IMMIGRATION, PAGANO: IMMIGRANT RIGHTS DEFENDED BY ITALIAN POLITICIANS IN ENGLISH
Rome, September 10 2008
• Statement by Giorgio Pagano, Secretary of the "Esperanto" Radical Association and Head of Centopercentoitaliano.it
It’s a personal goal the way in which 200 ilegal immigrants voiced their protests: in the English language, with signs and T-shirts that screamed "we ask our right," "listen our problem!"
To work in italy presumabily implies that one needs to have some rudimentry knowledge of the country of residence: for example, you won’t get in to Australia if you haven’t passed an English language exam first, that has to be taken in the country’s embassy in your homeland.
Perhaps the immigrants that protest in front of the RAI in Rome have not yet realized that they are living in Italy, not in Great Britain, or the United States, or Australia, and they turned to Italian politicians in English, instead of the national language.
Any type of protest would suggest that they wish to be understood, yet so far they have shown themselves to be outsiders, to the Italians and to Italy.