Citizenship, skin colour, prejudices, rights: a video to give a voice to those who don’t have one

ROME (DIRE agency) – “I cannot participate in public competitions”. “My classmates went on trips abroad, I had to stay at home.” “People value my skin color more.” “I have a hard time finding a house to rent because of prejudice.” These are some of the many difficulties that about 2 million young people without citizenship encounter in our country. These are children and young people born or raised in Italy, but to whom the law allows to obtain Italian nationality only after the age of 18, or after 15 years of continuous residence, making it difficult to obtain documents as well as preventing the access to many rights that have to do with the world of school, sport and work. To launch the appeal so that “the voiceless are given a voice” is The Black Postan online newspaper based in Rome exclusively written by people with migrant origins.

“I learned to feel Italian, and yet…” The magazine, in collaboration with the musical group BonfireHe has made “4 lines“, a 14-minute video that brings an experiment to the screen: he invited five of his journalists to write on a card what it is that makes him feel different every day. Each of them then, with the exception of his own, reads one ad aloud, adding comments and suggestions. “I studied in Italian schools abroad where, immersed in Italian culture, I grew up learning to feel Italian”, wrote one of them. “Once in Italy however I felt different and this it also compromised the search for a rental house”.

“I pay taxes but I feel excluded”. “Why am I Italian to pay taxes, while I remain excluded from other activities?” wonders one of the editors, who observes: “This is demeaning and makes you think it would be better to leave.” “Identity is not something that is on paper. But when we then come before an official, who questions it, it triggers our doubts and makes us feel like strangers,” says a colleague of hers. “Italianness is not a matter of blood – says another reporter – Culture should unite, for this reason it would be important to approve the Ius culturae”, i.e. the bill that proposes to reform the law by granting nationality to those who have completed at least one of the three cycles of compulsory education.