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Integration (?)

In document Living a Paradox (pagina 50-57)

4. Research design

6.3 Integration (?)

you can imagine how many vulnerable people there are. And every time we point out the existence of this problem to the Prefecture who says: "as you already know, there are no structures.”

[…]

Darleene: Another particularity of the places we work in is that they are “accoglienza diffusa” [spread reception], therefore, there are many small facilities in [names of small villages]. […] As a matter of fact, there is no h24 surveillance, there is not any kind of control. Therefore there are often situations left to the roommates to deal with. In other words, in the end those who actually manage it during the day are the roommates more than us. […] The problematic thing is that, ok, independence is beautiful and so is leaving them a house but in these situations it becomes a tragedy.

As we can grasp from these accounts, politics of management play a fundamental role in shaping asylum seekers’ reality by influencing spatial experiences and tensions. Their arbitrariness in designating asylum seekers’ allocation can have meaningful consequences by relegating these people in more or less adequate facilities and forcing them into potentially problematic co-habitative dimensions for unknown periods of time. Moreover, asylum seekers’ experiences and conditions may be helped or worsened by the facility’s surroundings and the social relations with habitants who may bear feelings of distrust, potentially fed by the wide-spread messages of fear regarding immigrants.

for housing integration, orientation and accompaniment for social integration, legal protection, psycho-socio-health protection (Retesai, 2016b).

Today SAI reception is based on two levels: the first, dedicated to asylum seekers, provides material, legal, health and linguistic assistance, while the second, reserved to status holders, entails activities related to work orientation and “integration” (Openpolis, Actionaid, 2021). Although a differentiation of access to services has been made between requesters and status holders, asylum seekers remain entitled to processes of “integrated reception”.

In fact, during the extremely long periods of time preceding the issuance of the request’s ultimate outcome, asylum seekers can undertake a multifaceted set of activities, both autonomously and through the related private or public associations, pointing towards what the Italian government and reception bodies define as “integration”. Asylum seekers may have access to basic education, professional courses, work, health care and social relations. As mentioned in Chapter 2, however, the degrees of accessibility and quality of such services are not homogeneous and they may change depending on various factors such as the city or village, vacancies, number of requests, COVID-19 pandemic-related complications and, most importantly, the type of reception facility and association working in it.

The first and probably most important activity which every asylum seeker engages in regards Italian language and secondary education learning. The education process is mostly developed by the Provincial Centres for Adult Education (CPIA) and potentially supported by reception centres-related associations (Loprieno, Elia, Di Maio, 2019). While acquiring proficiency in Italian language, at least level A2, is compulsory for every asylum seeker, participating to general education activities is mandatory for minors while, in theory, adult may participate voluntarily (Muzzano, Sabbadini, 2018). Every participant who requested asylum reported to have successfully undertaken educational activities corresponding to the lower secondary school, also known as scuola media , without any significant complaint regarding these activities or the ways they are 4 delivered.

Kaleb: I do not go to school anymore because I have done the terza media (last phase of lower secondary school), therefore I have already finished. Now I am looking for a job.

Equivalent to the ISCED 2011 Level 2, middle school.

4

Yes, but there are many that have started education courses to do the terza media or even just for one year or two, depends, depends.

[…]

Francesco: What do you think about this service ? Do you think it works well ? Kaleb: Yes, yes.

Other meaningful activities which all participants who requested asylum have undertaken, even if in different ways, regard professional training courses and employment. In Italy asylum seekers are allowed to work legally and, generally helped by the reception-related organisations, can search for professional training courses developed by different agencies. Usually, these courses include an internship which may conclude with the legal employment of the asylum seeker. Being hired in this way, however, is a fortune that not everyone has and even for the ones who do working hours may not be enough.

Kaleb: I found employment in the place where I did my internship. I worked there for more than eight months but I was working just two or three times a week. I need to work from Monday to Friday. I would like to work like this but there isn’t much work and there were many people working there so I quit the job and I started a training course as a mason.

The ones who are not employed by the end of the internship have to find a job by looking for vacancies and sending curriculums: something particularly problematic due to the high amount of unoccupied people looking for a job in a reality with a limited number of vacant positions. Even for what concerns these activities, external aid provided by the associations working in the reception system is not homogenous. As Thomas recounts, professionals helped him to be hired in the same place where he conducted his internship, :

Thomas: So the school (training course), they helped me to go to the internship. So the internship lasted three months. When I finished my internship the boss told me he would call me so I can maybe come to work.

Francesco: To work after the internship ?

Thomas: Yeah to work after the internship. So I was waiting for his call. So at last I called (reception professional’s name), she tried to help me because I was waiting for

one month and there was no call, nothing. I was waiting and she called him because she knows what was going on. I thought he would call me. I should take time so no problem, I will take time and she told me I should calm down and he would call me. So the month was February and he called me to start to work and I stared working by February.

Unfortunately not everyone can tell a similar experience. While some may rely on professional help for finding training courses and occupations, others must face these difficult dynamics by themselves, highlighting again the cruciality of politics of management’s arbitrariness:

Kaleb: The ones working in this house do not want to help us very much. Do you understand ?

Francesco: Yes.

Kaleb: They help us enough with the documents but not with work. We have to look for work by ourselves.

Francesco: mhm <nods>.

[…]

Francesco: Did you find every job by yourself or did the CAS professionals help you ? Kaleb: I found them by myself.

Francesco: All alone ? Kaleb: Yes.

[…]

Kaleb: Finding a job in Italy is not easy. It is very very difficult.

In addition to education and professional training, asylum seekers have access to free healthcare.

Participants, especially the ones who underwent complex medical interventions which needed further supervision, regular examinations and medical supplies, reported positive feedback regarding healthcare services, their deliverance and the role played by the reception-related professionals in supporting the therapeutical process.

Kaleb: Yes they help me. I receive help with my medical appointments and with medicines. They buy the medicines for me.

As discussed, asylum seekers may access services and engage in a series of activities based on

“integrative reception” pointing towards “integration” understood as an independent and empowered insertion into the local environment. As for housing provision, access and quality’s degrees of these services are not the same for everyone and while some may receive adequate help and accompaniment, others need to face these complex dynamics autonomously, highlighting again the unequal outcomes of politics of management.

6.4 “One thing that blocks the way”

Asylum seekers are involved in activities pointing towards “an autonomous life planning” (Retesai, 2016). Nevertheless, there is an important aspect that limits the progress of this process:

recognition. Politics of recognition manifest in reminding them that even though asylum seekers are allowed to stay, they have not yet been recognised as entitled to protection and to the rights that this entails, reiterating the limits of the legal limbo (Cabot, 2012). This creates a limiting and uncertain dimension in which feeling stuck and frustrated, while waiting for a potentially negative outcome, is not uncommon.

Francesco: What is the thing that seems more difficult to you?

Martin: For me, for my part, what has been difficult is not, it is not the basic thing in life but is very important to have the document. For example, when you want to move forward there is one thing that stops you, one thing that blocks the way: it is the document, it is just the document.

The consequences of lack of a permit and other bureaucracy-related dynamics are a pervasive component of asylum seekers’ life enhancing senses of powerlessness and uncertainty, especially when such deficiency manifests in limiting professional activities or access to services. Martin’s case is a clear example of such limitations and consequent frustration. In fact, in spite of his numerous skills and the willingness of the employers to hire him permanently, an unclear complication with his documents forced his hirers to fire him.

Martin: I was working in an industrial area near (the village where he currently lives), after the internship. I did an internship for one year and then they told me that I had a problem with my document. I said: ”Boss, what is wrong with the document?" He said:

"Martin, the document you are using, you cannot keep working with it." They wanted to

make a permanent contract. They didn't want to lose me because I'm working as a welder, sometimes even as a mechanic, I assemble, disassemble. I am even a painter.

[…] Then the boss called me, they gave me the contract and then they called to check my document. I don't know if from Milan or where, but they told me that in Milan they checked my document. Then they called me to say that I have a problem with the document.

Francesco: So you could not keep working there ?

Martin: No, no, no. If I think about all of this I have headaches.

Therefore, asylum seekers remain trapped inside one of Italian reception system’s biggest paradox:

on the one hand, they may undertake activities pointing towards independence while, on the other, they are limited by the lack of permit and, therefore, inexorably dependent on the system.

Darleene: Those [asylum seekers] who have been for a long time certainly have a level of Italian and job opportunities that in my opinion are very high, on the other hand they cannot stand their situation anymore. They live in a very dependent condition in which they must rely on professionals for many things. Moreover they have to share the house with people they don't get along with in accommodations that are often not so spacious.

Carol: And they don't have a document yet.

Darleene: And they don't have documents. I work with so many people who have a work contract, who could perfectly leave the reception system but, instead, they have to wait for the appeal which is in 2023 and they have already been three or four years in the reception system, so they are spending eight years only for the documents.

Limits projected by the recognition become an insurmountable obstacle which blocks asylum seekers’ path towards the building of an autonomous decent life, highlighting the senses of being stuck in a legal in-between dimension while experiencing a temporal stasis (Cabot, 2012; Giudici, 2013; Griffiths, 2014).

Ken: We sometimes say, “What more can we do with them. With someone who has a permanent contract, who is totally independent, what else can I do with this person?"

Nothing else. He practically speaks the language very well, he already has his job because he did a professional training course, he has the qualification, now he works

permanently and what is he doing? He’s stuck there because he is stuck by the procedures. So he still has the right to stay there because he is still waiting to know the outcome of the request he made.

Francesco: Even if the integrative path would already be completed ? Ken: It would already be completed.

As we can see, asylum seekers’ experiences significantly reflect the definition of “protracted uncertainty” (Horst, Graska, 2015). Asylum seekers in Italy are, in fact, stuck in a spatial and temporal sense, due to politics of management outcomes and the extremely long politics of recognition’s procedure, with a limited capacity of predicting their future and, as discussed in Chapter 5, a lack of information and knowledge.

7. Future and health

After a long period of time, asylum seekers receive their request’s outcome. As discussed in Chapter 5, in case of denial they can claim appeal and therefore start a legal procedure which will last many years. After this extremely long period of time, asylum seekers receive a final indisputable outcome to their appeal claim. A positive result may represent a fundamental step towards a legal life in the host-country, while a negative one entails the declaration of illegality on Italian soil and withdrawal of every right and access to services. In the first part of this chapter I argue that even though the future is always uncertain, the recognition process’ final outcome represents a major source of future unpredictability in asylum seekers’ realities and a significant obstacle in planning life consequently. Moreover, its effects may manifest disruptively in the lives of asylum seekers who, after having spent many years in the host-country undergoing activities of self-improvement and

“autonomous life planning” (Retesai, 2016), are denied and therefore deprived of any right. The second part focuses on the effects of politics and uncertainty on asylum seekers’ health and mental health: a meaningful problem too often disregarded by the Italian reception system.

In document Living a Paradox (pagina 50-57)