Ho trovato su un blog di un sino-americano una riflessione sulle differenze in tema di immigrazione cinese in Cina e in Usa. Fa anche un piccolo accenno sul ruolo delle seconde generazioni organizzate riferewndosi ad Associna. Il blog è:
http://www.xanga.com/naasconFINDING LA MIA DIASPORA
This semester, I'm studying abroad in the cute, Medieval town of Siena, in central Tuscany. I came for many reasons, one of which was this opportunity to take up an independent study on the Chinese communities in Italy. I wanted to learn more about my beautiful and huge diaspora! Previously, I had heard about the Chinese communities in a few contexts -- the protesting over discriminatory policies in Milan last April, the banning of the display of lanterns in Treviso last May, and a string of articles on the growing presence of chinese in Prato's manufacturing and textile industries. It seemed to me the common thread was, predictably, this threat of the Chinese to Italian nationalism (and break it down further, as you wish). I mean, who wouldn't want to get in on thatò I didn't really know what to expect, except for a different composition of the communities than in the United States.
During the First World War, many Chinese men came from regions such as Zhejiang (especially Wenzhou), Hebei, and Shangdong to Europe as laborers for the France and the Great Britain, to construct defenses. The prominent fluxes of Chinese immigrants did not come until the post-Mao, last few decades of the 20th Century, with folks coming from Fujian as well as Zhejiang. Nowadays, Italy has shifted from being a historical country of emigration to one of immigration (and at a rapid rate), and the People's Republic of China is one of the top five foreign populations in the country. (The counts include those born here; in Italy, birth does not guarantee citizenship.) From my travels to some of the major cities here, I can really get a sense of the visible and widespread presence of immigrants, especially of the Chinese. There seems to be Chinese restaurants all over, alongside cheap, low-quality leather bag and clothing shops. In Florence, I have seen them selling gadgets, toys, straw-made animals, and funky calligraphy (what do you call themò) on the street, alongside African immigrants selling reproductions of masterpieces of art, sunglasses, and bags. They actually have these cardboard-made apparatuses that are so easy and secure to pack up and to go, if the police is cruising by. It's kind of fascinating.
Because immigration is such as a relatively new issue for the country, the conversations around multiculturalism (or pluralism, if you prefer) are vastly different from those in the United States. The term people of color refers strictly to Africans, and Asians as a racial category does not exist here (which is interesting because Filipinos and Indians have a relatively strong presence here as well). Regardless, at some relevant lectures I've attended on immigration issues (in Italian!), I've heard of the word "racist" being thrown around to describe media coverage of the extracomunitario (the comunitario being the European Union, so more of less anyone outside of europe), but it isn't used to describe the systemic oppression of these immigrants, but rather, the prejudiced treatment or more specifically, the criminalization of them in the media. I should probably note that color (as we understand it) isn't the most accurate lens with which to approach the issue, because Albanians and Romanians are heavily targeted, too. (FYI, Albania was also a former colony of Italy for a bit.)
Apparently, recent coverage of the Chinese represents them as highly entrepreneurial and silent. One night, I was out at this kind of a club, and my friend and I were talking to some drunk Italians. As soon as one of the guys found out that I'm Chinese, he was boxing me as this businessman (and telling me how much he loves spring rolls). It's wack but that's really the image. Without making a judgment call on that assumption, I want to point to it as a reflection of the particularity of the Chinese communities here. I've been going to a good number of Chinese restaurants in Italy, and most, if not all, of them are from Zhejiang (or specifically Wenzhou). Thing is, Wenzhou is known even in China for sending folks abroad to do business. It's like part of their history, according to this cultural-linguistic mediator with whom I have spoken.
The influx of immigrants and their children has resulted in the creation of these cultural-linguistic mediators in the classroom, who assist the immigrant or second generation children with the acquisition of Italian as well as act as a communication bridge between the schools and the families. As you can imagine, there are pros and cons to this figure. I was fortunate to have met a couple at the Gandhi Center in the outer parts of Florence. The Gandhi Center basically provides remedial services for immigrant and second generation children struggling with Italian. They also try to facilitate more two-way communication between the families and the schools and to offer classes for the children to maintain their original language.
I talked at length with one of the cultural linguistic mediators, who was from Hong Kong and spoke some English. He was telling me about how so many immigrant children come unprepared because they had been missing school while waiting for the visas to come and the school systems vary so much that sometimes kids are placed in a lesser age-appropriate grade level. Many of them also drop out after their compulsory education because they have neither the interest nor the capability to continue their education. Coming from lesser educated backgrounds themselves, the parents do not often encourage the pursuit of education, because they'd rather have their children translate for them at their businesses. Recognizing the limitations of generalizations, I still felt surprised to find all this out! There's none of that model minority, over-performance situation going on. He attributed it in part to the instability of the community. Yes, that last point was important -- placing the educational experience within the sociopolitical context. I also got to observe a class at the Gandhi Center, which was comprised of mostly Chinese and some Moroccan and Romanian kids from elementary school. It is so much more fascinating than I can share here.
With less than four weeks (and a ten-page paper) remaining, I am definitely thinking about my incredibly diverse diaspora as well as the immigration experiences in Italy. What do I have in common with the Chinese folks here? How do we negotiate our regional differences, which account for a large part of our individual Chinese identitiesò How will the Chinese communities organize for sociopolitical purposesò What is the role of the second generation (who are already forming groups such as AssoCina on the Internet)? Where is multiculturalism in Italy going? Will those Chinese, Moroccan, and Romanian kids continue to grow togetherò How will they influence their society at every level and step of the way? Will they be redefining the Italian national identity that's taken so long to constructò How? What kinds of conversations will take form about marginalization and oppressionò What about those multi-lingual, multi-ethnic Kinder chocolate ads I saw in Milanò Or those grocery stores in Florence and Genoa selling both African, South American, and Asian products altogetherò All I can really say is that this is deeper than I can communicate in one blog post!
