Migrants, The great (mortified) role of cultural mediators that needs unambiguous and national formal recognition

ROME – “We are very concerned about a climate that is developing around the world of reception of migrants and the Third Sector, which also following the recent legislative decisions runs the risk of mortifying everything that preludes and promotes the passage from the first reception – landings, entrances to borders, first settlements, etc. – to paths of legality and real integration into our society”. This is how Elisabetta Melandri, president of the Cies Onlus, for 40 years engaged in the fields of integration, international cooperation and intercultural education. Her association adheres to many coordinations – including the Asylum and Immigration Table – which in recent times have expressed strong fears of a security drift, a harbinger of induced social tensions that the migration policies of the Meloni executive are embarking on. For many we would be facing the return of a disguised ‘Salvini’ decree, which in the period between 2018-19 dismantled the Italian reception system, increasing illegality and insecurity contrary to what it invoked.

Inclusion paths ever narrower. This progressive narrowing of the paths of integration and inclusion could also include a contraction of the strategic role of the various actors who guarantee, at various levels, a welcome worthy of a civilized country: operators of initial reception, medical and legal assistance; training and job qualification agents, etc. These activities are not only effective tools in favoring the integration of newcomers, but protect the native community from the harmful effects of clandestinity and irregularity. “Among all these activities that create bridges – continues Melandri – intercultural mediation is undoubtedly strategic. An activity that goes far beyond mere linguistic interpreting. Since the 1990s, Cies has invested a lot of energy in building a network of 1,400 professionals, operating throughout the country and in various fields. The figure of the mediator has become more and more professional in recent years, becoming a primary role and point of reference for setting up policies for the integration and inclusion of migrants”.

The difficulties of the Immigration Offices. When in the summer of 2022 there was a temporary suspension of the mediation service in the police headquarters of many cities in Italy due to administrative issues, the first to protest were the police unions of various acronyms who complained of the impossibility of carrying out their work. The SIULP, for example, stated as follows: “The Provincial Secretariats of the SIULP present throughout the national territory reproduce the unanimous difficulty that the Immigration Offices of the police headquarters are going through, due to the interruption of the mediation services”.

The profession of intercultural mediator. It needs unambiguous and national formal recognition, which allows it to fully enter the ranks of social professions. Mediators could therefore operate in any regional context with a certification that accredits their skills, gained both through specific training courses and following extensive and proven experience in the field. This acknowledgment would give rise to a single definition of the standards of professionalism and adequacy of salary levels, suited to increasingly indispensable work in public services.

The Interministerial Table. In reality, thanks to an inter-ministerial roundtable which saw the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Labor and other national and regional institutions collaborate for some years, and which availed itself of the technical consultancy of Cies, the qualification was widely regulated and the new lines have been implemented by the Ministry of Labour. However, to make it unique and national, it needs to be fully accepted within the State-Regions Conference. Unfortunately, however, it is currently blocked because it has not yet been unanimously implemented by all the Regions.

The precariousness. One of the main criticalities of this profession is the precariousness both for the mediators and for the agencies that take care of their training and commissioning. In part this is due to linguistic needs: migratory flows change according to the change in geopolitical situations, today, for example, the request for language skills is predominant in the Ukrainian culture, formerly Farsi and Afghan culture. In part it is intrinsic to the deontological nature of the job of mediator, namely that of having to be a “third party” to function well. This element in itself precludes mediators from being permanently integrated into public institutions.

The race to the bottom of tariffs. “Furthermore, the logic of the contract – Melandri again – creates a race to the bottom of tariffs in this as in many other social professions. It should be the responsibility of the contracting authorities not to allow this depreciation of services which have a great intensity of the human factor and are highly professional; much more importance should be given to the quality of the work rather than its cost. The recognition of the qualification at national level would mitigate these elements of precariousness and possible exploitation, setting minimum wage parameters under which no contracting entity should ever fall”.

The campaign of denigration of hospitality. This approach of debasement of cultural mediation, as well as the campaign of denigration of the reception system which, incidentally, employs thousands of workers, the anti-NGO rhetoric, are all sides of the same coin: the perpetuation of the perennially emergency dimension of the migratory phenomenon that avoids addressing and governing it like any other sociological phenomenon in order to draw political consensus. “All this heritage of experience, know-how, theoretical elaboration and humanity, a baggage that counts appreciation throughout Europe, risks being dissipated by favoring a climate of growing meaningless social tension”.