Turin's CIE - International University College of Turin

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XIV. CLASSIFYING IDENTITY
Language is a powerful tool. Italian immigration law and policy adopts rather surprising
terminology to explain the condition of people whose liberty is taken away by the State because
they do not have valid immigration documents. The findings from this report strongly indicate
that the conditions inside Turin’s CIE might be worse than prison 196 . Yet, unlike in prison, in CIE
a detainee is not a “detainee” (il detenuto). Rather, the rules given to detainees in CIE describe
them with the euphemism of a “guest” (l’ospite). These “guests” cannot leave at their own free
will: “The greatest issue is freedom, I think that any other problem is a matter of secondary
importance. People do not understand the reason why they have to throw away one year and a half
of their own life inside a cage” (Interview 28). Nevertheless, the Italian legislation prescribes that
they are not being “detained” but rather they are “kept” (trattenuti). The Italian legislative term
trattenuto is the noun that derives from the verb “to keep” (literally, “the kept”). This process of
linguistic abstraction is perhaps meant to separate CIE administrative detention from criminal
detention.
Identity is not only classified on a linguistic level in order to separate people. Throughout the
research, it became clear that there is a deeper question on how we classify identity and
perhaps make decisions that deeply affect young people: “I thought my family would have helped
me, while in my family I only found racists. All of them are racist. My own family. My blood. We
have the same blood in our body. Why do you treat me like this? I cannot understand. I am going
mad” (Interview 21). Even where there might be legal possibilities for a person to assert their
identity rights, lack of access to legal aid and the emotional stress of long legal procedures can
also inhibit access to justice.
This Othering process is not limited to third-country nationals, since European Union citizens
can end up on the wrong side of identity classification. We received reports alleging that
Romanians have also been detained in Turin’s CIE: “It’s very difficult to understand why she was
arrested since she was an EU citizen, I even asked the question. I was told that anyone can be inside
even if they are [EU citizens], you know” (Interview 3). The practice of detaining Romanian EU
citizens is not limited to Turin. According to Medici per I Diritti Umani, in 2011 a total of 304
Romanians were detained in Rome’s Ponte Galeria CIE 197 . This made Romanians the third most
represented nationality in Rome’s CIE 198 . Moreover, Roma gypsies who for generations have
been crossing European borders can now find themselves inside CIE.
One area in which young people can suffer is when they are born in Italy to immigrant parents.
A person might have lived their entire life in Italy and yet they still cannot claim citizenship
rights until they are eighteen years old 199 . For example, we spoke to a mother who was a longterm
resident with a nine-year-old daughter who had been born in Italy. The little girl goes to
school in Italy, speaks Italian as a mother tongue and knows only Italy as her local community.
196 See Part B. Conditions of Detention, Chapter III. Prison and CIE.
197 Medici per i Diritti Umani, Le Sbarre Più Alte, 21.
198 Id.
199 See Legge 5 febbraio 1992, n. 91, “Nuove norme sulla cittadinanza” (GU n. 38 del 15.2.1992). Law of 5
February 1992, n. 91, “New norms on citizenship” (GU n. 38 of 15.2.1992). This law provides that in order to
be an Italian citizen by birth: a person must be the child of a father or mother with Italian citizenship (article
1.1.a); their citizenship must not follow that of their parents, pursuant to the law of their country (article 1.1.b);
or they must be born within the Republic's territory and both parents must be either stateless or unknown (article
1.2). Article 4.2 provides that “a child who is born in Italy to parents who are not Italian citizens and who has
legally resided with no interruption until they turn eighteen, becomes a citizen if he declares that he wants to
acquire Italian citizenship within one year” (“Lo straniero nato in Italia, che vi abbia risieduto legalmente senza
interruzioni fino al raggiungimento della maggiore età, diviene cittadino si dichiara di voler acquistare la
citadinanza italiana entro un anno dalla suddetta data”).