more modern type of institution.

4. Public workers on high position posts put into practice their political proposals (to a certain point).

5. Local practices violate the national laws and the increased regional competences creating a problem of were the decision should be taken.

6. Structure vagueness in decision and competence between authorities and regional administrative bodies. Irregularity when private or political actors also play a role in the implementation process.  

3.4 Irregular migration

The “negative” consequence of the increasing migration flows is the irregular migration that can also be entitled undocumented or illegal migration. The networks of irregular migration are conducted by so called “migration agents” helping the migrants to cross the borders and offer them job opportunities or lead them into trafficking or prostitution. Persons with tourist visas staying in the visiting country after the limit of three months become irregular. The status of an illegal migrant can change to legal when the hosting country changes the migration policy. A legal migrant can also become illegal loosing her/his job, not renewing the staying permit or committing an illegal act. Illegal migration creates a will of strict border regulation in order to face the heavily uncontrolled entries into the state.

3.5 Freedom and security

Freedom and security are two different concepts important in the study of movement of citizens. Freedom is described by Guild, Carrera and Balzacq (2008) as liberty, with laws made in order to protect the individuals in the society, as for example the treaties of the International Human rights and the European Unions. Security on the other hand, is described as a public good in a society composed by different groups and individuals, where some of them are being more protected than others depending on their position in the society.  The construction of a “permanent state of fear” where a conflict between data protection, fundamental rights and liberty is created can lead to an insecure situation for the individual. The security area meets a problem between the methods used by the European Community and the intergovernmental method. It contains a lack of reliance at both national and EU level because it is hard to show between which authorities the data regarding identification of irregular immigrants has been exchanged and how the data has been used. Protection of the liberty should be the first priority in the Member States and security should just be an instrument used in case of its violation, consider Guild, Carrera and Balzacq,

3.6 Inclusion of Roma people

Now the focus will be set towards the inclusion of Roma people in the immigration policies and politics. Martin Kovats (2003) explains that policy making based on “ethnic disparity” creates social conflicts and tensions between the minority population (in this case being the Roma people) and the majority population. This creates prejudices and keeps the minority in a segregated position in the society, holding back the possibility of integration. In its way, social disintegration and growing discrimination along ethnic lines contributes to the empowerment of racist right-wing politics across Europe. Difficulties in achievement of equal treatment for the unprivileged groups in the society depend not only on the priorities of the governments, but also on the economic efforts. The ethical and political agenda of the organisations has to compete with the interests of the rest of the population, sharing scarce resources. The agenda of Roma politics is created using the knowledge regarding the needs, goals and capacities of the group. The Roma are not politically united inside their living states because they do not share the same language, culture, religion, identity, history or ethnicity. They need support from people outside the community in order to be able to change their marginalized position as well as combating the picture of being an unwanted minority for their hosting societies, explains Kovats. A top-down Roma representation helps the state and the institutions to cooperate, legitimizes the debate about Roma people’s rights and improves the political awareness among the Roma themselves. The Council of Europe has recognized a European Roma Forum working as a top-down organisation in order to represent the Roma people around the EU Member States. Kovats (2003) describes the top-down representation also as a risk of restraining the progress of a democratic Roma politics by not making people feeling part of the process. Grassroots organisations fighting for the rights of the Roma can use this forum in order to gain political power. They play an important role and impact on their situation. Their objective is to achieve a condition of equal treatment of the Roma by stabilizing the reliability of front persons representing the Roma community in the politics and also by getting attention from the society in order to get support. Working for Roma peoples rights means not only lobbying towards the public authorities and institutions, but also educating the Roma communities.

4. European directives and Italian laws

This part offers a closer look on the measures taken in order to combat the discrimination towards the Roma people existing in the society, starting from the description of the Racial Equality Directive and continuing with its implementation into Italian law.

4.1 The Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC

The Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC (RED) adopted by the European Council in June 2000 introduced the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin. It contains of 19 articles and prohibits direct or indirect discrimination of any group or person based on racial or ethnical origin in the fields of employment, education social protection, access to public services and vocational training. The RED gives minimum legislation requirements to the EU-countries. The first step is the establishment of an Equality Body including Ombudsmen, Labour Inspectorates and Commissions with the capability to analyze discrimination problems and find possible solutions. The Racial Equality Directive permits organisations legitimized by the Member States to support the needs of discriminated persons, even in court. MS have the responsibility to encourage the channel of communication between non-governmental organisations and social partners. Statistics show that the Roma people have been the group represented in highest amount of complaints. Just in Italy, 282 cases of ethnic discrimination have been reported, compared with 157 in Belgium and 119 in the United Kingdom.

After the implementation of the directive into the national laws, the Member States are obligated to give a report to the European Commission that works like a guardian following-up national laws in order to see if the Directive has been implemented correctly. If the report does not arrive to the Commission within the stabilized deadline, the MS are obliged to begin a so called breaching/infringement procedure. The procedure is done using one of these two instruments: the “Non-communication procedure” with the right of motivating the reasons of not handing in the report of the national implementation to the European Commission within two months. Secondly, the “Non Conformity” procedure where the MS receives an announcement regarding the necessary measures that have not been taken regarding the directive. The state will be given a reasonable time to put the legislation in conformity. Member States not respecting the directive should get sanctions. 

The transposition deadline for the implementation of the Racial Equality Directive into the Member States laws was on 19th of July 2003.

4.2 The European Unions data protection law

The Directive 95/46/EC has been shaped by the European Parliament and the Council and put into force on the 24 October 1995 in order to protect individuals in the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data. The main objective is:

Art 1: in accordance with this Directive, Member States shall protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and in particular their right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data.

The gathering of data in the European Union is done using different systems and databases collecting data on DNA results, passport information and criminal records. The data is later exchanged between different authorities across the borders of the Members States. This law underlines that it is not allowed to gather information about racial or ethnic origin.

4.3 Legal framework for regularisations in Italy

In order to understand better the situation of the immigrants on the Italian territory, a picture of Italy’s immigration laws will be given in the order of the year they have been put into law. The Italian law has mostly focused on immigration laws and not on anti-discrimination law.

Law Martelli

The Law Martelli n. 39 of 28th of February 1990 subjects regulated asylum-seekers, extra-communitarian immigrants that want to enter and stay in the country and extra-communitarian and stateless persons already living on the territory of the State, regulating the presence of 216,037 foreign citizens. The measures taken consist of the annual planning of migratory flows, seasonal employment of immigrant workers and confirm the equal treatment between foreigners and Italian citizens.

Italian citizenship

In order to obtain the Italian citizenship the regular stay within the country borders for a period of ten years is required. The citizenship law from 1992 is based on jus sanguinis, meaning that the child born on the Italian territory has to have an Italian mother or father in order to automatically become an Italian citizen.   The children of the immigrants, even if they are born, raised and educated in Italy, have to apply for the citizenship at the age of 18, representing a jus soli aspect set up in the same jus sanguinis law.

Turco-Napolitano

The second immigration law issued is Turco-Napolitano 40/98, also identified as the “Unique text of legal dispositions concerning immigration and norms regarding the condition of foreigners” and was created in order to regulate the privileges and responsibilities of the non-Italian citizens. Law 40/98 contains 49 articles in three important areas: security, fully integrity and integrity for the irregular migrants and recognizes the immigrants and their right to residence and work, as well as family reunion and social integration. At that time, the irregular presence in Italy was between 235.000 and 295.000 regarding to the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs.  In October 1999 when the law was put into force, strict controls, in order to solve a situation of emergency created by the irregular migration, were inserted into the law. A quota setting for new migration was set established by the president of the Council of Ministers and the Parliament, depending on the request of the labour market. Law 40/98 permits the expulsion of irregular immigrants and equalizes the irregular presence with criminal behaviour and introduces the Centres of identification, presented in the later part of the paper regarding security measures.

Bossi-Fini

The next normative after the Turco-Napolitano law is the “Bossi-Fini” law 189/2002 which amends the immigration law 40/98 and introduces new clauses. It consists of norms concerning immigration and asylum in Italy, a longer period of stay in the centres of identification and re-enforces the border controls.  An obligation inserted with this new law is taking fingerprints from the immigrants wanting to obtain or renew their residence permit. 

The Italian Security-package

The Italian government has continuously worked in order to find new instruments and solve the emergent situation and maintain security in the country. In October 2007 the Italian government lead by Romano Prodi put in force a directive giving the police the right to expulse European citizens, Decree nr. 181/2007, in order to maintain the security in the country. Security measures have been put in force in 14 Italian cities in order to send out the Roma people from the urban areas. The security-package, put in force by the Law 125/2008 in Italy was made to combat the spreading illegality co legated with illegal immigration and organized criminality. The president of the Italian Council of Ministers enforced special commissioners called prefects to represent the government on the local level with the mission of solving “the extremely critical situation generated by the presence of numerous irregular and nomad foreigners who are permanently installed in the urban areas”.  The prefects have the power to authorize the camps, deduct persons living in the camps and identify them. In order to regulate the presence of the Romanian Roma a legislative decree has been added to the free movement of EU citizen 2004/38/CE, giving the permit to expel unregistered EU citizens towards their Member States. This has a negative impact on the Roma people, 80% of them being irregulars and also a large part of them being stateless. The persons living in the camps have been expulsed by the municipality administrations, without giving them an alternative place to live. An example of expulsion of the Roma people and the closure of a non authorized camp is the governmental ordinance from May 2008 that took place in three regions of Italy, among these Latium. Regarding the European Council Treaty, the only justifications valid to stop the free movement of citizens by driving out persons from the countries territory are: public health, policy and security. 

With the decision taken by the Ministers of Interior and Defence on the 29th of July 2008, Art. 7 of the Security Package gave the right to 3000 soldiers to control the Italian territory together with the police. The aim was to prevent criminality letting the forces to use arms “in areas requiring an increasing level of control”. The Italian police force has the right to confiscate the propriety of illegal residents and use the money in the area of combating the problems created by illegal migration. The same legislation allows the incarceration of persons who rent an accommodation to a foreign citizen illegally residing in the Italian territory, giving a sentence ranging from 6 months to 3 year’s.  The “Centres of identification and expulsion” adapted to identify illegal immigrants and send them to their provenience country. In case of not being able to identify the immigrant within 60 days, the immigrant is obligated to leave the Country within five days. . If the expulsed person does not leave Italy within five days, he/she is arrested for a duration which can last from six months to a year. Asylum seekers that have received an expulsion order will have to stay at the centres for a period up to 18 months.

The Red Cross has also the duty to gather data in order to identify the settlers coordinated by the Prefecture of Rome in the summer of 2008. If the Red Cross workers are asked to, they have to send the information gathered to the Italian police and the Italian judges, in order to create a map of where the Roma people live in Italy. The police force was responsible for the administrative part and in this case only the nomads giving their agreement were registered into the data base. A large part of them did not give their consensus, leading to an incomplete final result of for the data record..

The interview done with the Lieutenant Colonel confirms that the measures of control need to be increased and followed up in order to verify the status of the camp, the number of persons living there, the number of minors and the present sanitary conditions. The control procedure is made by the police forces that enter the camps early in the morning, with the scope of identifying the highest number possible of persons living in the camp. During the day, the persons living in the camps are outside begging, working and committing illegal actions, according to the Lieutenant Colonel. Persons without documents are being identified regarding the procedure regulated by the actual legislative norms. The data required for the identity control is the full name and surname, the place and the date of birth. Information regarding the ethnicity is necessary in cases where the person is settled in an illegal camp and has to be transferred to a regular one because it is important that he/she being is placed in a community sharing the same ethnicity. Non-communitarian and irregular individuals without a residence permit are being sent to the “Office of Immigration” (adherent to the police station) in order to continue the administrative part of their expulsion. In April 2009, in collaboration with the force of order, a new identification procedure has been effectuated in the seven authorized camps in order to give all the inhabitants an identification document entitled DAST - authorized document of temporary standing – allowing the nomads to stay in the camps.

As in all communities there are dangerous and violent persons so also in the camps. Irregular camps are a mixed of criminals “of the worst pedigree” as well as innocent, individuals living an honest life.  Arms and drugs are easily hidden inside the camps and in many cases the situations has been verified by the police investigations. Persons considered socially dangerous conform to the regulation of the Law nr. 1423 from 1956, art.1 are the ones involved in trafficking, making a living from criminal activities as well as persons putting to harms way the physic or moral integrity of minors as well as the health, the security and the public order in the society. “The living conditions of the nomad communities influence on their risk to commit crimes” , making them as a consequence dangerous for the society. Two examples are Casilino 900, an irregular camp, and La Martora, a semi-authorized camp, both situated in Rome, hosting persons with a high criminal rate.  The situation is much better in the authorized camps. A map giving a picture of all the location of the nomad camps was created in order to be able to analyze the criminal phenomena acts in the city and evaluate their occurrence.

4.5 The implementation of the RED in Italy

The Italian National law introduced specific anti-discrimination regulations in 1998, though a principle of equal treatment was introduced with the Italian constitution already in 1948.  Solutions to racial and ethnical discrimination through private law and direct and indirect discrimination by individuals and public authorities with definitions more or less corresponding to the Racial Equality Directive, but with an incomplete list of prohibited forms of discrimination were inserted with the 1998 Turco Napolitano 40/98 law. The government applied a decree including comprehensive rules about discrimination in respect of race and ethnic origin, without seeking advice from NGOs. Than a new decree was applied that can result in legal proceedings because it ads a supplementary legal regime.  Direct, indirect discrimination and harassment is forbidden following the regulations of the RED.  Alessandro Simoni (2003) writes that as a result of a hasty drifting “Unlike the Directive, the new act says that the unwanted conduct must have the effect of “creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment” (while the Directive says or)”, results in a different comprehension of the directive.  Discrimination on ground of nationality is excluded from Italy’s implementation of the directive.  For the implementation of the RED, Italy inserted a decree into the national law separate from the other anti-discrimination laws.  The “Etno Segregation” has been established cooperating with the labour union in order to make immigrants participate on the labour market. The Equality Body has has been combined with the Department for Equal Opportunities using personnel from public administration instead of being created independently.   The office has to report every year to the parliament and its purpose is to offer help and assistance to victims of discrimination, balancing the weakness created by having a specific race origin. This is done by elaborating certain suggestions for laws related to racial and ethnical discrimination. The responsibility of the state communicating with social partners and NGOs has not been added to the Italian Decree.

Regarding a report from the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) does not fulfil the requirement given by the EU Racial Equality Directive. An example of violation of the directive is for example violating Art. 2 that defines the four types of discrimination: direct, indirect, harassment and instruction to discriminate. In 2007 Italy violated the Art. 2 - using incorrect definitions in the national law, lacking a reversal of the burden of proof and of the protection against victimization in certain sectors.   The report from ERRC confirms that the Italian law also violates Art. 3(1) (h) of the Racial Equality Directive regulating “access to and supply of goods and services which are available to the public, including housing”, more about this will be presented when describing Roma peoples living situation.

Regarding a report from the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe Thomas Hammarberg, written in April 2009 Italy discriminates Roma and Sinti people by the actions taken of the local authorities. In his Memorandum written in July 2008 to the Italian Government, Hammaberg recommended the Italian Government to facilitate the access to housing and education of the Roma people.  The present living situation in the settlements is critical and the Italian authorities should not expulse the Roma people from the camps without offering them an alternative place of living.  An example given is the eviction of 45 Roma families from one camp in Rome in October 2008. The Mayor of Rome presented his plans to build regular settlements for all Roma living in the municipality by the end of 2009. The census used by the Italian police in order to identify the Roma people living in the camps is also criticized not following the EU Data protection law. The commissioner recommends Italy a National action plan “in accordance with the Council of Europe recommendations”. 

4.6 The picture presented by NGO’s 

The government invests millions of euro in order to eliminate the Roma, taking actions in order to stop the immigration, reject refugees and create an inhuman and downgrading situation for persons waiting for expulsion orders, expresses Roberto Malini from the Everyone group. Regarding Malini the Italian Government is making political statements to give the idea that they work against racism and xenophobia trying to avoid international inspections and when these do take place, the government tries to mask the stark reality. “The European Union and the United Nations have to work in order to avoid that the virus of Italian racism bewitches the continent”. The harassment against Roma people is similar to the one against the European Jews without any national state to belong to that defends their rights, in conform to Rudko Kawczynski, board member of the European Roma and Travellers Forum.  

The Province delegate from the Red Cross explains that in her opinion, the anti-discrimination work should be done in two ways – working with the Roma by learning them the rules of the society where they live and make them understand that the second generation has to integrate in the society by attending education and social services. On the other hand working towards the institutions in order to facilitate the integration of the youth Roma and push for the instruments needed in order to achieve a change.

Regarding Roberto Malini, it is difficult to fight for the anti-discrimination of the Roma, because the intolerance towards them has antique roots and medieval prejudices that tend to reassert when the society feels threatened. “The work within an organisation is about continuing being involved, because the seeds of change reach the politics, the media, the culture and the education area and allow a welcoming culture of equality to develop”. Persons on high governmental positions use the most vulnerable minorities and blame them in order to justify crises and failures or to maintain their position of power. The activism has to deal with insults and propaganda directed in order to create a social alarm, trying to prove them false. When a minority is pursued it dislocates itself and becomes a victim of abuse unable to defend itself, explains Malini. It is fundamental that the activism maintains contact with the families and the communities, recognizing and protecting them in order to make them feel able to represent their own population. Finally, to obtain these results, Malini articulates that you need knowledge, courage and consistency.

5. Roma people

This part will set the Roma people into the Italian context presenting their living conditions in the Settlements and their depiction in the Italian media.

Terms used in Italy to refer to Roma people are “Nomadi” Nomads, “Romi” Roma and “Zingari” Gypsies both in legislation and in official communication with international organisations. Roma people migrated from the North-Central India via the Upper-Indus Valley, Persia, the Caucuses, Armenia, Byzantium, Greece, the Kingdom of Serbia and to Eastern Europe. In the 15th century, after reaching Romania, they divided into small groups, each one having a different leader and then moved to the European countries. The media in West Europe is presenting the Roma people as a homogeneous group, using the word “rom” when referring to them, but there are different kinds of Roma people. In Romania for example there are 23 different groups, traditionally divided by professions: musicians, coppersmiths, brick makers, working in construction, woodworkers etc. Each group is divided in altered smaller groups on the basis of on their history and geographic provenience. According to The Romanian National Institute of Statistics, the Roma community in Romania is of 535.140 people, 2.5% of the entire population (2002). Unofficial data measures numbers from 1.5 to 2 millions, an equivalent of 8-9% of the entire population of Romania. From the 1990´s until today Roma people have emigrated from Romania to Italy. They have settled down on the Italian territory and large part of them live in so called “campi nomadi”, nomad camps. To be able to create an accurate picture of the Roma people situation in Italy, a study done by “Caritas Italiana” will be presented. The presence of the Roma people in Italy is calculated to a number between 120.000 and 150.000, among these 90.000 children and 70.000 Roma people with Italian citizenship. Roma people live mainly outside big cities like Rome, Milan, Turin and Naples.

5.1 In the settlements of Rome

The number of the communities present in Rome is between 10.000 and 15.000, living in 26 different camps of which 13 are authorized. A majority of them are Romanian citizens but there are also citizens from Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia and Italian Sinties living in the camps. Large part of them do not have a resident permit. The habitants in the camps prefer to be called Roma, they consider the word gypsy as depreciatory and often used within their group as an offence.  Especially in the larger camps there are people with different provenience and also non nomad people. In the camp “Il River” live only Romanian citizens of Roma ethnicity and there are also camps with only Bosnians, Montenegrins, for example “Casilino 900”. There are also mixed camps, like for example “La Cesarina”, but this is not common because they tend to separate in different groups depending on the provenience. The Romanian Roma person feels Romanian but he underlines the fact that he is also a nomad.

The Prefecture of Rome in agreement with the Municipality of Rome issues the regulations valid for the authorized and semi-authorized nomad camps. Seven authorized camps are situated in Rome of which four of them have Romanian  citizens as habitants; other populations are Bosnians and Serbians. The European Commissioner of Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg complains on the lack of communication between the municipalities, national authorities and the Roma community. The residences are made of brickwork and composed of identical rooms with sufficient sanitary conditions having access to services as light, water and bathrooms. Video cameras are installed at the entry of some authorized camp offering a fundamental protection (passive protection) similar with the cameras set up in banks, postal offices and private residences.  Another category is the semi-authorized camps, so called “tolerate” camps by the ordinance 80/96. There are in total fifteen semi-authorized camps in Rome and the municipalities offer some services like electricity, water and toilets inside these. Regarding to the European Commissioner of Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg the living situation there is very harsh without access to water, electricity and sewage. Romanian citizens can be found in two of them, other nationalities are Serbians, Croatians, Bosnians, Macedonians, Montenegrins and Italian Sinti. The third types of camps are the illegal ones, characterized by irregular residence of the nomads. Many of the irregular settlements situated in Rome are being destroyed, conforming to the Italian law directives, but re-appear later. The settlements are generally situated between the vegetation and the areas long the river Tiber, on private proprieties or on the territories belonging to the municipality, for example the coast. The housing is composed by huts/shelters with no access to services and is categorized as having uncertain sanitary conditions, with a high risk for the children living there.

The Lieutenant Colonel underlines that the Italian law prohibits the illegal building and also the environment violation done by the nomads throwing their trash in the rivers. Complaints have been received from the citizens living close to the irregular camps regarding the negative of impact of the nomads on public order and security. The housing emergence in Rome is unfortunately one of the most serious problems and even if regular housing is offered, “many of the nomads want to stay in the camp”. For access to public housing it is necessary to sign up on a cue list where persons having a stabile residence, family and a work-place are the first priority.  Some municipalities offered the Roma people regular places for living, but the national administration is still seeing “the resting area” as the best solution. Italy is the only country in the EU using the solution of camps. The country has received recommendations and criticism from several institutions, for example the European Commission asking to change its politics.

The Red Cross is an example of civil action takers giving assistance to the Roma people living in the settlement, working in cooperation with the municipality of Rome, the province and the prefecture. The role of the Red Cross is to support the most sensitive categories, as for example the mothers with small and sick children, to intervene with a direct sanitary help, to inform them about hygiene, to give them food and to guide the persons to the access of hospital treatment. The medical visits at a hospital are not forbidden by law for the persons living in the camps, but in order to face the situation of lack of information, the Red Cross organises visits together with doctors and nurses inside the camps. According to the interview with the Province delegate of the Italian Red Cross, the principal negative factors for the persons living in the camps are: the lack of good hygiene conditions, connected to the absence of a water source, accumulation of trash close to the settlements and precarious housing not adapted to the cold. Children do not attend the education systems, they are not vaccinated, have a lack of good nutrition and the infant mortality is fifteen times as high as among other people. Adults do not have a place where to work and are not integrated in the rest of the society. The life expectance of a Roma person is 35 years.

5.2 Roma people in the Italian media

Two media cases will be presented since they have got a large media attention and they are two of the most important cases for the start-point of the measures taken in order to regulate the presence of Roma people in Italy.

The Romanian citizen Romulus Nicolae Mailat, has been condemned to 29 years in jail for the rape and murder of Giovanna Reggiani in September 2007 in Rome. Il Corriere della sera, one of the Italian daily newspapers, published on 29th October 2008 the headline: “The Reggiani crime: Mailat asks for forgiveness but it is not enough, condemned to 29 years”. Mailat declares that he had just stolen the bag from Mrs. Reggiani. “I have not done anything else, I have not killed her. I hope that justice has been done. I feel guilty for what I have done and I ask for forgiveness to Mr. President, the court and all the people present in the courtroom.” In this same article, the Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno expresses himself pleased about the measures taken in order to tranquillize the upset Romans (citizens of Rome). “How is it possible that a person guilty of such a serious crime does not get a life sentence?”, articulates Alemanno. The same day, the headline in the other daily newspaper, La Republica was “Murder Reggiani, condemned is Mailat a young Romanian, to 29 years in jail”. This article mentions facts about Mailat´s family, the death of his sister and his brother and the mother declaring that she still believes her son is innocent. The words of the victim’s husband, an admiral, are “I have no comments on the sentence but I am satisfied that the truth has been proved”. The case of Romulus Nicolae Mailat, was the starting point of a growing hate against the entire group of Roma people. He was accused on the base of testimony from a lady affected by serious psychic troubles, declares Roberto Malini from Everyonegroup. The DNA exams of his blood, found under the nails of the victim (according to the investigators) and the blood of the victim, found on his face (according to the authorities) vanished in an enigmatic way.  During the trial, it was confirmed that the blood analyzes were incomprehensible because the blood had been thinned by the rain. But the DNA remains even if the blood is diluted (from 1 up to 1 million), explains Malini.

The case of Angelica a 16 year old girl accused for stealing a baby from a mother in a district of Naples, Ponticelli. In May 2009, one year after the report of the case on 10th of May 2008, Angelica was condemned to 3 years and 8 months of prison. In La Republica, an article published on 8th of May 2009, the words of the justice office of the city of Naples, Alessandro Piccirillo are published “Romania has entered the European Community, therefore it has to equalize to the parameters of the Union and integrate with our culture and our laws. The kidnapping of a newborn baby does not belong to our culture”.  Angelica declares that she entered the building where the newborn child lives in order to get clothes and food from a lady that set up a meeting with her. This is an example of condemnation of an innocent person, who is arrested on contradictory testimony from the accusing persons, despite the proofs that exclude her guilt, confirms Roberto Malini. On 14th of May 2008, Il Corriere della sera publishes the article “Naples, rod and Molotov against the nomads” where 300-400 persons from the district of Ponticelli outside Naples attack the Roma settlements and a fight between the Italian and the Romanian citizens breaks out. The clash was stopped by the police, but Roma people are now afraid of walking on the streets of Naples. Roma people of Romanian citizenship had to leave the camps and were deported by police forces. This has been reported to the Commissioner in July 2008, but there is still a lack of information concerning the guilty persons.

Regarding Malini from the Everyone group, the public opinion is strongly influenced by racist propaganda expressed under the last two years in almost all the media: newspapers, television, radio and internet sites. Movements inspired of intolerant ideologies are acting hostile in confront with ethnical minorities and migrants as the Northern League (Lega Nord), The New Force (Forza Nuova) and neofacist and neonazistic groups, parts of the PDL, the Liberal party lead by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. They have contributed to the creation of the phobia towards the unwelcome races – first of all the Roma.

6. Conclusion and discussion

Instead of asking for universal solutions, Italy has found its own way to outline the migration policies and laws.  The Italian migration laws are shaped in so way that they control and sort out unwanted migrants, maintaining the strong role of the national state. It is rather obvious that the legislative solutions formed by the Italian government are short-term in order to resolve a so called emergency situation created by the immigration instead of looking at sustainable long-term solutions when dealing with immigration. The characteristics of the Italian administration pointed in the theoretical part can be noticed in the implementation of the Racial Equality Directive and its conflict with the Security Package where decisions taken on regional level do not follow the regulation given by RED. The Italian immigration Laws are not adjusted to the situation required by the needs of Roma people in order to have the possibility to integrate in the Italian society. Reducing the freedom of Roma people by introducing security measures is an example of political outbreaks caused by a panic situation starting from illegal actions as the example of the crimes committed by Mailat and Angelica.

As an alternative of searching itself to common protection solutions, Italy is taking help of the own police force and military defence in order to protect its territory from the immigrants and their actions. A decentralization of decisions from national to local level regarding expulsion of irregular migrants and the power to close down regularized and semi-regularized settlements creates a problem regarding the control and the follow up of the migration policy from a national and European level. The security control of Roma people is made through the Italian laws and measures introducing the Security Package. The presence of Romanian Roma is regulated by the legislative decree added to the free movement of citizens in order to expel the unregistered part of them, even if they are citizens of the European Union.

A conflict situation between the Italian Security Package and the data protection law of the European Union is created with the regulation of the Security Package that permits measures that go outside the frames allowed by the European Directive and breach the freedom of the individual. The Italian security package breaks the directives given by the European data protection law because it has given the permeation to gather data about ethnical origin. Security should not be the instrument used in order to prevent a so called emergency situation before it really occurs. As mentioned in the theoretical part, security is aimed to protect the individual. Creating a so called “state of fear” as the procedures regulated by the Italian Security Package, is causing an insecurity situation for the individuals, in this case the Roma people.  The picture given by the Lieutenant Colonel is that the Security measures taken by the Italian government are necessary in order to be in control of the “nomad settlements”.  The Italian government seems to have misunderstood this concept of security, implementing security measures in order to scare away the Roma people before they even get a threat for the rest of the society. Placing the Roma people in settlements outside the city centres is from the start a method of segregating the Roma people in order to protect the Italian society from their eventual threat. Finding solutions for the placement the Roma people is of course not a simple task, but Italy should reflect on why they are the only country in the European Union authorizing settlements instead of finding proper housing. A question to put in this case is if the set in settlements is a result of scarce resources within the country or a result of hostility from the entire Italian society? Will the integration of Roma people by offering social housing inside the urban areas be a reality in the future? 

Formally, the Racial Equality Directive is an example of perspective Europeanisation indicating the measures that the Member State has to take without giving the instruments to use. From the facts presented in the thesis, the Racial Equality Directive results to be an example of discursive Europeanisation, giving certain directives to the MS and free space to the implementation into the laws and policies, when looking at the results of implementation into Italian law. The implementation in Italy has not achieved all the goals set up by the directive in order to combat discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin. The directives setting into the Italian law have rather been an interpretation of the orders given by the RED. The Italian legislation takes sidesteps as gathering data information regarding ethnic origin and taking the fingerprints of immigrants applying for a residence permit including Roma people. Using this, we can conclude that Italy has not reached the third step in the process of Europeanisation, adjusting their internal immigration laws and policies to the European stage of progress. Taking a closer look at the different stages of change of the national policies and politics, the Italian immigration laws and policies remark on the Racial Equality Directive, presenting incomplete policy changes. The retrenchment phase is achieved by the set of a migration quota depending on the labour market requirement through Law Turco Napolitano 40/98.

The border set up by prejudices in confront with the Roma people and the rest of the society must be opened using top down policies from the European Union in order to regulate the unacceptable behaviour of the Italian immigration policy and law setting. There is of course important to remember that the responsibility is always on both parts of the relation between adapted laws and policies and the strength of character of the people expected to integrate in the hosting society, in this case the Roma people. But since every nationality, ethnic or racial origin group has its way of integrating, the hosting should give them the possibility to do so, of course not only giving them rights but also obligations.  As mentioned by Kovats, a policy based on ethnic differences creates social tensions between the Roma people considered a minority group and the rest of the society. This is valid for the Italian case, where the social disintegration of Roma people has empowered right-wing groups as for example Forza Nuova. Unmentioned earlier in the thesis is that an inquiry has been delivered to them as well by electronic post, without receiving any type of reply. The two examples of two so called “Roma-crimes” illustrated in the Italian daily newspapers show that the focus has been set on the ethnic origin of Romulus Nicolae Mailat and Angelica. It is rather clear that these two individuals did not have a fair chance to face the confrontation from the politicians, the judicial system and the public opinion, being from the start in a lower position. Right-wing groups gain power from the picture offered by the Italian media, convincing the society of which is the right part to take in confront of the Roma people. The public opinion is influenced by the numerous political statements televised and published in the Italian media slanted in a negative way towards the Roma people. 

The role of non-profit organisations giving the Roma-people first-aid, education in order to stand up for their rights, health and living assistance is fundamental in order to protect the vulnerable group living within a state that does not protect them with its legislation. Caritas Italiana, the Red Cross and the Everyone group are three examples mentioned in the thesis. Caritas Italiana supports the life conditions of the Roma people and criticizes the way the police forces treat the Roma people. By publishing reports they offer the Italian citizens the possibility to inform themselves about real facts and not only listen to the picture given by the media. The Red Cross helps the Roma people to face the every day life problems and actions also in a constructive way by educating Roma people in order to help them integrate. Everyone group is acting on a political level using the top-down help from the European Union in order to have a more significant voice towards the Italian government and its institutions. Their role is fundamental in order to support the Roma people that tend to be united because of their cultural, identity-based and historical differences. As Kovats describes the consequences of a top-down representation, it is important to not forget that Roma people should also be encouraged to fight for their own rights in the Italian society.

The distinction between Roma people as an ethnic group and their national origin, having in the cases enlighten by the Italian media a Romanian citizenship, show tendencies of accusing the entire Romanian population, making them thief’s and murders not able to adapt to the laws set by the European Union. The reason of choosing the title “Rome, Romanian, Roma” was to come to the pivot of the Italian immigration policy and law-making, that as shown through the thesis, have been elaborate particularly to reach the Roma people in order to have them under supervision and control.

Why? Can it be the fact that Italy as a country wants to hide other more serious problems as internal administrative complications, irregular migration in order to keep the low cost workers that contribute to a growth in the Italian economy and the relief of giving the guilt on the Roma people in order to justify and excuse political problems?

Finally, as an answer to the central research question the conclusion that the Italian laws and policies do not completely follow the Racial Equality Directive, the European Directive of Free movement of citizens and the data protection law can be taken. Moreover, the Italian Security Package, the regulation of the settlements made on a local level, and last but not least, the criminalisation of Roma people in the Italian media are the main obstacles in the process of integration of the Roma people within the Italian society.

In a future research it will be interesting to follow the Italian migration politics and polices and see if a change towards adapting integration and anti-discrimination laws and policies will be done.

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Memorandum to the European Commission, Violations of EC Law and the Fundamental rights of Roma and Sinti by the Italian Government in the implementation of Census in “Nomad Camps” , 2009-05-04, (http://www.errc.org/db/03/D5/m000003D5.pdf)

Merlino, Massimo, 2009 “The Italian (In)Security Package, Security vs. Rule of Law and Fundamental Right in the EU” Research Paper n. 14 March 2009-04-30, Center for European Policy Studies.

Ministero della giustizia, The Law Martelli 39/1990 (http://www.giustizia.it/cassazione/leggi/l39_90.html) Visited 2009-03-04.

Paparella, Domenico & Rinolfi, Vilma, 2002 “New legislation regulates immigration”, European Industrial Relations observatory on-line (http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2002/09/feature/it0209103f.htm), Visited 2009-04-15.

Paralamento Italiano, Law Turco Napolitano 40/98, (http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/98040l.htm) Visited 2009-03-04.

Paralamento Italiano, Law Bossi Fini 189/2002, (http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/02189l.htm)Visited 2009-03-04.

Pittau, Franco, Ricci, Antonio & Silj, Alessandro, 2008: Romania, Immigrazioni e lavoro in Italia, Statistiche, problemi e prospettive, Caritas Italiana, Edizioni IDOS.

Plotnik, Ana, 2008 “Exploatarea muncitorilor imigranti in romania”, 2008-09-26, Indymedia Romania.

The Racial Equality Directive, (http://www.equal4all.org/defaultpage121c0.aspx?pageID=1196), Visited 2009-04-27.

Report by Thomas Hammarberg, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, following his visit to Italy on 13-15 January 2009

Ricordy, Alice, 2008, “Rom e sinti, Mappatura degli interventi delle Caritas Diocesane”.

Roggero, Gigi, 2009”Policy Analysis Report – Italy”, Department of Politics, Institutions, History – University of Bologona, Grant Agreement no 216065.

Sacco, Giuseppe, 2007, “A farewell to Italy: Demography and Immigration”, Geopolitical Affairs, Volume 1, Nr. 2, Summer 2007.

Sacco, Giuseppe, 1996: L´invasione scalza, Movimenti migratori e sicurezze nazionale, Franco Angeli, Milano, Italy.

     

Simoni, Alessandro, 2003, Executive Summary on Race Equality directive, State of play in Italy, 2003-10-17. , (http://www.stop-discrimination.info/fileadmin/pdfs/Reports/Reports_on_Racial_Equality/RacialEqualityReport_Italy.pdf), Visited 2009-05-21

Teorell, Jan & Svensson, Torsten, 2007: Att fråga och att svara, Liber AB, Malmö.

The European Commission, The European union and Roma, (http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=518&langId=en), Visited 2009-04-19

The free dictionary online, (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Gypsy) & (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Nomad), Visited 2009-05-19

The Italian National Institute of Statistics, ISTAT (2007; 2006; 2005; 2004; 2003; 2002) (http://demo.istat.it/str2007).

Veikou, Mariangela & Triandafyllidou, Anna,  2004

“Immigration policy and its implementation in Italy, a Report on the state of art”, European University Institute.

7.1 Interviews

Interview with Province delegate for the Italian Red Cross in the Municipality of Rome, 2009-05-14.

Interview with Roberto Malini responsible for the Roma people in Everyone Group, a Non governmental organisation 2009-05-17.

Interview with Lieutenant Colonel responsible of the Security of the Roma and Sinti people, 2009-05-16.