Jordan Gomillion
September 3rd, 2009
8:04 PM
Italy ranks first with their annual growth rate of immigrants and regular immigrants, with them taking up 6.2 percent of the country, totaling more than 3.6 million people. It’s an issue that the country has many problems with. They have, however, created a new policy that intercepts the boats at sea and forces immigrants away. This has caused the IOM (International Organization of Migration) to worry about the governments treatment of immigrants. Based in Rome, the IOM works to raise awareness about migration, while also providing assistance to migrants, as well as number of other things. They have launched a new project the MIDLA (Migration In Latin America), one of the important factors of the project is co-development. They are also documenting the economic aspect of it, migrants send home money, more than 9 billion dollars was sent home from migrants in Italy in 2008. Though it has yet to be seen if the government will loosen its stance on immigration, come of the country’s Catholic bishops have protested the policy.
Immigration is always going to be a controversial topic, there is the perception that immigrants go to the U.S. and other countries, and ruin the workforce, taking jobs away from citizens. The other side of it, is that immigrants are going to other countries to create a better life for themselves and their families. In this particular instance, I feel as if Italy may be a bit harsh with its policy, forcing immigrants at sea to turn around, but you have to realize that a growing rate of non-documented immigrants entering the country leads to other issues, people working illegally, homelessness or people living in poverty may rise, and even health care becomes an issue. If the country could develop a policy that maybe goes hand in hand with the IOM project, it could quite possibly lead to less protests and division on the issue. Things are not always that easy though.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48311
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