La Clandestina

Jasmina Tesanovic RSS / 13.08.2009. u 10:58

La Clandestina

These days I often think of my girlfriend N who has lived in Italy for more than a year now. She left on a tourist visa from Serbia, a divorced mother without a penny or a home, and over-stayed her visa.  She found a job as the caretaker of an old man, somewhere in Northern Italy.

She wrote to us: she is  not exactly happy, but feels more secure about her children, who stay with her parents, now that she is a breadwinner for them all. She has no legal residency papers and she feels bad about that, but then. another 60 000 people living and working in Italy are in her same position. As a weirdly democratic country, all legal citizens and even illegal residents of Italy have free healthcare.  

 
Well, only a few days ago, the Berlusconi government approved a new law, which makes the status of the clandestines not only illegal, but criminal.  The president of the republic and the democratic opposition were firmly against it, but the government, which has the majority, passed it.  Furthermore, the new law legalized the so-called ronde, meaning a good old fascist tradition where groups of vigilante citizens cruise the towns and catch illegals with their own hands.   The ronde is happening these days all over Italy, it is scary and primitive. You never know in those hysterical rage attacks against the foreigners  -- mostly black ones -- if the voice of reason will speak  before it's too late.

In Torino, an African street vender was beaten and robbed by three guys: he went to the police to denounce the violence, and was arrested for being illegal. He now faces a 5000-euro  fine and deportation. That's the new penalty for i clandestini visible in the streets.

Caretakers of the old who still have  some time for legalizing their position, if their employer want to go through with it. Not big news that most employers don't do this,  because that means tax money for the state.

I think of my Serbian friend N and her personal history: she went through a war ordeal, mostly as a victim of international sanctions, then she suffered a violent husband, and now she is a clandestine immigrant exposed to vigilantes.  She had to deliberately choose to survive: she was always brave enough to look ahead.

What can N do in this situation in Italy, where her labor is  welcome but she has no rights? It's entirely similar to the legal treatment of prostitution, which is legally prohibited, but when it comes to tax payment for sex work, the system closes one eye and collects the money.

Sometimes, trangression makes the invisible global population visible to national law. I remember a refugee during the bosnian war whose personal documents were burned .  She was  imprisoned in Hungary as stateless.   When she paid the Hungarian state for  her prison stay, she received new documents that made her legal.

Italy is supposed to be a free country in peace, now sliding into the dangerous absurdities typical of wartime anr martial law.   The Globalization of  Balkanization is on every street-corner, illegally selling shoes.



Komentari (5)

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libkonz libkonz 12:00 13.08.2009

no comment

chobanica chobanica 12:13 13.08.2009

Ne razumem

It's entirely similar to the legal treatment of prostitution, which is legally prohibited, but when it comes to tax payment for sex work, the system closes one eye and collects the money.


Je li to u Italiji? Ja sam mislila da tamo gde je prostitucija legalizovana, tu se i placa porez, a tamo gde nije ne placa se.
crvenokossa crvenokossa 12:48 13.08.2009

fašistički

Kakva glupost, pa jako malo ljudi iz hira ode tek tako, pristavši da bude građanin drugog reda... Uglavnom neimaština, i slična muka natjera ljude da potraže bolje... A tamo... Grozno, mogu da zamislim kako te hajke izgledaju...
Colin_bgd Colin_bgd 13:03 13.08.2009

solo due parole...

She found a job as the caretaker of an old man, somewhere in Northern Italy.
Izvinjavam se unapred, mozda ja nisam dobro shvatio, ali ukoliko vasa prijateljica radi kao osoba koja brine o staroj osobi na severu Italije, onda se to na engleskom bolje kaze "carer", nego caretaker. Caretaker se vise koristi za onoga ko brine o zgradi, nekretnini (znaci domar, portir, kucepazitelj), dok je carer za one koji se brinu o ljudima. Mislim po recniku niste napravili gresku, ali u duhu je ovako, nemojte se ljutiti, malo bode oci, mozda sam danas preosetljiv na (gle, cuda!) promenljivu ostrvsku klimu...

A sto se tice teksta, non posso credere...
antonacci antonacci 14:02 13.08.2009

Re: solo due parole...

Colin_bgd
She found a job as the caretaker of an old man, somewhere in Northern Italy.
Izvinjavam se unapred, mozda ja nisam dobro shvatio, ali ukoliko vasa prijateljica radi kao osoba koja brine o staroj osobi na severu Italije, onda se to na engleskom bolje kaze "carer", nego caretaker. Caretaker se vise koristi za onoga ko brine o zgradi, nekretnini (znaci domar, portir, kucepazitelj), dok je carer za one koji se brinu o ljudima. Mislim po recniku niste napravili gresku, ali u duhu je ovako, nemojte se ljutiti, malo bode oci, mozda sam danas preosetljiv na (gle, cuda!) promenljivu ostrvsku klimu...

A sto se tice teksta, non posso credere...


Caregiver in the US. Carers exist in UK and Australia, and no one likes their snobbish English.

A što se teksta tiče... Io, invece, posso credere. Questo è Berlusconi, è PDL... i successori dei fascisti seguono le tradizioni dei suoi predecessori.

Arhiva

   

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