The Many Faces of Integration

Does South Tyrol’s history shape the regions’ immigration policy?

Wisthaler: Yes, in fact, I looked at five regions in which there is a similar situation to ours: minority groups who claim to be different from the nation state in which they reside. I studied their political discourse to find out whether the political parties of these minority groups believe that migrants can be integrated to support their minorities’ political interests, or whether they see migrants as something that threatens their interests. I found out that it is not a question of being more in favour or less in favor of integration, but it is the particular experiences of a minority context – discrimination by the nation- state or the need to defend their own culture and language – that shapes the discourse of the parties.

Can you give an example?

Wisthaler: In Corsica, the political parties distinguish between migrants who come to the island from the French mainland, with a French background, and those coming from elsewhere who could adopt a Corsican approach to things more easily. Given the historical context, they believe that French immigrants could harm the Corsican community. This is similar in South Tyrol: the right-wing German party Südtiroler Freiheit welcomes migrants with a German background, as they feel they make the minority stronger, and they try to reject all those who do not fit into what they perceive as easy to integrate.

Professor Zinn, what role does electronic media play in the integration process?

Dorothy Zinn: If we understand integration not just as assimilating, but as migrants embracing the culture of the new society while not erasing their own background, then electronic media has an important role to play. Today, migrants can stay connected with their families back home. They can download music and movies from their home country. Their kids can study the language and culture of their parents’ homeland via the Internet. It amplifies exchanges between the countries.

How can migrants integrate into their new world with a very strong emotional connection to their old one?

Zinn: Migrant families, and especially the children of migrants, have always lived in two separate worlds. Their parents’ home is the intimate space where they can express their culture and origins – which may often be quite different from the outside world. Today the Internet not only allows second-generations to keep in contact with their roots, it also gives them a platform to bond with other young people that share their same experiences.

You studied three second-generation associations in Italy. What groups are they?

Zinn: The members of ReteG2 are second generations with very different backgrounds: from those who partly define themselves through their parents’ different origins, to those who come from mixed families. Most of them identify strongly with their Italian local identity. The Associna group represents second generation migrants with a Chinese background. Even so, they clearly distinguish themselves according to the region of China from where they come. And lastly, the members of GMI, Young Italian Muslims, bond through a pan-Islamic identity, regardless of their parents’ national background.

So it’s impossible to generalize?

Zinn: We should not put people – especially young ones – in cultural boxes based on their passports. Young people are young people. They bond through rap music or latest fashion with other young people from around the world. In this sense, as my dear colleague Annamaria Rivera has pointed out, a second generation youth likely has more in common with his Italian peers than with older people who share his origins.