Psychosocial Notebook - IOM Publications - International ...

Psychosocial Notebook, Volume 2, October 2001
have recently experienced. They spoke of work to avoid sliding back into
the difficult memories of their past, and to avoid losing hope about their
future.
In most cases the migrants have only scant knowledge of the few rights
that their political refugee status should grant them. Some interviewees
originally from rural areas did not even know the meaning of the word
“right”. Such questions on the universality of human rights are raised by
Antonio Cassese, in his book: Human Rights in the Contemporary World
(Roma, Laterza, 1994). According to his work, the philosophical conception
of human rights varies from the Western to the Eastern regions of the
world, and from capitalist to socialist countries. Even if, therefore, the
interviewees who lived in Yugoslavia under the socialist regime of
Marshall Tito were guaranteed certain rights (such as those related to
work, education and the home), they now find themselves in a fundamentally
different situation, where Western societies do not offer their citizens
the same rights as are expected in socialist societies.
On the other hand, the Balkans have often been defined as a midpoint
between East and West. In the rural areas of Kosovo, in fact, an “in
between” social structure has formed around large families and clans. We
thus find ourselves with a different perception of rights and necessities,
where the needs of the community are more important than those of the
individual. One telling example of this might be found in the ongoing care
shown by a family, even a dispersed one, when family members working
in Italy strive to send money to the rest of their relatives, or save in order
to be reunited with them.
In Italy, and more precisely in the community of Salento, the citizens have
been considered for a Nobel Peace Prize, as a reward for the hospitality
they extended to the refugees that have come ashore on their beaches. The
Catholic Church, especially, has played a vital role in this process – and
yet, one might ask, has their hospitality been entirely well received by the
immigrants? To the Kosovar Albanians and Romany, Italy has often been
recognized for its humanitarianism; it is “a nation that traditionally helps”.
It is therefore Italy, as frontier nation between Western and Eastern
Europe, but also between Europe and the Far East and Africa, that will
someday have to face the great challenge of further elaborating a multicultural
citizenship. It falls to Italy now to ensure that those arriving from
Kosovo and beyond can also live in dignity on that side of the Adriatic Sea.
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