Social Identities: Journal For The Study of Race, Nation and Culture

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Social Identities: Journal

for the Study of Race,
Nation and Culture
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Nation and Immigration:

A Study of the Italian
Press Discourse
Anna Triandafyllidou
Published online: 25 Aug 2010.
To cite this article: Anna Triandafyllidou (1999) Nation and Immigration: A

Study of the Italian Press Discourse, Social Identities: Journal for the Study
of Race, Nation and Culture, 5:1, 65-88, DOI: 10.1080/13504639951626
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Social Identities, V olum e 5, N um ber 1, 1999
N a tion a n d Im m ig ratio n :
a S tud y o f the Ita lian P re ss D is cou rse
A N N A T RIA N D A FYL LID OU 1

Italian N ational Re search C o uncil
A BSTRACT : D uring the last tw o decades, in particular since the annus m irabilis 1989,
Italy has been faced w ith increasing m igration ¯ ow s from Central and Eastern Europe
and the Third W orld. Im m igrants, althoug h in their vast m ajority illegal, have settled
in the country thus challenging the political and cultural order of the na tion-state. The
hyp othesis tested in this paper is that their presence activates a process of re-de® nition
of the Italian identity in an exclusionary w ay so as to raise sym bolic, if not m aterial,
bound aries between U s and Them . The study is divided into three sections. First, the
m ain features that characterise Italian identity w ill be ex am ine d and the civic or ethnic
character of the na tion w ill be highlighted. Se cond , recent m igratory ¯ ow s tow ards
Italy w ill be described and the developm ent of xeno phobic attitudes in the coun try w ill
be assessed. Third, the hypothesis regarding the transform ation of nationa l identity
w ill be tested throug h the ana lysis of the press discourse on im m igration in the period
199 0± 95. The stud y w ill conce ntrate on the use of nationa l identity features in the
press as a m eans to em phasise the distinction between U s and Them and exclude
the latter from the host society.
1. Introd uction
C ontem porary European reality is characterise d by tw o potentially con¯ ictual

phen omena. On the one hand , there is an increasing imm igration in¯ ux
from Eastern Europe and the Third W orld tow ard s countries of the European
U nion . The causes of these migratory m ovemen ts are prim arily economic;
imm igrants are in search of better living and w orking conditions. On the other
hand , desp ite the foresee n substitution for the nation by other types of
collective ide ntities, durin g the last tw o decades an unexpected rev ival of
ethn o-nationalist moveme nts has been registere d both w ithin and outside
Europe.
Italy is an interes ting example of a country that has suffered from the
conse quen ces of both types of phen omena. Sin ce the late 1970s, and increas-
in gly so from 1989 onw ards, it has become the host of a large num ber of
imm igrants orig inating from the ex-Èastern Bloc’, Albania, Poland and Rum a-
nia in particular, and also from African (both N orth A frican and black African)
and A sian countries (Philippine s, Sri Lank a and India, among others). Both
push and pull factors playe d a role in attracting imm igrants to Italy (Cam pani,
1993, p. 509). Among the push factors, one may iden tify the political instability
1350-4630/99/010065-24 $7.00 Ó 1999 C arfax Publish ing L td
66 A nna Triand afyllidou
and low level of socio-economic developmen t in the countries of origin as well

as the globalis ation of m igration processes (Knigh ts, 1996) and the overall
geopolitical restru cturin g in East and W est. The pull factors however were also
strong, if one conside rs the fact that Italy had no immigration policy Ð give n
that emigration rather than imm igration w as the matter of concern throughout
this century Ð until the late 1980s and also the existence of a large inform al
sector (the econo m ia som m ersa) w hich provide d em ploymen t opportunities for
ille gal imm igrants (Calvane se and Pugliese , 1988; M ontanari and Cortese, 1993;
2
Vasta, 1993, p. 89).
Durin g the same period , Italy has seen its national unity thre atene d by a
ne w political actor, the N orthern League, w hich started as a reg ional protest
m ovemen t but more recently developed into a party w ith secessionist tenden -
cies. Through its political action and discourse, the League has brough t to the
fore the problem of the de® nition of Italian iden tity, challe nging the unity of
the nation.
The sudden trans formation of Italy from an emigration to an imm igration
country raised social, economic and legal issues w hich the Italian administra-
tion w as not ready to tackle. The problem has mainly been confronted to date
through temporary administra tive measures, such as the creation of the Minis-
3
try of Immigration in 1991 after the Àlbanian crisis’ in Bari, and also w ith
special leg al provisions aime d at `reg ularisin g’ vast numbers of ille gal imm i-
grants w ho had already settled in the country (Vasta, 1993; Veuge lers, 1994;
W oods, 1992).
The dramatic in crease in the number of immigrants hosted leg ally or
4
ille gally in Italy has caused a strong reaction among the domestic population.
A nxiety about the possible ne gative consequen ces of imm igration on une m-
ployme nt, on the one hand , and fear that the distinc tiveness of Italian cultural
iden tity migh t be blurred because of the in¯ ux of large numbers of foreigne rs,
on the other, led to signi® cant changes in public opinion w ith regard to
foreigne rs and/or immigrants (Calavita, 1994; C ampani, 1993; W oods, 1992).
The development of xenophobic and even racist attitudes soon led to violent
in cidents against im migrants and `coloured ’ people. The image of Italians as
`nice people’ w ith a great tradition of hospitality and hum anism w as
challe nged by such even ts.
This study aims at investigating the w ays in w hich the prese nce of the
imm igrant as O ther/foreigne r w ithin the national territory leads to change s in
the national ide ntity of the host country . The concept of national ide ntity is
he re understood as a double-edged relationsh ip (Triandafyllid ou, 1998). On the
one hand, it is inw ard -looking, it refers to a set of comm on features that bind
a group of people together. These features include a belief in common
genea logical descent, a com mon public culture, a com mon territory/homeland ,
a sin gle econom ic and leg al syste m, and a sh ared history and collective
memories (Smith, 1991, p. 14). O n the other hand, national iden tity implie s
differen ce. Its existen ce presupposes the existence of Others, other nations or
in dividuals, w ho do not belong to the ingroup and from w hich the ing roup
see ks to differen tiate itse lf in orde r to emphasise its distin ctivene ss and
uniquene ss.
N ation and Im m igration: a Study of the Italian Press D iscourse 67
Imm igrants disrupt the political and cultural orde r of the nation. They
represen t a threat to its purity and authenticity because they share ne ither the
common culture nor the history of the nation. They are different, Others,
non-nationals albeit they are ìnside’ the national space (M ikrakis and
Triand afyllidou, 1994). Theref ore, they have to be kept òutside’ , if not phys i-
cally at least sym bolically. In this paper, I investigate the w ays in w hich the
m ain features of Italian ide ntity are used in the press discourse to em phasise
the differences between U s-nationals and Them -im migrants, so as to exclude
the latter from O ur society.
The study is structured in three parts. Firstly , I examine the main features
that characterise Italian national ide ntity and assess its pred om inantly civic or
ethn ic character. In the second section, the main features of the imm igration
phen omenon in Italy and the reactions of the population are summ arise d.
Third ly, the focus of the study is on the re-production of the national ide ntity
dime ns ions in the press discourse on im migration in w ays that em phasise the
contrast between Italians and immigrants and re-de® ne the conception of
the Italian nation along exclusion ary lines .
2. N ational Ide ntity and D ive rsity
N ational iden tity is a complex concept w hich in cludes many dimen sions and
is used to ide ntify and study diverse types of collectivities. Sm ith (1986) lists a
set of elements that, according to him , de® ne a nation:
a named hum an population sharing an historic territory, common m yths

and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a comm on economy and
common legal righ ts and duties for all mem bers.
H owever, national iden tity is also about O thers; it aims at creating

boundarie s w hich distin guish the national comm unity from those outside , the
foreigne rs (Barth, 1981; Doob, 1964).
As a matter of fact, the notion of the O ther is inhere nt in the nationalist
doctrine. For the nationalis t, or sim ply for every individ ual that recognise s
he r/him self as member of a national community, the existe nce of he r/his ow n
nation pres upposes the existen ce of other nations too. M oreover, most of the
nations existing today had to ® gh t to secure their survival and achieve their
in depen den ce. For most national communities , there have been and probably
still are signi® cant Others, other nations and/or states, from w hich the
community tried to liberate and /or differen tiate itself (Triandafyllid ou, 1998).
Furthe rm ore, nationalism as a theory of political organisation require s that
ethn ic and cultural bound aries coincide w ith political ones (Gellner, 1983, p. 1).
Boundaries between political units are supposed to de® ne the borde rlines
between differen t ethnic com munitie s. N onetheles s, the term `nation-state’
usually denotes a `national state’, i.e., a multi-ethn ic state in w hich a give n
national group is politically, culturally and numerically dom inant and , there-
fore, tends to think of the state as its political extension . This situation inv olves
a great potentiality of con¯ ict on the part of ethn ic minority groups.
M oreover, contemporary reality is characterised by the intern ationalisation

of the labour m arket, global industrial restru cturin g and increasing disparities
between the w orld ’ s N orth and South, w hich en courage the moveme nt of
populations, especially econom ic migran ts, w ho legally or illeg ally cross the
national borders. Thus, nation-states are confronted w ith an incre asin gly com-
plex situation. H ost countries are faced w ith the ne cessity to deal w ith these
Òthers w ithin’ w hose presen ce de® es the national orde r.
The co-existen ce of different nations or ethnic groups w ithin the same
territory require s the iden tity of each group to be constantly re-af® rme d for the
sen se of belong ing to the group to survive. It require s the constant re-de® nition
of the W e that must be distin guished from a They that is geogra phically close
to, indeed `w ithin’ , the ing roup. N ot surprisin gly, such processes are put into
m otion in the real or sy mbolic en counter w ith im migrants w ho are socially
visib le and econom ically weak (Mikrakis and Triandafyllid ou, 1994). A ccord-
in g to my hy pothesis, the necessity to deal w ith the O ther w ithin leads to
changes in the national iden tity of the host society in the effort to raise a
boundary between inside rs and O thers. This happens because the prese nce of
imm igrants threatens the w ay of life of the ing roup and, thus, part of w hat is
its members’ sen se of self (Cohen , 1985). Since the national com munity
is prim arily ìmagined ’ (Anderso n, 1981), its reality lie s in its members’
perception of the vitality of their culture and their common belongin g.
Immigrants w ho do not share the cultural and ide ntity codes of the nation pose
a threat to it.
3. Som e C ritical Re ¯ e ctions on the Italian N ational Ide ntity
A nalytically speaking , nations are distinguishe d w ith reference to their prim ar-
ily ethnic or civic character (Sm ith, 1986; 1991). The m ain ele men ts that
constitute an ethnic nation are a belie f that its members are ancestrally related,
a common set of cultural traditions, collective memories and a link to a speci® c
historical territory, the nation’ s homeland. C ivic nations in contrast are based
on a common political culture and a legal syste m that assign s equal righ ts and
duties to all members, a comm on economy w ith a sin gle division of labour
and a territory that is the ge o-political basis of the comm unity.
Each national ide ntity includes both ethnic and civic features (Sm ith, 1991,
p. 13). Theref ore, the distinction is better understood as a continuum. Thus, I
shall de® ne ethn ic nations as those in w hich ethn ic features are prevalent and
civic ones as those in w hich civic and territorial elemen ts play the most
important part in de® nin g w ho belongs to the community and w ho is a
foreigne r.
Italian ide ntity, like m ost national ide ntitie s, is a blen d of civic and ethn ic
eleme nts . As a matter of fact, Italianness w as initially developed in the
Ren aissance period as a cultural concept. O nly in the ninetee nth century w as
it transformed into a political project w hich became reality w ith the uni® cation
of Italy in 1860. O f course , in Italy just as elsew here , there are com peting
discourse s and conceptions of the nation. M y aim here is to discuss the main
eleme nts in volved in the formation of the Italian ide ntity.
Ever sin ce the creation of the inde penden t Italian state, the nation has been
conceptualise d as a com munity of people living in a territory and sharing a
common set of political and cultural traditions. Thus, the national com munity
has been prim arily de® ne d w ith referen ce to a speci® c territo ry and a particular
political culture (Rusconi, 1993). The idea of its historical contin uity has been
formulated through the inte gration of the Rom an tradition, the Risorgimento
and the fascist legacy into a common national past. The blen ding of these
traditions and historical memories is however characterised by inte rn al contra-
dictions w hich playe d an im portant role in impeding the consolid ation of an
Italian national iden tity (Brierley and Giacometti, 1996, pp. 172± 76).
The form ation of the Italian nation w as com promise d not only by the
cosmopolitan herita ge of the Roman empire and the C atholic church but also
by the failure of the emergin g Italian bourge oisie to incorporate w ithin it the
in telle ctual and literary elites (Gramsci, 1985). These last remaine d ide alist and
cosmopolitan in their attitudes and promoted the Risorgim ento m ovemen t as a
counter-re form Ð re-discovering tradition through change , link ing revolution
w ith restoration and preve ntin g radical ruptures w ith the past (Veneziani,
1994, pp. 8± 10) Ð thus preve ntin g the development of a stron g national
bourgeois class and the spreading of a secular and scienti® c ideology, as
happene d in the rest of western Europe.
M oreover, this division between the producing class and the intelle ctuals
perpetuated the existence of tw o cultures, a high culture of the literary strata
and a varie ty of low , popular cultures and their respective dialects am ong the
peasants. This duality impeded the spre ading of a comm on Italian verna cular
w hich w ould allow for the ling uistic and cultural homogen isation of the rural
population. Gram sci (1979, p. 16) points to the gap between the literary and
the popular strata and the absen ce of a rom antic nationalist m ovemen t in
Italy in the nine teenth century . Even tually, Italian ide ntity rem ained pretty
m uch a leg al, idealis t concept w hich failed to pene trate popular culture and
iden tity.
The in telle ctual moveme nt of the R isorgim ento sought to inte grate `from
above’ , as part of the nation, the artisan and peasant populations. The high ,
humanist culture created through the exaltation of the rural ethic in the w orks
of A lessandro M anzoni, the reconstruction of the history of the Italian Repub-
lics and the den ial of the im perial tradition were thus seen as core elem en ts of
Italianness . The idealis ation of life in the country side Ð the myth of the Italian
peasant deve loped by Vincenzo Cuoco and his praise of the sy stem of `patriar-
chal cultivation’ Ð w as a strategy for opposing the advent of ind ustrialism
(Bollati, 1983, p. 101; D uggan, 1994). Thus, instead of promoting the socio-
economic development of the country, the Italian nationalist movement fos-
tered a differen t w ay of being modern : Ìtalia non facit saltus’ (Bollati, 1983,
p. 97). Furtherm ore, the myth of a presumed Italian `national character’ , i.e., a
speci® c conste llation of personality features that characterises people belon ging
to the same nation, w as built on the basis of this rural ethic. This myth , w hich
is still evoked now adays, depicts Italians as inheren tly `kind people’ (brava
gente) and emphasise s the cult of virtue and beauty and the C atholic tradition
of solid arity as the essen tial ele men ts of Italian culture and iden tity.
It is obvious from the above observ ations that religion and lang uage ,
although usually ide nti® ed as tw o fund amental eleme nts intertw ined w ith
national ide ntity (Smith 1991), play a contradictory role in the case of Italy. The
universa listic dogm a of the C atholic church, w hich is by de® nition in contrast
w ith any nationalist ide ology, and the standard Italian language, w hich has
ne ver been able complete ly to override local dialects, tend to weaken rather
than reinforce Italian ide ntity.
Another important elem en t that characterises Italy is reg ionalism both as a
political-administra tive reality and as a civic tradition including cultural and
ling uistic traits. A s a matter of fact, Italy is constituted by a plurality of
territorial units w ith their ow n separate histories. The division between N orth
and South is not a mere m atter of ge ography that can be attributed to

environ mental differences or to supposed ethno-biological features w hich
disting uish northern from southern Italians. The orig ins of this division lie in
the past, in the differen t econom ic, social and political experien ces that each
region has had (Putnam, 1993).
The sig ni® cance of regionalism for the concept of Italianne ss is obvious if
one considers that more than a century after the uni® cation of the country ,
regional iden tities and socio-economic realities continue to threaten the na-
tional unity, as the Leg a N ord has dem onstrated. The key to understa nding this
problem lie s, ® rst, in the relative ly late formation of the Italian nation-state and ,
second, in the fact that uni® cation w as imposed by a sm all elite rather than the
m asses (Bollati, 1983; D uggan, 1994). The uni® cation process w as experie nced
by a large part of the population, mainly the southern peasants, as a civil w ar,
or as a w ar for the conquest of the central and southern parts of Italy by the
Pied mont region , certainly not a ® gh t for national liberation (D uggan 1994,
p. 133). Beside s, the policies of the ne w state were not successful in inculcating
a feelin g of belong ing to the nation in the rural populations of eithe r the N orth
or the South. The opposite interes ts of the northe rn bourgeoisie and the
southern land ow ne rs preven ted the ne w state from tacklin g effectively its main
social problem s Ð such as the low leve l of literacy, poor transport and
communications and land reform Ð and inculcating a national consciousne ss
to the m asses (Brierley and Giacometti, 1996, p. 174). As a matter of fact, such
a nationalis t sen timen t w as ge ne rated only durin g the fascist era, though again
for a short time.
The failure of integrating region al diversity into the nation-state may also
be attributed to the fact that territoria l iden tities have been neg lected for a long
time . The creation of a centralised state left little room for local or regional
politics. The state adm inistration and institutions introduced after uni® cation
succum bed to the pre-existin g traditions and socio-economic realitie s, ins tead
of fostering the homogen isation of the regional politics (Putnam, 1993, p. 145).
5
Thus, cam panilism o and clien telistic politics prev ailed instead of a m odern
bureaucracy that w ould have supported national inte gration.
The conception of the Italian nation has also been in¯ uenced by the fascist
legacy. Fascism plays still an important part in the de® nition of the national
iden tity. Its in¯ uence is not dire ct however. It does not derive from its political
and cultural leg acy, even though some scholars suggest that such a leg acy
persists in m any sectors of public life (Veneziani, 1994, pp. 259± 60), but rather
from its opposite moveme nt, namely anti-fascism . The re-construction of the
national ide ntity after the collapse of M ussolin i’ s regime w as based on
the com mon sorrow and the desire to forget the fascist experien ce.
The found ation m yth of the ne w Italian Republic has been based on the
m ovemen t of Res istance against the fascists and the Germ an occupation
(1943± 1945). N onetheles s, the sym bolic value of the Resis tance as a national
liberation strugg le has been conteste d by many. As a m atter of fact, the
m ovemen t w as divide d into m inority groupings w hich fought not only for
liberation but also, and perhaps m ainly, w ith the scope of imposing their ow n
socio-economic m odel for the reconstruction of the new Italian state (Rusconi,
1993). Thus, the Resistance w as from its very beginn ing intertw ined w ith party
politics and failed to provide the sym bol of national unity.
Post-w ar Italy bears w ith it the sign s of its national past. On the one hand,
national ide ntity has been consolid ated through dem ocratic politics, the grant-
in g of autonom y to the regions and integration through national politics, the
media and consumerism of local or regional ide ntities as sub-cultures w ithin a
common national culture (Brierley and Giacometti, 1986). On the other hand,
however, it still has not come to term s w ith region al diversity and autonomy
6
nor has it succeeded in creating a com mon national myth.
In conclusion, this brie f analysis has sh ow n that civic and territo rial
eleme nts are prevalen t in the conception of the Italian nation. M oreover, the
plurality of cultural/ling uistic traditions and political practices that ex ist
w ithin the Italian state and the intern al contradictions of the national ide ntity
not only make people aw are of diversity but also are a proof of the possibility
for differen t peoples to live together. H owever, Italian ide ntity draw s also
upon the idea of a comm unity of people shaped by its unique historical
experien ces and closed to outsiders . In the follow ing sections, I discuss the
imm igration crisis faced by Italy in recent years and the extent to w hich the
presen ce of im migrants has accentuated this feature of `closure’ tow ards
O thers.
4. A Ne w H ost C ou ntry
Before presen ting the ® nd ings of m y empirical research, it is w orth outlinin g

the curre nt situation concernin g imm igration in Italy. As a matter of fact, Italy
is an exem plary case of a country that has rapidly been transforme d from an
emigration pole to a host (Vasta, 1993, p. 83). N um bers of foreigne rs resid ing
in Italy started risin g in the late 1970s (Veuge lers, 1994, pp. 34± 35) after
7
northweste rn European countrie s tigh tened their im migration reg imes.
N umbers increased further and quite dram atically after the deb acle of the
C om munist regimes in eastern and central Europe in 1989 (see Table 1).
The Italian govern men t sough t to deal w ith the issue through tw o
programmes for regu larising illeg al im migrants. The ® rst w as en acted in 1986
(Law 943/1986) and reg ulated the conditions for adm ission and reside nce of
foreigne rs into the country as well as guaranteed their equal rig hts w ith Italian
citizens. M oreover, it de® ne d the cond itions for regularisin g clande stine imm i-
Table 1
Variation
1975* 1980* 1985* 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1994/95
EU 148.611 145.426 146.918 152.954 141.577 164.003 15.8%

N on-EU 632.527 717.551 778.254 834.451 781.129 827.416 5.9%
Industrialised countries 117.961 116.516 120.395 122.567 107.696 101.594 2 5.7%
Developing countries 514.556 601.035 657.859 711.844 673.433 725.822 7.7%
% of total population 0.3% 0.5% 0.7% 1.4% * 1.6% *
Total 186.400 298.700 423.000 781.138 862.977 925.172 987.405 922.706 991.419 7.4%
Source: C aritas di Rom a, Im m igrazione, D ossier Statistico, 1996, p. 68, statistical elaboration by C aritas Rome of data provided by
the M inistry of the Interior. Data marked w ith * are taken from SOPEM I, 1992, p. 131, Table 1, Italy, M inistry of Interior (1987± 92).
grant labourers. This law w as ¯ awed in tw o fund amental respects: it ® rst

ign ored refugees , and then the conditions required for illeg al im migrants to be
elig ible for regularisation were too dif® cult to be met. Thus, the turn out of the
programme w as relatively low , only 105,312 imm igrants manage d to pass
the test (SOPEM I, 1991, p. 22, Table 8), in comparison w ith the num ber of
ille gal immigrants estim ated to be present in the Italian territory at the time.
A ne w law w as prepared in 1989 (39/1990 or m ostly kn ow n as la legge
M artelli), w hich con® rme d the equality or righ ts between foreigners and
Italians, tightene d the conditions for en try into the country but, most impor-
tantly, enlarged the m argins for the regu larisation of those already presen t in
the national territory. Accord ing to SOPEM I (1991, p. 22, Table 8), 216,037
imm igrants were legalise d through the M artelli law .

Furthe rm ore, special provision s regard ing imm igration including the
annual planning of migratory ¯ ow s (e.g., m inisteria l decree, G azzetta U f® ciale
(GU), 1.8.97 n.178; GU, 5.9.95, n.252), provisions regard ing the seasonal em-
ployme nt of immigrant w orke rs (e.g., decreto-legge, GU , 16.9.96, n.217; GU ,
16.7.96 n.166; G U, 18.5.96, n.115), eme rgen cy measures concern ing the in¯ ux of
A lb anian immigrants (decreto-legge, GU, 20.3.97, n.60; GU, 1.7.95, n.152) or
genera l provisions (e.g., GU, 9.12.96, n.288), were issued reg ularly in recent
years. M oreover, a ne w imm igration law w hich came to complement and
update existin g provisions w as voted in M arch 1998 (law n.40 of M arch 6,
1998). Eventually, in August 1998 the Parliamen t issued the `Te sto un ico delle
disposizioni conce rnenti la disciplina dell’imm igrazione e norm e sulla cond izione dello
stranie ro’ (Unique text of legal disposition s concern ing im migration and norms
regard ing the condition of foreigners) w hich brought together law s n. 773/
1931, n. 943/1986 and n. 335/1995 (G uida al D iritto, 12.09.1998, p. III). It created,
as it is stated in the title, a unitary corpus of norms w hich reg ulates the rig hts
and oblig ations of foreigners in Italy, their stay and w ork conditions and other
m atters regardin g family reunion, social integration and cultural life in the host
country.
Overall, the efforts of Italian govern ments to tame the in¯ ux of im migran ts
failed to achieve their objectives. First, they perpetuated a situation of `perma-
ne nt social emergen cy’ (Campani, 1993) because they managed neithe r to
control the migratory ¯ ow s nor to integrate those already established in the
country. Second, they faile d to preven t violen ce and xenophobia against
foreigne rs. Indee d the Italian public w hich w as reported to show an attitude of
`social tolerance’ tow ard s im migran ts (Ferrarroti, 1984) soon became explicitly
hostile and xenophobic.
Thus, an ìnvasion syn drome’ (Cotesta, 1992, pp. x± xi) eme rged , quite
disproportionate to the actual percentage of im migrants (see Table 1) prese nt
in Italy, if compared w ith other EU countries . As a matter of fact, xenophobic
attitudes and beh aviour were stirre d by tw o main political actors w ho acted as
òrganisers of intolera nce’ (Balbo and M anconi, 1992): the N orthe rn League and
8
the M ovimento So ciale Italiano (MSI) (later A lleanz a N aziona le (AN )). The League
m anipulated the issue to em phasise the governm en t’s overall inep titude and
9
also to promote the ide a of Italy’s cultural authen ticity and ethnic purity
(Biorcio, 1991; W oods, 1992, p. 194). The M SI, on the other hand , opposed the
voting of the M artelli law w hich it judged too perm issive (M anconi, 1990).
10
Together w ith the Republican party , the M SI and the N orthe rn League
promoted a radicalisation of the iss ue of im migration and leg itim ise d, at least
to a certain extent, the practice of social exclusion of im migran ts in everyd ay
life.
As a matter of fact, recent survey data (Eurobarometre, 1997) con® rm that
Italians are prone to racism although still quite ambivalent in their view s on
imm igration. Thus, although 30 per cent of the population consider themselves
`very’ or `quite’ racist and 35 per cent à little’ racist (see Table 2), 69 per cent
of the population (see Table 3) require immigrants ne ither to integrate (I) nor
to assim ilate (A ) in orde r to be fully accepted in their host society and only 33
per cent of Italians (see Table 4) believe that they are too differen t to be accepted
as members of the Italian society (compared w ith 39 per cent and 38 per cent
of EU15 average ). N onetheless , 62 per cent of the population (see Table 5) assert
that `their country has reached its lim its; if there were to be more people
belon ging to these m inority groups we w ould have problem s’.
The results of this survey are in conformity w ith the ® nd ings of ethn ographic
studies (Cole, 1996; 1997) w hich sugge st that w orking-class Sicilians have
ambivalent attitudes tow ard s imm igrants. On the one hand , they tend to
empathise w ith immigrants draw ing from their ow n or their relatives’ experi-
ence as im migrants abroad and also af® rm that they do jobs that Sicilians ® nd
too dem eaning. O n the other hand, they accuse them of stealin g their jobs (!)
and resen t their presen ce because ìt infects the city’ (C ole, 1996, pp. 209± 11).
In brief, the transform ation of Italy from emigration to immigration country
has been sudden and une xpected. H owever, the percen tage of im migran ts
w ithin the w hole population is still below the standard s of other western
European countrie s (traditional immigration des tinations such as Germ any,
France, the N etherlands or Sweden ). Thus, the feelin g of threat m obilise d by
political partie s and often expressed either by the media or by lay people does
not see m justi® ed. A s a matter of fact, Italians seem still to be puzzled by the
issue , afraid on the one hand of being ìnvaded’ and of losing their cultural or
ethn ic `purity’ and, at the same time, sh ow ing compassion tow ard s im migran ts
and den yin g being racist.
5. Public D iscourse on Im m igration
Takin g into account the ambivalence of the Italian context, examinin g the w ays
in w hich the m ain features of Italian iden tity are reproduced in the press
discourse to differentiate Italians from foreigners /im migrants becomes particu-
larly in teres ting. In this section, I w ill investigate the extent to w hich the contrast
between Us and The m leads to a re-de ® nition of Italian ide ntity in a w ay that
m akes the exclusion of immigrants from O ur society m ore explicit than before.
5.1 D ata and M ethodology

The press has been selected as a forum w he re ideas, attitudes and belie fs are
re¯ ected and w he re changes in these are registere d. The view s expresse d in the
Table 2
Italy EU15
Very racist 9 9
Quite racist 21 24
A little racist 35 33
N ot at all racist 35 34
11
Table 3
Italy EU15
Disagree w ith I and A* 69 39

Agree w ith A 10 25
Agree w ith I 21 36
Source: Eurobarometre 47.1, Sprin g 1994, Graph 1 for

Table 2 and Graph 20 for Table 3.
* I 5 Integration; A 5 Assim ilation.
Table 4
Italy EU15
Ten d to agree:
People belong ing to these
minority groups are so
different they can ne ver be
fully accepted mem bers
of our country’ s society 33 38
Table 5
Italy EU15
Ten d to agree:
our country has reached
its lim its; if there were more
people belongin g to these
minority groups w e
w ould have problem s 62 65
Source: Eurobarometre 47.1, Sprin g 1994, Graph 21 for

Table 4 and Graph 23 for Table 5.
pres s are not take n to represe nt Italian public opinion but rather to set the
discursive aren a in w hich person al opinions and attitudes are formed and
expresse d. In this study I have chose n to use articles publishe d in tw o large
12
m ainstream week ly magazines, namely L’Espresso (ESP ) and Pano ram a (PA N ).
A rticles featuring in the weekly press are more likely to include commen taries
or extensive interview s w hich provide room for expressin g opinion s rather
than sim ply offerin g a ne w s report. Such articles offered suitable material for
the type of analysis that w ill be unde rtaken in this paper. Moreover, these tw o
m agazines have a large nationw ide circulation and are politically moderate.
The m aterial used in the research includes all articles referrin g to imm i-
grants publishe d in ESP and PA N between 1990 and 1995 in three sample
period s selected syste matically, i.e., the m onths of Fe bruary, June and October,
for each year under examination. Forty-four articles were included in the
database overall. These articles were coded usin g a standard DBM S package
(Foxpro2) w hich allowed for sim ple code-and -retrie ve operations. The coding
scheme used included four iden tifying categories (i.e., record number, name of
the ne w spaper, date of publication and title of the article) and seven coding
categories corresponding to the national ide ntity dime ns ions ide nti® ed by
Sm ith (1991): ethnicity, culture, territory, language, religion , civic traditions
and national character.
Thus, texts were initially coded usin g a theore tically derive d coding
scheme. Th rough reading the articles several time s, catchphrases, metaphors,
rhetorical dev ices or sh ort segme nts of text that illustrated a particular view on
some national ide ntity dime nsion in relation to immigration were iden ti® ed
and typed in as memo (text) variables. The main criterion used in iden tifying
these passages w as the extent to w hich they referred to Us-Italians or The m-
foreigne rs or the relationsh ip between the tw o. The aim of this type of coding
w as to collect all the instances in w hich the ne w spapers presented the issue of
imm igration in term s of an U s-and-The m relationsh ip. At a second level, the
occurrences of each national ide ntity dimen sion in the data were counted and
the them es mentioned in relation to each dimen sion were ide nti® ed. Th ird ly,
m y aim w as to explore the cultural reson ance between the view s ex pres sed and
the speci® c features of Italian ide ntity. This type of analysis may be calle d
sem iotic-structuralis t (H ijm ans , 1996) to the extent that features of the text,
such as catchphrases, metaphors or a speci® c them atic structure, are used to
m ake inferences about the context, namely, the de® nition of the W e-Italians in
contrast to the im migran t-Other, in w hich it is produced. In other w ords, the
scope w as to reconstruct cultural meaning convention s about the relationsh ip
between the N ation and the Other that were hidden in the texts, and thereby
to examine the extent to w hich a more exclusionary view of national ide ntity
w as proposed by the press .
5.2 Findings
A sim ple counting of the occurre nces of each national iden tity dimen sion has
show n that ethnicity, civic traditions, territory and culture are the main
dime ns ions used by the press to differentiate immigrants from Italians
Figure 1
(see Figure 1). It is w orth noting that language , w hich in fact is an element of
diversity rather than unity for the Italian nation, is rarely men tione d in the
discourse on immigration. So is religion despite the fact that most im migran ts
are of M uslim origin. This may be, of course, related to the fact that the
universa listic dogma of the C atholic religion does not lend itself to nationalis tic
claims against foreigners. M oreover, religion may not yet have become a m ajor
dime ns ion for exclusion because the ille gal status of a large part of im migran ts
has preve nted them from expres sin g their religiosity publicly.
C ulture
O ne of the m ain issues raised by the press is the extent to w hich im migran ts
can be integrated in Italian society. It is in fact asse rted that such integration is
impossible because the `cultural gap’ between U s and The m is too w ide
13
(ESP , #5; #37). It is feared that the acceptance of imm igrants instead of leading
to their assim ilation into the Italian culture and lifestyle m ight threaten the
authenticity of the latter (ESP , #4; #7; #36). In other w ords, it is argued that an
assimilationist policy w ould req uire the transformation of Italian society into a
meltin g pot, American-style. Such a model however is completely alie n to the
Italian tradition (ESP , #36; #43). There fore:
[different] cultures sh ould prese rve their relative imperme ability and
learn to live separately w ith res pect for one another and w illin gness for
dialogue. (ESP, #1)
The inte rnal diversity that characterises Italian culture does not seem to
provide a model for the acceptance of difference that comes from outside the
nation. On the contrary, keep ing the O ther outside the national community is
deem ed to serve best the in tere sts of pluralism (sic) because it helps maintain-
in g divers ity. O n the other hand, however, the Italian tradition of hospitality
does not allow for `closing the door’ to imm igrants in nee d (PA N , #19). But à
solidarity w ith ne ithe r lim its nor rules is no solid arity ’ (ESP, #36). The refore, it
is argued in some articles, it is ne cessary to reconsider the Italian humanist
tradition and put a lim it to it. Respect for cultural diversity is a `good thing’ but
ìf pushe d beyon d the lim its’ may lead to racial discrim ination (ESP, #2).
Beside s, referen ces to the cultures of im migrants are a means to em phasise

the potentiality of con¯ ict between Their traditions and Ours (ESP , #41). For
in stance, it is suggeste d that im morality is an intrin sic feature of some foreign
cultures. Thus, prostitution is lin ke d not w ith speci® c individuals of A lb anian
or N ige rian nationality but w ith the A lb anian or N igerian culture overall
(PA N , #23).
In conclusion, the conception of the Italian nation as a cultural com munity
has an exclusionary character: it is not open to foreigne rs because the contact
w ith foreign cultures migh t en dange r the authenticity of the national traditions .
C ivic Values
The Italian civic traditions are related to contradictory view s on immigration.

O n the one hand, liberal and democratic ide as are cited to support Italy’ s
`closure’ tow ards imm igrants. It is in fact asserted that racism is an inev itable
feature of Italian political culture because in Italy the ide al of freedom prev ails
over the prin ciple of equality (ESP , #1). O n the other hand , in conform ity w ith
the civic conception of the Italian nation, the pres s sustains that Italians and
imm igrants are only disting uished by their relationsh ip to the law . Foreigne rs
can be accepted as mem bers of the political community if they conform to the
law and respect the social order (ESP , #36; #38; PA N , #20; #24).
The question of im migration bring s forth the inhe ren t tension that
characterises Italian iden tity, between the prin ciple of solid arity , inspire d by
the humanist and C atholic tradition, and the concepts of law and order related
to the ide a of national sovereign ty (ESP , #31; #33; #38; PA N , #18).
We are torn apart between tw o differen t cultures, the C atholic culture of

solid arity at all costs and the equally extreme `multiracialism is beauti-
ful’ represen ted by Rifond azione [the Communist party] and some
`Green s’ ¼ To reconcile the principles of solidarity w ith the nee d for
security and legality of the citizens seem s to be the lim it for many ¼ A
tradeoff between solidarity and leg ality that has however as precondi-
tion harsh measures such as immediate expulsion s. (ESP , #36)
Thus, it is ne cessary to re-elaborate the national civic culture in orde r to

provide for a leg al and political framew ork that guarantees respect for the
in dividual and freed om w ithin diversity (PA N , #10; #22; ESP, #32; #33; #34). As
a matter of fact such a civic spirit of political participation and res pect for the
law may provide a resp onse not only to the issue of ille gal im migration but
also to the overall crisis of the Italian legal and political sy stem .
Territory
The territorial dime nsion of national iden tity is re-elaborated in the press
discourse at tw o levels. First, attention is draw n to the permeability of the
national borde rs (ESP , #1; #5; PA N , #19; #21) and the im migrants are repre-
sen ted as ìnvaders’ (ESP, #7; PA N , #16). Even though it is recognise d that
in creasing migration ¯ ow s is a major social phen omenon that is not con® ned
to Italy (ESP , #8), it is emphasise d that Ìtaly w ill not be the door to Europe’
(ESP , #39) for clandestine imm igrants. Thus, a boundary is raised between
U s-Italians-Europeans and Them -extracom unitari w ho should remain ìn their
countrie s’ (PA N , #13).
Secondly, the ide nti® cation of Italian people w ith their territory is expresse d
in the idea that imm igration `has put us in a defensive situation w ithin our ow n
homes’ (PA N , #24). This feeling is particularly em phasised in urb an areas
(ESP , #4), inne r city ghe ttos in particular (ESP , #43) Ð à city w ithin the city’
(PA N , #15) Ð w he re immigrants tend to concentrate and w he re they are more
visib le than ever in their poverty and difference. This consciousne ss that an
ìnvasion’ is taking place w ithin òur ow n territory’ leads to tension s that often
burst out in violen ce agains t immigrants (PA N , #28). This type of behaviour is
eloquen tly expresse d in the statement of the M ayor of a small tow n in the
southeastern region of Apulia, ne ar the city of Brin disi:
Either Albanians w ill be transferre d to other region s before the 20th

of June or w e w ill organise a public rally. A fter that date none w ill be
able to guarantee the safety of the A lbanians established in my city.
(ESP , #9)
Fears are also expresse d in the press that im migran ts may alter the `charac-
ter of Italian cities’ if they are established in central areas (ESP, #4). Thus,
territory is lin ke d w ith culture: Italiannes s is seen as intrins ically related to
space. The prese nce of the Others w ithin the national territory upsets the
relations hip between the nation and its homeland.
Ethnicity
Italian iden tity is not based on beliefs of comm on ge ne alogical descent, even
though sometime s referen ces to the national cultural he ritage assume an ethn ic
overtone. N onetheles s, the pres s discourse on immigration tends to em phasise
the different ethnic orig ins of immigrants, w ho are ide nti® ed as `foreigners’,
`N orth-africans/m agrebini’, Àlbanians’ , or their race (ES P, #6; PA N , #16; #25),
`black’ (ESP #6), `nigge r’ (PA N , #12; ES P, #31), in contrast to Us, Ìtalians ’,
Èuropeans’ . M oreover, there is a tende ncy to create ethnic hiera rchies among
imm igrants of differen t orig in. Thus, an immigrant of A lb anian origin is by
de® nition a criminal (ESP, #9) w hile bein g a N ige rian w oman is syn onym ous
w ith bein g a prostitute (PA N , #23). A s the then M inister of Immigration
M argherita Bonive r argues:
14
After the inciden ts at Bari ¼ people have discovered that A lbanians
are violen t, incorrigib le, corrupted from their former authoritarian
regime , uns uitable for labour. In effect, it w as just xenophobia: the ethnic
stere otype w as there fore activated. Often, racial intole rance is not man-
ifeste d explicitly ; racism is in hibited because it is m orally w rong . Thus,
it has to be justi® ed on different grounds, this is w hat is often called
àdditional racism ’. Thus, Albanians have been reje cted as crim inals.
(ESP , #6)
The encounter w ith the O ther activates also a fear of loss of the ing roup
iden tity:
It is all about avoiding the degene ration of the remaining s of our

national iden tity. O therw ise, one day, we shall all be hy brid s. (PA N , #13)
U navoidably, then, it is about the des ire and need to defend it (ESP , #1; #41).
Paradoxically, the ethnic conception of the Italian nation also has a positive
effect on attitudes tow ard s imm igrants. From the ethn ic perspe ctive, cultural
traditions such as humanism and solid arity are conceived as part and parcel of
Italianness : they constitute a genea logical feature of the nation. Italians are
different, differen t from the imm igrants because their cultures are alien but also
differen t from northe rn Europeans or A mericans , because Italians are `good

people’ . Thus, the ethn o-cultural conception of the nation con® rm s its unique-
ne ss and superiority w ith referen ce to other peoples w hile it also emphasise s
tolerance (ESP , #1; PA N , #18). H owever, this positive self-represen tation of
Italians is challe nged by the contin uing migration in¯ ux.
Racists? Us? Are we joking ? W e are not like Americans in Alabama, nor
like Germ ans and certainly not like South Africans of Pretoria. W e are
different, we are Italians. And then the surprise: `Disg usting nigge r, we
w ill kill you’ . The beating s, the attempts to lynch people, the aggres -
sions ¼ And then, another surprise, the lay people, our good people all
tortellin i and mand olins, w hat do they do? The y applaud. (PA N , #18,
emphasis added)
The transformation of Italy into a host country calls for the re-de ® nition of
the national ide ntity. The humanist tradition w hich dominated the collective
self-re presen tation is now put into question and the (un)justi® ed character of
racist reactions tow ard s imm igrants is discusse d (PA N , #25; ESP , #31; #36; #37;
#42). Italianne ss is re-considere d under the ligh t of the ne w social and econ-
om ic conditions. Italians used to be em igrants them selve s. They suffered from
nostalgia in foreign countrie s, w here they were often ill-treated and discrim i-
nated against. N ow adays, sudden ly, Italy ® nds itse lf on the other side . It is one
of the seve n most ind ustrialised countries in the w orld and , since the late 1980s,
a country of immigration. The previous experien ce of Italians abroad, however,
even though still recent (em igration from Italy continued until the 1950s), does
not seem to favour an attitude of òpenness’ tow ard s im migran ts. On the
contrary, there is a defensive reaction tow ard s them w hich often becomes
active discrim ination. This type of behaviour is in fact in conformity w ith an
ethn o-cultural conception of the nation that creates a sy mbolic barrie r between
U s and Them .
N ational C haracter
Ethnic stereoty pes often take the form of a `national character’ , namely, a set of
personality features that supposedly characterise the members of a national
group and in¯ uence their behaviour. Even though referen ces to the national
character are not too frequen t (see Figu re 1) and despite the fact that the Italian
iden tity is not based on myths of common descent, it is w orth exam ining the
kind of `m yth ology’ that exists about the typical Italian. In the articles analyse d
he re, Italians are presen ted as clever, good, sweet but also cunnin g, inconsider-
ate and sloven ly (ESP, #1; #7; PA N , #18). These features constitute some
transcenden tal esse nce of Italiannes s.
The reproduction of such a m yth in the press is im portant because it
provides for a socio-cognitive model, a speci® c w ay of thinkin g about Us and
the O thers. C learly , if Italians think and speak about them selves w ith referen ce
to a national stereoty pe, then they are likely to classify im migrants w ith regard
to their orig ins and some speci® c set of person ality features that supposed ly
characterises their nation. M oreover, such an ethno-biological view suggests
that their national character conditions their beh aviour. Thus, im migran ts are
de-ind ivid ualised and differences between Us and The m exaggerated (PA N , #2;
#25; ESP , #30). Pattern s of beh aviour stemm ing from different cultural back-
grounds and lifesty les are attributed to ethn o-biological factors. Because the
national character is supposedly inhere nt in the ind ivid ual’ s genetic code, its
features are not subject to change. Th is view provides fertile ground for not
only xenophobia but also overt racism to emerge .
6. C on clusion s
The aim of this study has been to analyse the press discourse on imm igration
in Italy as a forum in w hich ide as and beliefs about immigrants and their
relations hip w ith U s or their position in O ur society are expres sed , debated and
perh aps resh aped. M ore particularly, I have tried to reveal the w ays in w hich
the debate about immigration involves a re-elaboration of the national ide ntity
so as to accentuate differen ces between Us-nationals and The m-imm igrants
and exclude the latter from the host society.
The point of departure of the study is a bipolar view of national ide ntity,
as a sen se of belongin g de® ned both from w ithin, from the common features
that brin g fellow nationals togethe r, and from w ithout, through differen tiation
from Others. The relationsh ip between imm igrants and nationals subscribes to
this Us-and-Them dyn amics. In other w ords , the presen ce of the immigrant as
the Other w ithin the national territory activates a process of re-de® nition of the
national iden tity w hich aims at emphasisin g the differen ces between inside rs
and outsiders . Thus, the idea of the nation is de® ned in more exclusionary
term s than before.
In the ® rst section of the study, the main ele men ts around w hich the ide a
of the Italian nation is organised have been examined . Thus, it has been show n
that Italian ide ntity is of a predominantly civic-territorial nature. The nation is
de® ne d as a historical comm unity bound together by shared civic traditions
and lin ks to a territory. N onetheless, these civic traditions are characterised by
in tern al diversity and reg ionalism is prev alent, despite the until recently highly
centralised structure of the state. M oreover, the Italian nation is marke d by the
dif® cult and ambivalent developmen t of a national consciousne ss among
the masse s. The hum anist, Catholic tradition plays an im portant part w ithin the
national cultural he ritage . I also investigate lin ks between such a tradition and
a pres umed national character, namely a set of idiosyn cratic features that
supposed ly characterise s Italians as a nation.
In examinin g m y hypothesis that the prese nce of the im migrants leads to a
re-de® nition of the ide ntity of the host society, I have chosen to study the press
as a discursive arena w he re opinions are prese nted and neg otiated. This does
not of course imply that the view s expressed in the texts analyse d represe nt
Italian public opinion . H owever, it is postulated that the press discourse sets,
at least to a certain extent, the boundaries of the cognitive, ideo logical and
normative universe w ithin w hich ind ivid uals form, expres s and discuss their
opinion s. It also offers the tools, inform ation, sy mbols and metaphors, for the
in dividuals to develop their ow n belie fs and attitudes.
The ® nd ing s sh ow that territory and culture are the main dimen sions used
in the press to distinguish between Italians and èxtracom unita ri’ . As a m atter of
fact, comm on culture and the lin k to a speci® c territory, namely, the Italian
penins ula, form the basis of Italian iden tity. N ot surprisin gly, the perception of
imm igrants as ìnvaders’ w ho ille gally cross national borders carryin g w ith
them their cultures and lifestyles w hich are alien to U s is emphasise d. It is,
furthermore, sugge sted that the Italian tradition of solid arity and humanism
should be reconside red and strict lim its sh ould be im posed upon it. Th us, even
though the cultural-territorial conception of the nation should, at least ide ally,
foster a tolerant attitude tow ards immigrants, the press discourse re-de® nes the
cultural and territorial found ations of the nation in an ex clusion ary manner
sugges ting that immigrants must remain outside the national com munity
because they pose a thre at to the cultural authenticity of the nation. Fears are
expresse d in the press that the contact w ith alie n cultures may blur the
distinc tiveness of the Italian lifestyle and threaten the people’s sense of ide nt-
ity. This asse rtion supports an exclusionary view of the nation as a closed
socio-political community w ith stable mores and culture, in w hich alien s are
not welcome because they may disrupt the national order of thing s.
Civic traditions , ethnicity and national character play an ambiguous part in
the discourse on immigration. The civic traditions of the nation are related to
the notion of law and order, namely, the importance of abidin g by the law and
preserv ing the social order. Im migrants are distinguishe d from nationals be-
cause they break the law . If they respected the law of the state, the press
sustains , they w ould be treated just as any Italian citizen. The emphasis on the
democratic-liberal tradition, w hich is rem iniscen t of the Fre nch assim ilationist
m odel, allow s immigrants, at least in prin ciple, the opportunity to become part
of the nation. H owever, this view is contrasted w ith the argument that freedom
is above liberty and thus the domestic population should be free to adopt a
racist or xenophobic attitude if it so w ishes .
W hat is strikin g however is that although the idea of the nation in Italy is
not based on a myth of common ge ne alogy, ethn icity becomes pertinen t to the
notion of Italianne ss. Im migran ts are ide nti® ed by their nationality w hich is
also lin ke d to some social feature (that is depreciating more often than not).
M oreover, the encounter w ith the Other evokes re¯ ections about w ho We are
and how W e should deal w ith Them and also the extent to w hich The y put in
dange r the authen ticity of Our culture and lifes tyle.
Furthe rm ore, the idea of an Italian `national character’ is put forw ard w hich
m ay be related both to the Italian hum anist culture and to an ethnic view of the
national community. The Italian character can be sum marise d in three w ords:
Ìtaliani brava gente ’ (Italians are good people). Thus, the humanist tradition is
reproduced under an ethn o-biological disguise. This view of Italians as good
people m ay, on the one hand, favour the acceptance of imm igrants because
`We are not like Germ ans, nor like the Americans, W e are not racists’ . On
the other hand, however, it leads to an ethno-biological classi® cation of the
differen t nationalities, w hereb y nationality is linked to speci® c characteristics
and/or pattern s of behaviour. This view point involves a de-in dividuation of
imm igrants w ho are then treated not as individuals but as members of a
given group that is categorised aforehand. Thus, Albanians are criminals,

N ige rians are prostitutes and M oroccans are dish onest, for instance. M ore-
over, such pers onality features are taken as gene tically give n and unchange-
able. Theref ore, the `rational’ solution is that these people `remain in their
countrie s’ .
In conclusion, this study has ide nti® ed the m ain elemen ts that constitute
Italian ide ntity and has investigated their reproduction in the pres s discourse
on im migration. The focus of the rese arch has been on the w ays in w hich these
features are re-interpre ted in orde r to re-de® ne the nation in exclusionary term s
and differen tiate U s-Italians from The m-imm igrants. The ® nd ing s suggest that
even though the conception of the nation in Italy is predominantly civic, this
does not alw ays imply that imm igrants are welcome if they comply w ith the
civic culture of the host society. The presence of a large number of im migran ts
in the national territory leads to a process of èthn icisation’ of Italian ide ntity
w he reby im migrants are seen as radically differen t from U s.
D r A nna Triandafyllidou is M arie C urie Post-D octoral Fe llow , and m ay be

conta cted at Institute of Psychology, Italian N ational Research C oun cil (C N R ),
viale M arx 15, R om e 00137, Italy, tel. 1 3 9 06 8 6090220, fax 1 39 06 824737,
em ail: trian@ kant.irm kant.rm . cnr.it.
N ote s
1. The author w ould like to thank the British Journal of Sociology for its
® nancial and admin istrative support in the conduct of the empirical
resea rch prese nted here. The study w as completed durin g the author’s
employmen t as Marie C urie Post Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of
Psych ology of the Italian N ational Rese arch C ouncil (C N R), a post held
unde r the auspices of the M arie Curie-T M R Programme of D G XII of the
European Com mission. An earlie r version of this paper w as prese nted at
an intern ational conference on Ìnter-C ultura e Discrim inazione C ulturale
nella Scuola’ organise d at the FacoltaÁ Valdese in Rome on 26 N ovember
1996. The author w ould also like to thank the anonym ous referee s of Social
Identities for their constructive criticism w hich w as particularly helpful in
rev ising this paper.
2. A lthough C am pani (1993, p. 515) points out that the sectors in w hich
immigrants are employed vary according to reg ions.
3. The term Àlbanian crisis’ w as coined by the Italian media to describe the
afterm ath of the une xpected arrival of large numbers of A lb anian imm i-
grants at the coasts of the Italian south-eastern region of Apulia durin g the
sprin g and summer of 1991.
4. This matter is examine d in m ore detail in Section 3.
5. The term comes from the w ord cam panile (the church’s tower bell) that
sy mbolises the stron g af® liation w ith one’s family , friends , village and local
patron w ho are one’s group of referen ce and alle giance and through w hich
one pursues and protects one’ s interes ts.
6. Scholars and politicians tend to disagree on this matter. Opinion s vary

between those w ho view Italian ide ntity as a feelin g of belong ing to a
civic-territorial com munity (Rusconi, 1993) and those w ho, like Bocca
(1990) or Um berto Bossi, are quite sceptical as to w he ther an Italian ide ntity
exists at all. N onetheless, the debate over the meaning of Italianness, the
historical roots of the nation and, most im portantly, its future is ferven t. It
is w orth noting that one of the major Italian publish ing houses, Il M ulino,
recen tly launched a new book serie s entitled `L’ ide ntitaÁ italiana’ (the Italian
iden tity), w hose purpose is `to re-discover (sic) Italian national iden tity’
(Pano ram a, 28.5.98, pp. 150± 54).
7. The balance between immigration and emigration acquired positive values
for the ® rst time in 1973 (Mura, 1995).
8. The M SI w as the Italian fascist party w hich later evolve d into the `post-
fascist’ A N . A n intere stin g overview of the ide as and activities of both the
N orthern League and the A N during the past decade may be found in
Brierley and Giacometti (1996), as well as in the edited volumes Italian
Politics: a Re view published annually by Pinter in London.
9. The im migran ts-extracom un itari occasion ally replaced the centralise d state
as `the enem y’ against w hich the Leagues and its supporters were ® gh ting.
There is a ferve nt debate about the League’ s xenophobic propaganda Ð is
it a strategy for gaining votes and stren gthen ing its ow n iden tity, or it is
racism? (Bocca, 1990; Brie rley and Giacometti, 1996; D iamanti, 1993;
M ann heime r, 1991; M oioli, 1992; Ottone, 1992; Sales, 1993; Valen tini, 1993).
H owever, this question goes bey ond the scope of this paper.
10. A small centre-liberal party w hich adopted an overtly hostile stance
tow ard s imm igrants mobilisin g fears for demographic explosion (Cam pani,
1993, p. 510).
11. The question w as phrased as follow s: `For each of the follow ing opinions,
please state w hether you tend to agree or tend to disagree ?: Integration (I):
In orde r to be fully accepted members of society, people belongin g to these
minority groups must give up such parts of their religion or culture w hich
may be in con¯ ict w ith the law ; Assim ilation (A): In order to be fully
accepted members of society, people belong ing to these minority groups
must give up their ow n culture’ (Eurobarometre, 47.1, Sprin g, 1997, p. 20,
Graph 20).
12. For the sake of methodological clarity , it is w orth describing brie ¯ y the
situation of the press in Italy. At the time of w ritin g this paper, the national
press includes tw o m ajor dailies, La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Se ra,
published also w ith local sections in the major urb an centres of the country ,
several large region al or local new spapers (e.g., Il M attino in N aples,
Il M essaggero in Rome or La Stam pa in Turin) and a num ber of weekly
magazine s publishe d and circulated nationw ide (e.g. Panoram a and
L’Espresso). W ith the exception of U nitaÁ, traditionally the new spaper of the
C omm unist Party, most major national or local new spapers are indepen-
dent of political partie s. N onetheless, the Italian press is dom inated by
three major industrial groups w hich each control directly or indire ctly a
num ber of daily and week ly publications and publish ing houses. The se are
the Espresso-La Repubblica group, w hich includes the weekly L’Espresso and
the daily La Rep ubblica; Fia t-R izzoli w hich ow ns in part Il C orriere della Se ra,
La Sta m pa and the publish ing house Rizzoli; and the M ediaset-Berlusconi
group w hich controls the daily Il G iornale, the weekly Pano ram a and the TV
channels Cana le 5, Italia 1 and Re te 4. Taking into account this distrib ution
of economic and political power, the weekly m agazines L’Espresso and
Panoram a may be said to re¯ ect the m ajor political tenden cies dominating
the Italian pres s.
13. A list of the articles cited is give n in the appendix.
14. See note 3 concernin g the À lb anian crisis’ .
A ppe ndix
Journal: ESP
Record
N o. Date Title
#1 07/10/90 Il razzista m ascherato (The racist under cover)

#2 07/10/90 L’integrazione im possibile (The impossible inte gration)
#4 18/02/90 Il ne ro in una stanz a (The black in one room)
#5 18/02/90 La M alfa: `D ietro l’ang olo c’eÁ Le Pe n’ (LaMalfa: `Behin d the
corner is LePen’ )
#6 13/10/91 L’im m igrato che ci meritiam o (The immigrant that we
deserve)
#7 13/10/91 D ico che eÁ difesa dell’identita Á (I say this is defence of the
iden tity)
#8 23/06/91 A ciascuno il suo profugo (To each his (sic) refugee)
#9 23/06/91 A lbane se no n ti am o (Albanian I do not love you)
#30 29/10/95 U n’inferno da trentam ila lire (A he ll for 30,000 Italian lire )
#31 29/10/95 R azzista no , giustiziere si (N ot racist, just doing justice)
#32 29/10/95 Bianch i, ne ri e M anconi (W hites, blacks and M anconi)
#33 29/10/95 C landestini a casa (Clandestine s go home)
#34 22/10/95 La sciate fare a SO S razzism o (Let SO S racism deal w ith it)
#36 15/10/95 So lidarieta
Á un a parola (Solidarity is just a w ord )
Journal: ESP
Record
N o. Date Title
#37 15/10/95 Q ue i dieci luo ghi com uni (These ten stere otypes)
#38 15/10/95 L’africano ci da una m ano (The African len ds us a hand )
#39 15/10/95 N on facciam o regali alla destra (Let’s not make prese nts to
the rig ht± w ing )
#41 15/10/95 C ostanzo, la gaffe di giovedi sera (C ostanzo, the mistake of
Thursd ay night)
#42 15/10/95 O diatissim i R om (The m uch hated Roma)

#43 01/10/95 Sa n Sa lvario, A frica (author’s note: San Salvario is a
neigh bourhood in the city of Turin)
Journal: PA N
Record
N o. Date Title
#10 30/06/91 O ggi albane si, poi¼ (Today Albanians , then ¼ )

#13 09/02/92 A llarme, siam europei (In arm s, we are Europeans)
#15 0/06/93 Fa r W est M ilano (Far West M ilan)
#16 13/06/93 R azze danna te (Damned races)
#18 18/06/94 D a dove viene lo skin? (W he re do sk inheads come from?)
#19 19/10/95 Se passa il clandestino ¼ (If the clandestine [immigrant]
ge ts through)
#20 19/10/95 Il calvario del legalitario (The torture of those w ho abide by
the law )
#21 19/10/95 A genz ia piazza D uom o (Duomo Square agen cy)
#22 19/10/95 Se bben che siam stranie re paura non abbiam o (Even if we are
foreigne rs, we are not afraid)
#23 19/10/95 C on ung hie e cacca (W ith nails and shit)
#24 19/10/95 Fu ori legge e contro la legge (Outside law and agains t the
law )
#25 12/10/95 Im m igrati. Q ua nti sono davvero e com e fann o a entrare
(Immigrants . H ow m any are they really and how do they
ge t in)
#28 26/10/95 N oi, ragazzi dello zoo di Torino (We, young boys of the zoo
of Turin)
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Social Identities: Journal

Nation and Immigration:

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A N N A T RIA N D A FYL LID OU 1

C ontem porary European reality is characterise d by tw o potentially con¯ ictual

and low level of socio-economic developmen t in the countries of origin as well

2. N ational Ide ntity and D ive rsity

a named hum an population sharing an historic territory, common m yths

H owever, national iden tity is also about O thers; it aims at creating

M oreover, contemporary reality is characterised by the intern ationalisation

3. Som e C ritical Re ¯ e ctions on the Italian N ational Ide ntity

and South is not a mere m atter of ge ography that can be attributed to

Before presen ting the ® nd ings of m y empirical research, it is w orth outlinin g

EU 148.611 145.426 146.918 152.954 141.577 164.003 15.8%

grant labourers. This law w as ¯ awed in tw o fund amental respects: it ® rst

imm igrants were legalise d through the M artelli law .

5. Public D iscourse on Im m igration

5.1 D ata and M ethodology

Disagree w ith I and A* 69 39

Source: Eurobarometre 47.1, Sprin g 1994, Graph 1 for

Source: Eurobarometre 47.1, Sprin g 1994, Graph 21 for

Beside s, referen ces to the cultures of im migrants are a means to em phasise

The Italian civic traditions are related to contradictory view s on immigration.

We are torn apart between tw o differen t cultures, the C atholic culture of

Thus, it is ne cessary to re-elaborate the national civic culture in orde r to

Either Albanians w ill be transferre d to other region s before the 20th

It is all about avoiding the degene ration of the remaining s of our

differen t from northe rn Europeans or A mericans , because Italians are `good

given group that is categorised aforehand. Thus, Albanians are criminals,

D r A nna Triandafyllidou is M arie C urie Post-D octoral Fe llow , and m ay be

6. Scholars and politicians tend to disagree on this matter. Opinion s vary

#1 07/10/90 Il razzista m ascherato (The racist under cover)

#42 15/10/95 O diatissim i R om (The m uch hated Roma)

#10 30/06/91 O ggi albane si, poi¼ (Today Albanians , then ¼ )

A nde rson , B. (1981) Im agine d C om m unities, London: Verso.

C alavita, K. (1994) `Italy and the New Immigration’ , in W .A . C orne lius,

M oioli, V. (1992) `Il razzism o delle leg he ’ , C ritica M arxista.

Sales, I. (1993) Le ghisti e sud isti, Rome and Bari: Laterza.

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