Italians relax under umbrellas on sandy beaches in the hot summer months. Under blistering sun, Moroccans, Tunisians, Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, Senegalese, Bangladeshi – to name a few of the immigrant vendors – trudge for hours in the sand, toting heavy wares, hoping to make a sale.
Called the “vu compra’ ” (”do you want to buy?” – in Neapolitan dialect) by Italians, these “New Italians” sell everything from bijoux to micro-fiber beach towels to “designer” sunglasses to ersatz Vuitton handbags to coconuts to their skills: braiding hair in tight tiny twist braids (the Senegalese specialty), painting on intricate henna tattoos. Most of the vendors are men, but not all.
Not all of the immigrants are vendors, however: an ebullient Tunisian math professor, married to an Italian and about to become a father, parked cars at our seaside restaurant.
We talked with Mourad – “or you can call me ‘Mario’ as my Italian friends do” – about his participation in the Tunisian protests in early spring. Then later that afternoon, I met another Tunisian, Marison, a shy economic student who scooped ice cream in the local gelateria, along with a smiling Peruvian, Pamela.
At one seafood restaurant, Romanian Vlad served our pasta with shellfish with a wide smile. At another, the Iranian owner, Mansur (who was a cook here ten years ago and then bought the restaurant) smiles as he introduces the only Italian on his restaurant staff of thirty, Martina, “who learned to make tiramisu’ from a Romanian and fettuccine from an Indian!”
Martina told us with a cheerful grin, “I’M the foreigner here!” Cajuon from Bangladesh grills all the eggplants, pepper and other vegetables. Saber from Tunis waits tables with class along with Adina, from Romania, who works at the Italian seaside in the summer and continues her university education in the winter in Romania. Romanian Mari does the same, although her cousin and uncle are now here year round.
What would we do without our “New Italians”? (….and after all, I was once one too….)
Anne, this is a great note and look at these lovely young people in your photograph. Working hard and making a contribution as well as spreading some sunshine with their smiles.
Thank you Anne for writing and GB for publishing this. Making a living in difficult times, these young people have all my respect.
Anna, in such a good way you expressed the Italiani nature. Being from Puglia I well know my ancient heritage,Greek,Albanian,Turkish,German,Jewish,African,Spanish to name a few. My only hope is that as ‘the new Italians’ become a part of Italia they hold some of the old ways as they form the new.
Leftist, Multi-cultural drivel. Please write about Italy and stop pushing your skewed views. Ask the Yugoslavians how the “diversity” worked out. Stop your naivety and anti-Italian views. Thanks.
Staying at the wonderful Card International Hotel in Rimini this year I can attest to the fact that the new immigrants are hard working and anxious to please. The front desk staff were superb and wanted to speak English. Italians are warm and gracious hosts which makes it my favorite destination. My immagrant grandparents came to the USA from Ireland, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.
Dearest Anne,
Loved your piece on the new Italians!! Loved being with you on the beach of Numana this summer.
See you soon.
Love,Joan
Wow Nathan, kind of harsh. Comparing immigration in Italy to Yugoslavia’s situation (long-standing ethnic divisions erupting after a power vacuum) is totally off the mark. Better to compare this to other places where immigration has occurred. Do problems occur? Sure. But I can also think of places where as a whole immigration works and is the positive norm… you know, like the USA (a country of nothing but immigrants) for the past 200 years, for example.
Also, I fail to understand how this note is anti-Italian. It’s about a case (the restaurant) where the immigration works, and thus, if anything, would be pro-Italian.
Most Italians are very accepting of all people,yes it does cause some problems financially yet only for those that will not accept the scientific if not Godly way that we are all equal and genetically the same.
This was always going to be a brave post with polarised reactions: I’m with the majority of the commentators on this one. And well done Anne.
I just returned from my first visit to Italy. I was in Roma for 10 days. Hey Nathan, I’m sure you’re a good guy but perhaps you should read a little history. Human migration has been going on for 250 THOUSAND years. It has never stopped and it never will. Go back in your own family history and you will discover that your ancestors (and theirs) came from “somewhere else”. In other words it’s normal and unstoppable. Try to accept it.
In Roma I encountered many, many immigrants. I learned from a Bangladeshi man of 27, a vendor at the Cinquecento bus stop near Termini, that I was a rich man!! Wow, what a surprise. I am a retired American factory worker. I grew up in a public housing project. I am working class to the bone!!! In effect he reminded me of how incredibly fortunate I was. Of all my experiences in Roma I will remember this one the most. At the end of the day the immigrant enrich and renew us all. I say “bring ‘em on”! There’s room for everyone!
Great way to look at it Anne, instead of outsiders or immigrants, they are “new Italians”. My grandparents were “new Americans” from Italy, Germany, and Switzerland!
” the scientific if not Godly way that we are all equal and genetically the same.”
What? This is entirely incorrect. Human biodiversity is to be championed, not suppressed. The decoding of the human genome/DNA clearly shows that the “we’re all the same” nonsense is just pseudo-science and leftist claptrap. Basta immigrazione clandestina. That’s overwhelmingly what the Italian people want, prefer, and say openly. To suggest otherwise is anti-Italian. Diversity isn’t working well in the United States or England/London either, I don’t know what newspapers you read. I’m not going to sit here and accept untruths, nothing I said here is inaccurate either.
allora
PS Sarkozy and Merkel and Cameron (and obviously Berlusconi too) have recently stated openly that “multi-culturalism is a failure”. There is too much proof for even the entrenched status quo to deny. Look it up yourself on Google and Googlenews, since there are so many deniers here. Thanks.
When I was in Sicily 2 weeks ago, there were a few Chinese women offering massages on the beach at Mondello, and the main food item for sale was large chips of cocoanut.
This was a well written article, thank-you. But….Many of us older Italians might differ with the comment “New Italians.” Certainly we all should be accepting of other cultures but unless one has done their geneology, they can’t say that ALL Italians have a mixture of other cultures.
We Italians are proud people who are extremely proud of our heritage so with that said, I personally would not call the immigrants the “New Italians.”
Mamma mia! Never meant to provoke such heat when simply writing about the wonderful hard/working people I met on the beach at Sirolo/Numana / yes, our “new Italians”.
As stated, I too was one> back in 1975
These “new Italians”ARE Italy..and mamma mia, I am certainly NOT anti/Italian!
I’ve been part of an Italian family for over 35 years!
nice story, just hope the Italian culture is not lost…
when in Rome , do as the Romans!
Anne, wonderful piece. I hope someday soon to be one of those “new Italians.”
Hmmmm plenty of heat!
Italians used to be called “New Australians” (among other things) where would we be without them…well I would be without my gorgeous husband, children and rich Italian family. Many Australians were against immigrants, it’s funny to hear some Italians (my FIL) complaining about all these new Australians (asians) when he was one himself. Our society is not perfect yet most of the time we just get along, embrace the new and well done for your post and to the young people traveling afar.
ciao lisa
Anne,
I love your story. While I am totally in favor of legal immigration, Italy, as well as all of Europe and the U.S., have a real problem with illegal immigration. The US welcomes legal immigrants and we also have a temporary work program for those that want to come to the US for the summer or other short periods of time to work. Cape Cod and other sea shore communities especially take advantage of the influx of foreign students during the summer. On the Cape in the past, they were primarily from Ireland, but more recently we see students from many eastern European countries, and it is a similar joy to hear them speak and to engage them in conversation. But they are here legally. Italy has had to pass very strict illegal immigration laws because of the illegal immigration problem. These illegals did not cause the financial problems in Italy, but with the very generous social financial system in Italy, the multitude of illegal immigrants have certainly not helped Italy’s financial situation. You immigrated to Italy legally. My father’s parents immigrated from Italy to the US (legally) as did the rest of my ancestors, except my g-g-grandmother who was a native American (Cherokee Indian), and I welcome all who want to come here legally and celebrate all the new (legal) Italians.
Hi Ann,
Loved your article. Italy is becoming just like America, especially New York, where multi-culturism survives and thrives which is why the City and our country is so great.
Ciao,
Patricia
Italy is a small country and the illegal immigrants or “extracommunitari” create problems,such as crime. I know of many “real” Italians who would prefer not to have these immigrants in their country.
Thanks for all comments and not sure any longer who the “real Italians” are! yes, there are those not happy with immigrants and there are those so very grateful for the Bulgarian care/giver changing the diapers of their 90/yr old mother (our neighbor), the Ukaranian caring for the sister ill 40 years with Alheimer’s (another neighbor) and the Romanian who will work Sat and Sun nights in the Enoteca when no young Italian wants the job! My husband Pino has 9 Sicilian stonemasons and 9 Albanians, ie, all “immigrants”: no local Umbrians have ever asked him for work (something akin to the US? aren’t the stonemasons all Mexicans now..?)
Yes, immigration is a complex issue / at home in the US and here at home in Italy.
Pains my heart to see the Italian culture being further eroded in one giant swoop. Sad.
Do these ‘new italians’ also have to get a work visa and ‘jump through hoops’ like Americans in order to live and work in Italy? Seems more difficult for Americans than any other nationality to just pick up and move there. That’s my goal, to live in Italy..but unless I marry an Italian, I can only be in the country for 3 months at a time…Wish Italy made it easier for us (with Italian heritage at that) to live there.
Fran..mamma mia, not being eroded at ALL! It’s being enriched! Examples, wondrous couscous dishes alongside pasta dishes in Trapani, thanks to Tunisian influence!
Italy has always been enriched by immigrants / granita from the Arabs….che bello!
(What we do without it in the hot summers?)
Examples are endless, logicamente……………..
My husband and I were in Rome in May of this year. It had been six years since I was last there. I was amazed at how much Rome has changed. I don’t mind hard working people trying to make a living, but I did hate being harrassed. And, I mean harrassed. We couldn’t even enjoy our evening meals without being approached at least five or six times. We were followed and heckled to all while at the Spanish Steps. Rome has definitely lost it’s charm. If we ever go back, it will be only for a day or so. No more. We will stay in the small out the way towns that still have all their charm.
Granita and sweet and sour dishes were made by the ancient Romans, Etruscans made pasta… These dishes were NOT originally from the Arabs though the Arabs did introduce a new slant on the dishes! Anyway the Arabs were not “they” but for us of South Italian and Sicilian extraction were “us”, meaning one branch of our ancestors, in my grandmother’s hometown the church was built on the foundations of a mosque.
Thanks for your note – appreciated! …..and thought you might enjoy this piece on granita: http://annesitaly.com/blog/sicilian-thirst-quencher-la-granita/
Thanks Anne for the blog, some very interesting information!!