Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
concentration of North Africans, one restaurant-bar in a gentrified zone off one of the
most exclusive shopping areas in Turin is particularly well regarded and popular. Until
at least 2 a.m. each night customers hang about to nibble, drink, and chat. The enter-
prise regularly hires young women from other parts of Europe, but for years the owner
has had a man from Dakar in his employment. His contribution to the smooth function-
ing of this restaurant-bar and the manager's reliance on his expertise is an example of
the pivotal yet frequently concealed role played by immigrants in contemporary Italy.
In this instance, there is a startling contrast between the polymorphic life world of the
Italo-African and the burgeoning consumerist night life that dramatically signals Turin's
transformation.
Imet Malik, whois originally from Senegal in 1990,shortly after he arrived in Turin.
He speaks Italian quite fluently, moving easily between that language, French, and Wo-
lof. He has at least one Italian friend with whom he worked at the Fiat firm. A native
Wolof speaker who attended schools where the instruction was in French, he couldn't
find gainful employment in Senegal and moved initially to France where he found him-
self under so much scrutiny as an “illegal” without hope of regularization that he de-
cided to seek a livelihood in Turin. He arrived at a moment of ferment when the first
cured limited term contract work cleaning machine components for a Fiat firm. When
the contracts expired, he worked with his compatriots as an itinerant trader for which
he traveled throughout the country and to France or Switzerland. Eventually accorded
a longer-term contract with the Fiat firm he worked extended hours including Sundays,
but joined a trade union and received wages according to standard union rates for the
job he performed.
As the restructuring of Fiat and its subsidiaries and contractors in Turin has held pace
withglobalindustrialpatternsandmovedmanyofitsmanufacturingfirmstoruralareas
and parts of the less economically developed world, including Eastern Europe, Malik
worked less regularly and assumed a second position at the popular bar-restaurant as a
busboy and handyman. After many years Fiat closed its local shop, and he lost his job.
As industrial work has increasingly vanished or become unstable, consumer and pro-
fessional service positions have expanded and Malik was fortunate to be working for a
bar-restaurant thriving during the economic downturn. He works in the kitchen where
customers don't see him and yet appears crucial to the success of the business, fiercely
relied upon by the owner who phones him at all hours of the night.
Malik was also fortunate to have acquired subsidized housing via the municipal gov-
ernment. He lives in a tiny one bedroom flat on the top floor of a building that he has
at various times shared with as many as five compatriots, sisters, and their spouses. His
apartment is located off a cobblestoned street and above several upscale bar-restaurants.
