Ch 5. Who is knocking at my door?
The experience of hosting people.
National Cards:
A card about France
France is somewhat unique in Europe, since it has host continuously since the nineteenth century foreigners involved very early in the construction of the country. It has a long history as a land of immigration.
Yet, each wave of immigration has its own characteristics depending on the socio-economic and political context.
The first contacts with migrants took often place in work places or at school.
Several interviews of migrants or those in contact with migrants mention this fact, although many testimonies of migrants show that very often, they tried to get together living in community sometimes quite closed, but where there was a great mutual aid.
This gave way to xenophobic reactions very often, ranging from jokes or nicknames related to the origins ("flaming”for Belgians or "rital " for Italians; fears towards employment (those foreigners who come to eat French bread, or campaign posters of a far-right party "in the 1980s" two million unemployed / two million migrant workers ") to reactions of racist kinds especially during periods of economic crisis (" those foreigners who come to eat the bread of French, or take the work of French ").
The interviews of immigrants have all more or less referred to attitudes of distrust or rejection, but many of them have mentioned that gradually they felt well integrated and even if they are still quite nostalgic for their homeland, none of the interviewees expressed the desire to return home even if some have chosen to keep their original nationality.
Among those being in contact with these populations of immigrant origin, many have mentioned the ties of friendship and exchange that were created especially in workplaces or at school.
To complete with
- "Immigration in the text, Janine Ponty Belin 2003” is full of documents, testimonies.
Example, page175, the report of the prefect of Pas –de-Calais to the Home office Minister, dated October 11, 1929, on the ability of Poles to assimilate. The answer was clear: "None, for the present at least."
Read the form on the book available on the website
Examples of interviews
A card about UK (Creds)
The experience of the hosting people: A Personal Perspective
Immigration is not a recent phenomenon for Britain, so therefore it has a wealth of experience as a host nation. However, each period of immigration has its own characteristics and happens in its own socio-economic and political context and so there is usually a period of adjustment needed for each phase of immigration.
Historically the UK is a diverse nation and there is a lot of debate about the nature of identity for British people as they continually adjust to the changing make-up of the population. There are people who feel the core of British society is threatened by people from different parts of the world who choose to work, study or stay in Britain. On the other hand, there are people who feel that society and the economy benefit from this increasing diversity.
When migrants arrive they naturally seek out people from the same ethnic, social, linguistic and religious background so that geographically it is possible to identify distinct communities with cultural similarities. From time to time, especially in periods of economic downturn, tensions arise between mainstream society and various minority communities. In addition, there are also tensions within the migrant and minority ethnic groups depending on their history of settlement in the UK. Public reaction to this sometimes includes organised resistance which can have sinister racist overtones. However, in general, services in both the public and private sector are committed to working to address these issues in an attempt to ease inequalities and community relations. By and large the experience for both host and newcomer is seen to be positive.
Relevant Links
A card about Italy (Icsim)
A personal Perspective
All the problems and contradictions of the present world, marked by economical “diseases” and wide movements of peoples, put a strain and some illegalities on the labour market, spread fear and insecurity about the future, induce a negative perception of migrant people: so foreigners can be summarily regarded as the cause of all the evils. All these elements can lead to an unequivocal racism, as recently happened in the agricultural land of Rosarno, in the south of Italy.
Generally, we can say that mainly politics and negative messages coming from the political milieu and from the national media contribute to produce such behaviours and attitudes. These messages, together with the effects of the liberalization of the labour market, strengthen the latent prejudices and concur to create new ones, suggesting presumed “enemies” to fight against.
On the contrary, when the labour market is clear and controlled, and a balanced inclusion in the country is pursued, the latent prejudices too can be controlled by natives engaged in the relationship with real and close migrants. Thus, the natives can understand and judge what the single migrants do, instead of corroborating the menace they represent according to the common sense.
As we can see from the interviews to some natives in Foligno, the good perception about immigrants is the outcome of a hardly realized meeting: in working relationships, or at school, or in some cultural association. That is, in the places where a mutual knowledge is possible, and a mutual respect can take place. We don’t mean that “local” is better than “national”, but – if you want to pursue a real inclusion- you should not cultivate stereotypes, but create the social and cultural conditions to allow a useful communication between the natives and the newcomers.
Relevant Links
A card about Germany
After World War II and the first impacts of the “Wirtschaftswunder” the German society of the 50ties and early 60ties was orientated on traditional values may that be in policy, culture or in aspects of “good behaviour”. People wanted to forget the war, the post-war losses and their ruined cities. Their goal was to start a new living and to amuse themselves.
At first the recruited workers from other European countries were not even widely remarked. They even were seen as a sign of success for the strong German economy. The press celebrated the first million‘ “guest worker” who got a motor scooter as a present.
After the economic slowdown in the 70ties the German society slowly got aware of the consequences deriving from the recruited workforce.
They “suddenly” had to deal with people in their midst who wanted to have part in their society.
The children of the migrants grew up and became classmates, they were competitors on the labour market they even were competitors as lovers.
Depending on the social status and political orientation some wanted the migrants all to be expelled at once, others appealed to tolerance, thoughtfulness and discussion.
There were pros and cons there were fights and aggressive assaults on both sides, there were debates in the press and in the end there were still all those people still staying in Germany.
On the other hand the German society is changing. Not only economically but also in demographic aspects. Nowadays there is a lack of skilled and qualified workers or even on people living in small villages in the more agrarian regions of Germany. The future development of the economy is at stake, suddenly giving a totally different point of view to migrants and their integration into the German society.
A card about Belgium
A personal perspective: feelings, experiences, relations
A first approach of the reactions of the Belgian population appears when reading the interviews carried out in the framework of the project. The elements of information obtained and the analysis that can be made of them have however only an indicative value all the more so since the mentioned migration phenomenon (mainly the arrival of Italian workers after 1945) is already old and since time has probably done its work to soften some reactions or opinions. A few permanent features can yet be highlighted:
- The first contacts with the immigrants take place at school or at work; some personal relationships are possibly formed afterwards. Sharing the same benches at school and doing the same job constitute important factors in the discovery and integration process.
- The knowledge of « the other », of his country of origin is very limited in the beginning and the will to know more about it is not always clear. The questioned people are however aware that the motivation of these migrations is essentially economical.
- Some testimony mentions the comers’ difficult living conditions (housing, exploitation by some employers).
- As regards the vision, the image of immigrants, the testimony is close to what we could expect : the jokes (« macaroni », la « mutuelle »/ the « mutual benefit society »), the warm reception in Italian families, the cooking, the possible distrust towards those who « come and take the jobs », the fear to do things with them, etc. The way the comers are seen is often friendly or indifferent. There are few really negative reactions. The prejudices from the beginning fade away as time goes by and the integration takes place progressively. The questioned people find that the arrival of immigrants did not really influence their way of living.
Relevant Links
We can confront this testimony with the testimony and survey books proposed in the part « Reviews of publications », especially:
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 ...
A card about Switzerland
Over the past few decades, Switzerland — which brought over thousands of guest workers from southern Europe after World War II — has also become home to a large population from the Balkans, along with immigrants from Asia and Africa. Many originally came to Switzerland seeking protection, in contrast to Switzerland's other, more numerous foreign residents: present-day European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) citizens who came to work in Switzerland either as guest workers or under a bilateral agreement that since 2002 allows EU/EFTA citizens to live and work freely in the country (the European Union has 27 Member States while EFTA has four including Switzerland).
In 2008, Switzerland had over 1.6 million foreign residents according to official government statistics, or 21.4 percent of the country's total population (foreign residents do not include naturalized immigrants but do include those born in Switzerland to foreign-national parents). An average of 40,000 foreigners has naturalized each year since 2002. Foreigners' sizeable share of the population sets Switzerland apart from other European countries, as does the makeup of this group. Of those 1.6 million foreign residents, 62.6 percent were from EU/EFTA countries, mainly Italy and Germany.
Although the majority of Italian and Spanish citizens in Switzerland have lived in the country for 20 years or more or were born there, free movement has meant a more than 50 percent increase in the annual flow of EU-27 citizens to Switzerland between 2005 and 2007. In 2008 alone, 113,235 EU/EFTA citizens immigrated to Switzerland. The other 38.4 percent (612,454) of foreign residents came from non-EU/EFTA countries, more than half of them (or 20.1 percent of the total) from four countries of the former Yugoslavia, mostly from Serbia (12.0 percent of all foreign residents) but also Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Croatia. Many from Serbia are Kosovars. (Schindal, 2009).