Who Gets to Be Italian? - Geographies of Privilege - page 131

ity against racism” and suggested that “The murder is the result of prejudice and racial
hatred cultivated by many organizations, not only Casa Pound, but diffused and nour-
ished also by the newspapers and television.” And in a statement quoted in the national
newspaper, La Repubblica , a migrant leader in Bologna, Sene Basir, stated, “We feel
Italianandinsteadwe'recalledillegals.” 16 TheseareexpressionsofBlacksubjectivities,
forms of experience and knowledge about who is or ought to be classified as a legitim-
ate “insider” with the attendant rights and privileges.
In spite of drastic measures that include contracting with the Libyan coast guard to
patroltheSoutherncoastsorerectingmoredetentioncentersbothonandoff-shore,Italy
has over the past two decades been irrevocably transformed into a country of immig-
ration. Taking demographic trends as just one indication, it's evident that the nation is
rapidly becoming more ethnically diverse. This country that until at least the late l980s
was solely a sender of Italian migrants who now comprise a vast Italian Diaspora, and
not a receiver of immigrants is ever more heterogeneous, and its future includes Italo-
Africans and their children.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank France Winddance Twine and Bradley Gardener for their incisive
and insightful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this chapter.
Notes
1 . See Michelle Comelli (2011).
2 . The would-be immigrants and refugees seeking entry to Europe via the Southern Mediterranean
borders hail from Sub-Saharan, East, North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.
3 . “Italy'sCultureofRacismExposedByFans'AbuseofBlackFootballStar,” The Observer ,Decem-
ber 12, 2009.
4 . See the pathbreaking work of Angelo Del Boca (e.g., 2002, 2005).
5 . See McIntyre and Nast (2011).
6 . My research in Turin began in 1990 when the first wave of the political battles over immigration
crested. I have regularly returned to Turin, every two or three years to conduct field research.
7 . The 2010 elections saw a surge in support of the anti-immigrant right. Thirteen percent of the na-
tional vote went to the Northern League. Bossi's party won governorship of Piedmont and Veneto,
and expanded outside its Po valley homeland into “red” Emiglio Romagno winning 14 percent of
the vote. League policies include turning back would-be immigrants at sea (which is a violation of
theGenevaConvention),andsettingupcentersforidentificationandexpulsion—policiesthathave
already been implemented.
8 . Turinisthebirthplace ofEataly,foundedbyOscarFarinetti andtheSlowFoodmovementwhichis
a consultant for Eataly.
9 . See the outstanding undergraduate honors thesis by Luke McKinley, “Yes to Polenta, No to
Couscous!: Constructed Identities and Contested Boundaries Between Local and Global in North-