“I did not come here to have fun or steal. I am in Italy because I want to study to become a teacher, and here I can read and learn many things about life”
“Today I am trying to find a job so that I can send money to my younger brother. I do not want him to take a bad road. I want him to grow well.”
These are direct quotes from two African migrants who came to Italy at the age of 18. They are two of the most resilient, kindhearted, hilarious, down to earth individuals I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, yet they have had to spend an unreasonable amount of their life trying to prove their worthiness to others. In many people’s eyes these young men are not worthy of Italian citizenship, a job, a house, or even general political and human rights. In many people’s eyes they are the enemy of countrywide security. In many people’s eyes they have no place in Italian society. In many people’s eyes they should go back to where they came from. After spending tens of thousands of euros, crossing dangerous waters, not talking to their families for two years, being abused by the police, and watching loved ones die before their eyes, these two wonderful men have entered a country in which they must continue to prove their worth to small-minded individuals on a daily basis.
Migration has been occurring since the beginning of time, and it will never stop. Governments, border controls, walls, and policies may try to prevent individuals from migrating, but the phenomenon simply will. never. stop. America is a country built on immigrants, as are many other countries around the world, yet today we have decided that migration is no longer acceptable for our society. We scream about immigrants stealing our jobs, putting our safety at risk, or evading taxpayer duties, while completely turning a blind eye to the migration journeys that our ancestors went through in order for us to sit on our “citizenship” thrones of comfort, exclusivity, and ignorance. Article 13 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every single human being has the right to freedom of movement. However, the pitfall of this article is that it says nothing about the right to freedom of entry. Countries are allowed national sovereignty when it comes to deciding who is worthy or unworthy of entry, which creates a fundamental power imbalance in our global society. At the end of the day we are all humans with inherent worth and dignity, and we must start viewing each other in this way. I am not saying that I am in favor of a total open border migration policy, as I recognize that unregulated migration would be horribly detrimental to the economic, political, and social structures of each nation. However, there is no excuse for the inhumane way that migrants are being viewed and treated in the world today. We are all important, we are all human, and we are all worthy of not having to prove our worth to others.
These past few weeks have been really educational, transformative, exciting, and reflective. I am reminded on a daily basis how lucky I am to be living in Bologna, and also how fast my time here is going by. Here’s a breakdown of what I’ve been up to!
The two young men I mentioned earlier in this post were migrants that came to speak to our Italian class two weeks ago. They recounted the story of their journey to Italy in great detail, which was incredibly heartbreaking but important to hear. The countless difficulties that they faced throughout their journeys were absolutely unimaginable, and I was honestly moved to tears at least four or five times while they were speaking. They came to Italy seeking refuge from their war-torn and dangerous countries, and yet are still outsiders in the Italian community. However, their seemingly unending positivity and sense of thankfulness was incredibly inspiring. They have huge dreams for their futures and truly try to see the good in every situation. We were able to hang out with them after class for a little while too, which was really fun and a cool opportunity to get to know them on a more personal level. They were super funny, cool, and down to earth, and we had some awesome conversations about music and their desired professions.
A few weekends ago we also had an event called “cena senza frontiere”, which translates to “dinner without borders”. Some African migrants cooked a really delicious stew dish which had a peanut butter base and was served with rice, and the Americans cooked chili. We all ate together, along with some migrants from Afghanistan and Italian students, which was really fun and a very cool opportunity to engage in a cultural exchange. Before and after dinner we also did a lot of dancing, and we switched off playing songs from each of our cultures. After dinner we danced for about two hours straight, which was exhausting but also so much fun. Everyone had a really great time, and it was beautiful to see how easy it was for a group of people from such different backgrounds to come together and unite over something as simple as silly dance moves. When it was time for everyone to leave, the migrants started taking tons of selfies and pictures with all of us. It was absolutely hilarious; I think I took selfies with about 20 different people that night.
My internship has been going really well! I recently helped Chiara (my supervisor) write an application for the Happy Center to speak at a conference on homelessness in Budapest this fall. It had to be written in english, so I was able to help ensure that she was using correct grammar and vocabulary. Two weeks ago for English class I wrote out a bunch of questions on pieces of paper (ex. What is your favorite song? What would you do with one million dollars?), and had each individual grab one. We then went around one by one, had every person write their question on the board in English and Italian, and then had everyone else answer the question. It was very helpful for teaching them how to engage in conversations in English, and also allowed everyone to get to know each other a little better. One of the questions I wrote out was “What superpower do you wish you had?”, and their answers were very deep and inspirational. Literally every single person said they wished they had the power to heal, to make the world a better place, to relieve pain, to replace bad thoughts with good thoughts, or something similar. We then listened to, sang, and analyzed the song “Heroes” by David Bowie, which was a really beautiful moment that reminded me of music's ability to serve as a universal language. Last week we celebrated Chiara and I’s birthdays (her birthday is March 2nd also!), which was really fun and joyous. The class was not as structured as usual, but we ended up getting into a group discussion about the political structures in everyone’s country of origin. This was a really interesting conversation, as we had people represented from Italy, America, Morocco, Afghanistan, and various places in Africa. I additionally ended up talking to a man about his drug addiction recovery, and how that has shaped his life so far. We communicated solely in Italian, which was not easy, but definitely put my language skills to the test. It was very inspiring to see how much he had changed and how optimistic he was about his future, despite his dark past.
Volunteering at the after school program between African migrants and Italian students has also been going really well. Two weeks ago they had an all-day long event of playing sports and hanging out, in order to strengthen relationships between the two groups. I had class in the morning so couldn’t come until about noon, but when I got there we all ate pizza together for lunch. I had some really awesome conversations with the migrants and students about their lives and future goals, and got free pizza! That’s a win in my book. After class one of the Italian students also approached me and asked if I could look over his common app essay since he’s applying to colleges in America, and I of course said yes. It is so interesting to see the way people react when I say I’m an American; they either get really excited and express their jealousy, or yell at me and explain all the awful things my country has done. It really makes me think about America’s place in the global conversation and gives me the opportunity to take a step back from the ethnocentric rhetoric and history that is preached at home. Last week at service we celebrated the feste delle donne (international women’s day) by bringing in sweet treats of African and Italian descent. The Italians brought some cake and pizza, and then the Africans made some type of sweet fried bread with a hardboiled egg inside of it!! I was a little too afraid to try it with the egg though, so they were really kind and picked the egg out of mine; it was reallyyyyy yummy. The feste delle donne is a HUGE deal in Italy, and it was really cool to witness the way that the students celebrated the day. In Italy there are these little yellow flowers called mimosas that represent the feste delle donne, and people are supposed to give them to women in their lives that they care about. It was so adorable and uplifting to see that just about every girl in the class had received a bouquet of mimosas.
After service, I met up with a few friends in Piazza Maggiore for the women’s march. It was incredibly beautiful and empowering to see so many women coming together for a common cause. There were a couple really funny signs (ex. “Binarism is for computers”), and also a couple in Italian that I just couldn’t understand at all. Overall though, the unified sense of support for womankind was absolutely palpable throughout the march. There were also a ton of men at the march, some marching with significant others or friends, and some just marching by themselves. This overwhelming sense of allyship was honestly a little unexpected, but nonetheless beautiful and inspiring to see.
Last weekend I went on a social justice trip to Puglia, which is the southern region of Italy. We left on Wednesday night and took a nine hour sleeper train from Bologna to Brindisi. That was a really cool experience, despite the fact that sleeping was pretty difficult due to the constant stopping and starting of the train. When we arrived in Brindisi Thursday morning we were greeted by a priest who works at Caritas (a Catholic organization that seeks to help refugees and impoverished individuals). He took us to Caritas, we got a tour of the facility, and then we received a presentation in order to learn more about the organization and what they do. They showed us a video and talked about the history of migration in Brindisi, which was really interesting to learn about. We also were able to hear the story of a refugee family of three that escaped from Iraq. They were forced to leave after the husband’s brother and father were killed by the Taliban, and so they picked up everything and left for Italy with their 2 month old baby girl. The journey was horrible and dangerous, but they finally made it to Italy safely. Now the family has an apartment provided by Caritas, and they must wait 6 months until their papers and documents are finished being processed. We then helped serve lunch, and had the chance to talk to some of the individuals we were serving. Afterwards we went back and regrouped for a reflection period, and then the staff came in and surprised us with a cake. We all ate together and hung out with some of the other soup kitchen volunteers. Next we went on an informal tour of the city, checking out the harbor, some beautiful churches, the home of the archdiocese, and a YUMMY gelato shop. We later went to dinner at a restaurant that was literally located on the Adriatic Sea, and ate some of the most amazing food I have ever tasted. The dinner lasted 4 hours, consisted of 5 courses, and was just incredible. We also had a bunch of wine, which made it even more fun. After dinner we went back to the beach bungalows where we were staying, and ended up hanging out on the beach for a while. The waves were absolutely beautiful at night, and it was just so much fun to be surrounded by such incredible people in such an incredible place. And then, to top it all off, my friends sang happy birthday to me at midnight on the beach (since my birthday was the next day), which was super thoughtful and made me feel so loved.
Friday we went to the Cara, a welcome center for refugees. There we took a tour, learned about their organization, and then divided up into three groups. My group had to choose someone to pretend to be a migrant coming to the Cara on the first day, so we chose Jon. Jon was one of the chaperones on the trip, who actually migrated to Italy from Afghanistan 11 years ago. They took him through the various stations that a first-day refugee would go through, including a one-on-one meeting with a police officer, doctor, and psychologist. The way that the staff treated Jon was inspiring and hopeful, as they did everything they could to make him feel at home and comfortable. They assured him that he was safe now, and that they were impressed by his resilience in making the journey over. We then went back and debriefed, hearing from the other groups that they had learned about the legal assistance provided to migrants and the frequency of trafficking and prostitution of women migrants. A group of migrants then performed a dance for us, which was meant to depict their journey from Africa to Italy. It was the most beautiful, moving, inspirational, heartbreaking, impressive dance I have ever seen, and I am so thankful for the opportunity to have witnessed such a raw expression of human emotion. One of the dancers started crying uncontrollably after their performance, which was really hard but important to see. Finally we danced with the migrants for a while, and then went and ate lunch together. Next, we went to old Mafia land that had been converted into an educational farm for children. The farm is run by Libera, an anti-mafia NGO, and seeks to provide children with information on the history of the mafia in that area and on the art of farming. They additionally have a vineyard which produces wine that is sold in their shop in downtown Brindisi, and each bottle is named after an individual who was killed by the mafia. The back of each bottle has the story of their life and death, and serves as a very concrete way of remembering victims of mafia violence. Next we went to their wine shop in the city center, where they so generously let us taste some of their wines. They were really delicious, and probably some of the best quality wines I will ever drink. After that, we went to a really beautiful restaurant for dinner. We had another five course meal and some of the wine from the shop we had been at earlier. It was absolutely delicious, and I left that restaurant feeling extremely full (in the best way possible). We then headed back to our bungalows, and a bunch of people came to hang out in my room for the rest of the night. It was a wonderful end to the best birthday I could ever ask for.
The next day we went on a hike through a beautiful nature reserve. One of our teachers that was chaperoning the trip, Professor Nardini, used to volunteer at the reserve. Therefore her and a few of her old friends from the reserve led the tour. It was really interesting to learn about the history of the nature reserve and their struggle to keep the land, as the tourism industry is continuously trying to take it from them in order to turn the property into hotels and beaches. We also learned a lot about the specific plants and what purpose they each served, which was very cool. After about an hour of hiking, we had some free time on the beach. It was only about 55 degrees, but a couple of my friends and I decided that we wanted to go swimming. So we did! We swam for quite a while, and the water wasn’t actually as cold as I thought it would be! We then hiked for a little bit longer (which was a little chilly, considering I was soaking wet), and then headed back to the bungalows to change our clothes. Afterwards we went to the beautiful city of Ostuni. It is called the white city, due to all of the buildings being white, and is absolutely stunning. It is located on top of a huge hill, so the views were simply incredible. In Ostuni we had a few hours of free time just to walk around and get lunch. We ended up exploring the city for a little while, and then found a really cute restaurant at the end of a random alley for lunch. We ordered pizzas, and it was honestly the best pizza I have ever eaten. The cheese melted in my mouth, the bread was as soft as a cloud, and there wasn’t too much sauce!!! It was amazing. That night we went to a book release dinner party for an African migrant who’d written about his journey to Italy. The African food was SO good, and it was really inspiring to see the compassionate interactions between the migrants and the Italians at the dinner. An African dance troupe performed for us too, which was really impressive. They were dancing to the music of a live Italian percussion group, and that was a very cool cultural exchange to witness. After watching them perform, we were all invited to dance with them too! It was overall a very beautiful night that proved the possibility of peaceful relations between people of many differing background and cultures. That night a bunch of my friends and I stayed up really late playing a question game, which was a really fun opportunity to grow closer on a deeper level.
The next morning we went to the beach for a reflection time. It was a really great way to wrap up the trip, and gave us the opportunity to reflect on everything that we had seen, learned, and done throughout the weekend. Finally we wrote affirmations for each other (little letters saying how great everyone is), which was really fun and reminded me of the mission trips I went on in high school. Overall it was one of the best weekends I have ever had. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have deepened my understanding of the migration situation in Italy, grown closer with those in my program, been introduced to some very inspiring individuals, reflected on my own values and future goals, and been exposed to all the beauty that Puglia has to offer.
