Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo
Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo
Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo
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were deemed to be places where social segregation was perpetuated: they were not just<br />
reception facilities, but proper “ghettos”.<br />
Like all other ghettos in recent history, they gave rise to more “problems” than<br />
“solutions”: for their inmates, forced or otherwise, and also for municipalities, local<br />
politicians and the organisations running them. It soon became all too clear that the<br />
decision to create settlements for (alleged) “nomads” would cause friction with local<br />
residents (conflicts fuelled by local political “scare‐mongers”). A local administrator<br />
buil<strong>di</strong>ng a “temporary stay centre” would lose consensus and, therefore, votes.<br />
Thus the system <strong>of</strong> “provisioned camps” gradually <strong>di</strong>ed out and the municipalities’<br />
management <strong>of</strong> the Roma issue began to revert to more conventional eviction methods:<br />
forced evictions, bans on settlement, deportations and so forth. In recent years, from<br />
2007 on, the increasingly aggressive style <strong>of</strong> the me<strong>di</strong>a’s public safety campaigns paved<br />
the way for even more restrictive policies on the part <strong>of</strong> local mayors and<br />
administrators: in a general climate <strong>of</strong> Roma and Sinti criminalization, evictions give the<br />
greatest yeild, in terms <strong>of</strong> consensus, more so than buil<strong>di</strong>ng new accomodation facilities.<br />
It can be said that Italy has passed from being a country <strong>of</strong> detention centres to a country <strong>of</strong><br />
forced evictions.<br />
Evictions: number crunching.<br />
The numbers – <strong>of</strong>ten released by independent bo<strong>di</strong>es, occasionally “showcased” by<br />
local administrators themselves – concerning forced evictions carried out in recent years<br />
convey the idea <strong>of</strong> a proper persecution that can turn into a sort <strong>of</strong> “manhunt”. 91<br />
For example, on 26th April <strong>2011</strong> Riccardo de Corato, the former deputy mayor <strong>of</strong> Milan,<br />
announced that he had performed 500 evictions in under 4 years (an average <strong>of</strong> 10<br />
evictions a month). 92 In yet another public statement, at the beginning <strong>of</strong> January, De<br />
91 There are many eye-witness accounts <strong>of</strong> Roma groups repeatedly evicted and ‘chased’ by the police. In Milan, on<br />
17 February 2010, the Comunità <strong>di</strong> Sant’Egi<strong>di</strong>o claimed that one Roma community was evicted 5 times in one day<br />
(P. Foschini, Roma evicted 5 times in one day - Rom sgomberati per cinque volte in un solo giorno, “Corriere della<br />
Sera”, 17 febbraio 2010). Remaining in Milan, Anna Brambilla and Paolo Agnoletto’s lawyers spoke <strong>of</strong> awhat was<br />
“effectively persecution, as the families were evicted many times in the space <strong>of</strong> a few years or a few months” (M.<br />
Melley, Roma camp eviction: volunteers expose mayor and deputy mayor, in “Milano Today”, 9 November 2010,<br />
milanotoday.it/cronaca/sgomberi-campi-rom-denunciati-moratti-de-corato.html).<br />
In Genoa, a councillor in charge <strong>of</strong> issues <strong>of</strong> public safety wrote, regar<strong>di</strong>ng a group <strong>of</strong> Roma from Romania, that<br />
“we have already evicted them more than once” (Redazionale, Roma, settlement on the river: “Imme<strong>di</strong>ate eviction”<br />
“Il Giornale”, ed. Genoa, 7 July <strong>2011</strong>).<br />
On the subject <strong>of</strong> the death <strong>of</strong> Roma children in a fire in Rome, on 6 th February <strong>2011</strong> Carlo Stasolla <strong>of</strong> the “21<br />
Luglio” organisation declared to the press that “in the past those families had been evicted a number <strong>of</strong> times,<br />
without being <strong>of</strong>fered […] any adequate housing alternative” (Press release,<br />
21luglio.com/comunicati_stampa/com_06feb<strong>2011</strong>.htm).<br />
In Pisa, Africa Insieme reports that “communities <strong>of</strong> Romanian Roma have been sent away wherever they went and<br />
repeatedly evicted, using bulldozers to destroy their shelters and personal belongings” (Africa Insieme, Roma and<br />
Sinti: the situation as it stands in Pisa, November 2009, in: osservazione.org/documenti/lettera_ong_pisa_it.pdf).<br />
92 The original press release is published in ‘Roma, De Corato: “3 shantytowns shut down, more than 500 evictions.<br />
Milan has reduced the number <strong>of</strong> squatters by 80% in 4 years. With Pisapia the city would plunge back into the<br />
alarming state <strong>of</strong> 2007, from Riccardo de Corato’s blog, news dated 26 April <strong>2011</strong>, on the web page<br />
riccardodecoratoblog.net/<strong>2011</strong>/04/26/rom-de-corato-%E2%80%9Csmantellati-3-baraccopoli-superati-i-500-<br />
sgomberi-milano-ha-ridotto-abusivi-dell%E2%80%9980-in-4-anni-con-pisapia-la-citta-tornerebbeall%E2%80%99emergenza-del-2007/.<br />
The news was then reported by newspapers: cf. Zita Dazzi e Massimo Pisa,<br />
De Corato’s 500 evictions, in “la Repubblica”, ed. Milano, 27 April <strong>2011</strong>. The numbers refer to the period between<br />
2007 and spring <strong>2011</strong>.<br />
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