Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

Psychosocial Notebook, Volume 2, October 2001
Work is quite normal; you earn little and work more than the Italians…
For example, I earn 7,800 liras an hour because I work in a cooperative
and often do heavy work… [Ilir]
I like Italy, it’s a beautiful country and we’ve found true friends, but I
must say that some people are a little racist towards foreigners, or they
take advantage of our situation as non-EC [European Community] citizens
that happen to live here not because they want to but because they
have to. [Dritan]
Before I started to work, I searched for a house to rent, hoping to find one
and a job but it was a very strange thing, I wasn’t able to find one in two
months. As soon as they heard your voice at the telephone or found out
you were a foreigner, they backed away, I hate being discriminated
against, I hate this thing, and it hurts me a lot. [Ilir]
In the interviewees’ perspectives for the future, different opinions mingled.
All of them shared the hope of someday returning to Kosovo, while at this
time, the political situation is such that only Kosovar Albanians could do so.
In the meantime, Italy’s current immigration and asylum laws have strongly
regulated the lives of these people, and, as we have already seen, their
right to seek asylum in another country has been denied them. According
to Article 13 of the Declaration of Human Rights:
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence
within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and
to return to his own country.
Yet this article is far removed from the reality of those we interviewed.
Gentiam, a 20-year-old man, wished only to return to Kosovo and instead,
found himself confined at the Regina Pacis Centre after having been
expelled from Germany:
Of course my greatest desire is to go back as soon as possible to my
country. My God, if the conditions here were better, I would stay because
I want to find a job. But since I’m always inside this place, I’d rather go
back home, no? [Gentiam]
On 18 December 1990, the United Nations ratified the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and the
Members of their Families. The convention was intended to guarantee that
families could stay together or be reunited, and yet these rights are often
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