Palermo Is Again a Migrant City
Veteran mayor Leoluca Orlando has transformed the Sicilian capital from a Mafia stronghold into a beacon of migrants' rights, and opera has been key. But Palermo's inclusive vision may be nearly to die.
When the Rainbow Choir reunited for its outset rehearsals after the pandemic final summer, the sense of excitement was palpable. "Louder," bellowed the ensemble's maestro, snapping his fingers as he paced around the room. The young singers needed trivial encouragement — smiling in unison, they soared through another verse of an Italian movie soundtrack.
Run past the Teatro Massimo, Palermo's purple opera firm, the Rainbow Choir unites children from the city's many migrant communities, from Romanian to Philippine to Bangladeshi. The ensemble'due south appearances in concerts and international opera productions can provide life-changing experiences for its often disadvantaged members. And, after a long, grueling lockdown, the young singers were bang-up to go back to work.
"When I sing, I feel similar I have been reborn," said Carmela, an 11-yr-quondam Ghanaian member (photograph above). "I want to exercise opera, I hope to become a professional [...] I also want to become to the conservatory."
The choir was launched in 2022 by the Teatro Massimo and the Consulta delle Culture, an elected body representing migrants' interests. Initially intended to describe migrant parents into the theater, the ensemble ultimately became a lifeline for many of its young members.
The initiative is a testament to the pioneering vision of Leoluca Orlando, Palermo's veteran mayor. Since freeing the city from the grip of the Mafia in the 1980s and 1990s, Orlando has sought to transform the Sicilian capital into a buoy of migrants' rights. However, with Italian right-wing leader Matteo Salvini's popularity growing locally, and Orlando preparing to step downward before local elections in jump 2022, the long-term survival of the mayor'due south project hangs by a thread.
Migrants find a home
Few Italian cities appear equally welcoming to migrants every bit Palermo. With residents from 127 countries and an immigrant population that has near tripled in nearly two decades, to 24,000, Palermo is Italy's most ethnically diverse city. The walls of its historic middle are plastered with multilingual street signs in Italian, Hebrew and Arabic. An architectural patchwork of Moorish domes, sweeping Norman arches and dazzling Byzantine mosaics testifies to centuries of sociocultural and ethnic mixing.
Yet Italy's bureaucracy turns many undocumented migrants — they numbered roughly 600,000 in 2020, according to government estimates — into 2d-course citizens. Those without work or residence permits are often forced into illegal employment and barred from access to public health care and social services, said Ibrahima Kobena, president of the Consulta delle Civilization, in an interview. Moreover, Italian republic's birthright laws do not bequeath citizenship on children who do not have an Italian parent. Despite being born in Italy, Carmela, who lives with Sicilian foster parents, volition not be entitled to Italian citizenship until she is 18.
The choir has helped redress the balance. "Italians feel like the dominate. If your peel is a unlike color, they care for you badly," said Angela Assare, a 13-year-old member who is besides from Ghana. "In the choir, we are all equals. It helps us understand that nosotros are not animals."
Whole families have been lifted past the choir's work. 1 parent, Rudy Chateau, relocated from Republic of mauritius to Palermo every bit an undocumented migrant in the early 2000s, picking upwards irregular work at a parking lot, and supporting his family on €500 ($587) a week. Rudy and his married woman, Stephanie, would skip meals to feed their son, Niguel. Today, they have piece of work permits and steady jobs. "When the conductor chose Niguel [to sing in the choir] we were so proud," said a effulgent Stefania. "We entered the theater for the first fourth dimension, and we were like 'Wow.'"
The choir is ane of a rich assortment of local policies and initiatives benefiting migrants. Orlando has described Italian republic'southward residence permit as a "new form of slavery," offered newcomers to Palermo "honorary citizenship" and, in 2018, locally overruled the and then-Interior Minister Salvini's order to shut Italy's ports to migrant boats. Launched by Orlando'southward administration in 2013, the Consulta delle Culture has united Christian and Muslim leaders in mosques, organized multicultural parades through the city and helped draft Palermo's pro-migrant manifesto.
Populist politics threatens mayor
But a battle for the heart and soul of Palermo is brewing ahead of adjacent twelvemonth'south elections. A string of defections of conservative politicians to Salvini's League hint that the party is on the manner to becoming the dominant correct-wing force in Palermo. Meanwhile, Orlando's popularity has slumped. After an economically suffocating pandemic and perceived chaos at city hall, which culminated a year ago with the resignation of two deputy mayors, in July the veteran was voted the third least popular of 105 mayors in a poll by paper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Terminal summertime, many in the metropolis's impoverished historic middle voiced open dissent. "Palermo is non like in one case upon a time. Now there are foreigners here, and we don't get on well," said Ottavio Pensionato, 70, in the working-grade Capo district. "Orlando has abandoned u.s.a.. He doesn't think about usa Palermitans," said Francesco Paolo, an unemployed xxx-year-old, in a piazza surrounded by aging buildings in the Vucciria district. "Salvini's first concern is the Italians. He'south getting my vote."
Orlando remains resolute: "In that location is only 1 manner to gainsay populism. By having respect for time," he said during an interview in the sumptuous villa of Palermo's mayors. Yet fourth dimension may be running out. "There is no indication that the mayor'due south vision volition continue," said Kobena. "If there is no successor, the Palermo he has created will dice."
A victory for the right would spell the finish of the Mediterranean'southward about ambitious integration project. Nevertheless Orlando's legacy volition alive on in those lives that have been transformed. "We are all from different nations," said Carmela of the Rainbow Choir. "We are many unlike voices that come together as a single, more beautiful vocalisation."
Authors: James Imam, Joseph Ataman
Starting time published: September 11, 2021
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Source: dw.com
Source: https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/34999/italy-palermo-puts-migrant-children-center-stage
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