Although immigration and the growing diversity of the Italian population have become highly contested issues over the past two decades, there still seems to be no clear role insight for cultural policies to address them.
Due to its relatively short history as a country of immigration and to the constantly shifting moods of political coalitions, Italy’s “model of integration” is more difficult to pinpoint than in other European countries. In this general framework, it is not surprising that new citizens’ fundamental right to culture and freedom of expression, enshrined in the Constitution, has not yet been explicitly promoted – let alone regulated through specific legislation – by the State administration.
Immigration/integration policies have been primarily entrusted to the Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for the safeguarding of civil rights with regard to immigration, asylum, citizenship, religious faiths and “historical” linguistic minorities. Other important actors are the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, the Ministry of Education and UNAR (National Office Against Racial Discrimination). A relevant role in enhancing international intercultural dialogue through technical and financial assistance and capacity building in heritage matters is also played by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with MiC.
To this day, the most structured effort to encourage migrants’ cultural participation at state level was made in late 2015, when the former MiBACT in partnership with UNAR launched the #MigraArti project. It comprised two calls for proposals devoted to cinema and the performing arts, but was discontinued after only three editions.
By contrast, many interesting cultural programmes have been undertaken through the initiative of particular configurations of local authorities, NGOs and civil society (e.g. the National network of Intercultural Centres). However, in the past few years the most structured experiences (from the creation of ad-hoc Departments to the launch of long-term programmes) have come to an end due to severe cuts in cultural budgets and changes in the political make-up of local councils – not to mention, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic.
There are of course exceptions to this trend. Milano Città Mondo is a project launched by the City of Milan and local diaspora associations, which gained momentum when the Museum of Cultures (where it is based) was inaugurated in 2015.
As for the few long-term initiatives, which managed to survive throughout the 2010s, when the “hype” around intercultural dialogue gradually started to subside, the Intercultural Service of the Libraries of Rome stands out for having established fruitful partnerships (e.g. the website Roma Multietnica[1]) with several migrants’ associations, schools, centres for adult learning and other organisations.
There are also noteworthy examples of private actors at least partly making up for the lack of structural policy-making at the public level. Since 2005, Fondazione ISMU – Initiatives and Studies on Multiethnicity has been constantly supporting heritage and museum professionals engaged not only in the promotion of migrants’ cultural participation, but also in the development of diverse interpretive communities, through its long-term programme and website Patrimonio e Intercultura[2].
An increasingly important role is played by non-profit organisations, both foreign and Italian (e.g. Suq Genova Festival e Teatro[3]; the over 600 diaspora associations making up the Milano Città Mondo network[4]; the Rome-based Archivio dell’Immigrazione[5]).
The most “traditional” strategies range from promoting a greater recognition of other cultures (e.g the African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival in Milan[6]) to the use of museum collections for language learning or the training of individuals with a migrant background as “guides” for their own communities in discovering the Italian heritage (e.g. the AMIR project in Florence[7]).
In spite of the highly conservative nature of the museum sector, groundbreaking intercultural work has been carried out by small, medium and large institutions alike, including the Factories of stories audio-trail of the Uffizi Galleries[8]. For a comprehensive overview of case studies, see the above-mentioned Patrimonio e Intercultura website.
As for the emergence of innovative intercultural forms, “social theatre” is by far the most experimental field on the Italian cultural scene, with well-established companies such as Teatro dell’Argine in Bologna, Teatro dell’Angolo in Turin, Teatro delle Albe in Ravenna and Teatro di Nascosto in Volterra.
Finally, “migrant literature” in the Italian language is being promoted through public libraries, associations (e.g. Eks&Tra[9]), book publishers (e.g. Terre di Mezzo[10]), on-line journals (e.g. El Ghibli[11]), websites (e.g. LettERRANZA[12]) and awards (e.g. “Concorso Lingua Madre” for women[13]).
[1] http://www.romamultietnica.it/english/
[2] http://patrimonioeintercultura.ismu.org/en/homepage-en/
[4] https://tavolomudec.wordpress.com/
[5] http://www.archivioimmigrazione.org/
[7] https://www.amirproject.com
[8] https://www.uffizi.it/en/online-exhibitions/factoriesofstories
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