The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs

Almost five million immigrants live in Italy, hailing from Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. They work as home assistants, in factories and farms. They often lack work permits and so become the prey of organized crime, or join voluntarily. They lack decent housing, and suffer from isolation. Recent violent episodes in different contexts, from rural Calabria in the South to the streets of Milan, have highlighted the instability and complexity of the situation, as well as its usefulness as a political wedge issue. Immigrants have become the catalysts of heated debates on cultural and ethnic identity, as well as safety.

On March 1^st 2010 millions of immigrants to Italy, France, Spain and Greece will go on strike and take part in a peaceful demonstration to highlight the problems they face as non-citizens in their host countries. “A Day Without Immigrants: 24 Hours Without Us” is the theme of their protest against harsh working conditions, disenfranchisement, intolerance and blatant racism.

With this panel we will move beyond the protest to debate the issue of immigration both in a broader and more concrete fashion. We think there is much to learn from a comparative view that includes the American experience and a pragmatic approach focused on policies.

Introduction:

Anna Di Lellio, GPIA, The New School

Moderator:

Andrea Fiano, US Correspondent at Milano Finanza and Class-Cnbc, US Correspondent at Class Editori.

Panelists:

Ester R. Fuchs is a Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at Columbia University. She served as Special Advisor for Governance and Strategic Planning under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg from 2001-2005 and as Chair of the 2005 NYC Charter Revision Commission. She is the founding Director of the Columbia University Center for Urban Research and Policy. She currently serves on the Mayor's Sustainability Advisory Board, NYC Economic Opportunity Commission, the NYC Workforce Investment Board, the NYC Commission on Women's Issues, and the Advisory Board for NYC's Out of School Time (OST) Initiative. She was recently appointed to the Committee on Economic Inclusion of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and is a member of the Boards of the Fund for the City of New York and the Citizen Union. Prof. Fuchs is the author of Mayor's and Money: Fiscal Policy in New York and Chicago.

Guido Tintori is Fulbright-Schuman Research Scholar '09-'10 at the Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and Department of Politics of New York University. He is also visiting Research Fellow at the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages at the University of Bath. He has been a member of the Network of Excellence IMISCOE, International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe, since the beginning of the programme in 2004. He has recently published Fardelli d’Italia. Conseguenze Nazionali e Transnazionali delle Politiche di Cittadinanza Italiane (Burdens of Italy. The National and Transnational Side-Effects of Italian Nationality Laws), Carocci, 2009 and “L'Italie et Ses Expatriés: une Perspective Historique,” in S. Dufoix, C. Guerassimoff and A. De Tinguy (eds), Loin des Yeux, Près du Coeur. Les États et Leurs Expatriés, Presses de Sciences-Po, 2010.

Vincenzo Pascale is the Representative of Migrantes at the United Nations and Lecturer in the Italian Department at Rutgers University. He was Director USA l'Italia Educational Project (2005-2008).

Michele Wucker is Executive Director of the World Policy Institute, a nonpartisan center for progressive global policy research and thought leadership which publishes the magazine World Policy Journal. She is the author of Lockout: Why America Keeps Getting Immigration Wrong When Our Prosperity Depends on Getting it Right  (Public Affairs 2006/paperback 2007; a Washington Post Book World “Best Nonfiction of 2006 Selection) and Why the Cocks Fight: Dominicans, Haitians and the Struggle for Hispaniola (FSG/Hill & Wang, 1999). She received a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship for her work on changing views of citizenship, exclusion, and belonging.