Ch 3. Home far away from home - a second life
National Cards:
A card about Romania (Apower)
Migrants’ experience
Far away from home represents for over 2 million Romanians migrants a new beginning and the possibility to start a new life. The perspective of starting a new life is a dream becoming true for most of the migrants. The family members that remain in the country are under the impression that everything will work out for the better and consider that a great part of their problems will be solved. For the ones that actually have to go and work abroad the initial optimist perspective of leaving changes as soon as they start to realize the obstacles that they have to pass – legal procedures, finding a new job, a place to leave, learn the language, creating new connections with new people, adapting to a new culture and traditions, interacting with different people and having to face feelings of loneliness. Most of the Romanian migrants manage to start a new life far away from the things that they know, but for the migrants that do not succeed to overcome the difficult start, it turns to be even worse. It seams that the success in starting over consists of the help one receives when arriving in the host country.
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A card about Italy (Icsim)
Migrants’ Experience
The history of Italian emigration and their stay in Belgium is indelibly marked by the tragedy occurred in the coal mines of Marcinelle: 138 out of 262 dead men were Italians. 8th August 1956 is a divide-date both in the migratory policy and in the Italians’ and Belgians’ collective consciousness.
Since then, in fact, the host Country has had a better consideration of the economic and social value of the immigrants’ work, has developed a spread awareness of the human problems they were bearers of and has decreased the prejudices and discriminations towards the Italians. Important measures have been adopted, such as those aimed to provide assistance and security on the work place, the right to a decorous accommodation, the possibility to attend language courses, women’s work and children’s school integration. In Italy too the tragedy of Marcinelle strengthened the awareness of the human and social costs connected to the massive outflow from the Country and highlighted the necessity of proper protection and assistance measures for the emigrants and their families. With the passing of time, positive economic and cultural exchange relationships have been set up by both countries - also thanks to some associations, such as that of Arulef which promotes the integration between Belgians and Italians – creating important Twinning, like the one signed by the Town Council of Foligno and the Town Council of La Louvière in 1996.
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A card about Slovach Republic
The second half of the twentieth century in Slovakia and the whole Czechoslovakia was marked by the communist regime. Regime that suppressed human rights, constricted religious freedom and at the same time was not able to provide economically adequate standard of living for its citizens. A lot of people perceived this with frustration and therefore chose emigration to other democratic countries. They did this only if they had an opportunity to it because the communist regime restricted traveling as well. Those who managed to “flee“ asked abroad for political asylum and were often granted it in Austria, Germany, USA or Canada. However for a lot of them the newly acquired liberty meant also much more responsibilities and depending on own skills and strengths. Although in the beginning these refugees got support from the host countries, they had to adapt quickly, learn new language, find a job, and simply take care of themselves. On one hand, there was more freedom in the new environment, on the other, a lot of migrants observed remaining distrust from the locals. They had to prove they are worth the trust. They had to work hard on themselves and change a lot of their existing habits. Their lives changed radically in a short time.
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A card about Italians in Belgium
The collected interviews provide some interesting information about the migrants’ experience in Belgium but we have to be careful in the analysis. We are not here confronted with a scientific survey and, since the questioned people have settled for a long time in Belgium (mostly Italian migrants who have arrived after 1945), we can think that time and distance have probably contributed in tempering or even erasing the memory of certain difficult aspects of their « second life ».
We can however highlight some elements that regularly come back in the testimony and, an interesting element, these elements are not only present in the words of migrants who have settled in Belgium for good but also in the statements of Italians who have come back in their country.
- The search for a job and family reunification are the most frequent causes of the coming to Belgium. The statements of several people can be put in relation to the Belgian legislation when they say that they didn’t have any problem to find a job because they had a contract, a legal obligation, before entering Belgium.
- Like for Belgians, the knowledge of « the others» is very limited and, apart from food, the most widespread feeling is that there was relatively little exchange and influence between natives and immigrants.
- Work and school are the two main places of integration. Some testimony mentions canteens, cafés, and sports clubs.
- The migrants didn’t receive much help for their integration and only by people acting individually. Nobody mentioned the action, yet real, of organizations, trade unions, or the clergy.
- Housing is an often mentioned problem: the groups of huts unfit for habitation in the beginning and the difficulty to go out from them then to find decent accommodation.
- In the expressed feelings, we find in the beginning without any surprise sadness, the impression to be lost, the difficulty to get in contact because of the language. Many years after their arrival in Belgium, the witnesses still feel « different », the impression of disorientation and uprooting is still present and many of them have kept their nationality of origin.
- Without talking about hostile reception or xenophobia, the interviewees, as could be expected, mention some classical and expected reactions : the distrust towards new comers, the rude nicknames (« macaroni »), the « jokes » or the songs (la « mutuelle »/ the « mutual benefit society »), the competition on the labour market, the accusations of taking advantage of the Belgian social protection system.
Relevant Links
These individual opinions can and must be put in their context with the testimony and the surveys proposed in the part « Review of publications ».
For the reciprocal influences between natives and immigrants:
For the living conditions of the Italian immigrants and the attitude of the Belgian population, see among others:
We also have to try to actualize this vision by confronting it with the present reality of the relations between migrants and Belgians and the images that each of them has of the other. The Centre for the equality of opportunity and the fight against racism financed in 2009 two polls that bring a recent and significant light on this issue (see the sheet devoted to these surveys in the part « Review of publications »):
Without entering the details of the analysis of these two surveys, we have to notice that we find in them some problems highlighted by the foreign and Belgian witnesses questioned in the framework of the project ... with a timeless conclusion : the more the people have contacts with each other, the more the clichés fade away ...
RESERVED AREA
Belgium
