Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
to the institutional and national level through their numerical dimension. start-
ing from the assumption that foreigners are indeed a social problem, quantifica-
tion has been presented not only as a possible analytical tool, but sometimes as
the real solution: Count them, and you will be able to limit them.
but how does this occur in practice? in the case presented here, it will be
shown that the negative social connotation associated with a primary school on
the outskirts of Rome was first “ethnicized” in numerical terms and then trans-
formed into a question of national identity, via the efforts of various interested
parties and institutions: the “local moms,” worried about their children's school-
ing; the school's various management teams; the regional directors of education;
the local councilor for public education; a member of the italian parliament; and,
finally, the minister for public education. The thread connecting these individu-
als was formed first by the borough itself (with which all of them had a personal
connection, except for the minister) and second by a series of personal links of
acquaintanceship and friendship that constituted a channel of communication.
once this channel between the local and institutional level was established, it
was very difficult for alternative versions to reach any public space; they were rel-
egated to the margins and regarded as utopian or indeed mendacious portrayals.
an ill-starred school
The number of pupils without italian citizenship in italian schools has increased
steadily in the last decade and recently reached the level of 7.9 percent of the total
number of pupils (miur-ismu 2011a, 5), although clearly these statistics synthe-
size completely different situations: some schools have almost no foreign pupils
while others have a very visible multiethnic presence. in the torpignattara dis-
trict, in Rome's eastern periphery, the Carlo pisacane school is famous for the
fact that more than 80 percent of pupils are technically foreigners, as they do
not have an italian passport, even though the great majority were born in italy
or arrived there before they were of school age and thus speak italian just as well
as children of the same age who are native speakers. in short, we are talking
about a school attended for the most part by bilingual children whose parents
are immigrants, and where the number of italian pupils is much lower than the
national average and than the presence of italians in the district. The Carlo pi-
sacane school currently has 140 pupils, of whom 115 are foreigners and only 25
italians, divided among nine classes, two in each year except for year 2, which is
unique for reasons that we shall see shortly.
how can it be that no other primary school in the district has ever had more
than 30 percent of pupils per class with a foreign passport, while at the Carlo
pisacane school, the same figure in the last decade has never fallen below 80
percent? to answer this question, we need to start with an observation that few
people have made in facing up to the “peculiarity” of the pisacane school, namely
the words of maria Grazia Cascio, a teacher at the school:
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