Notizie: Forecast, By 2050 25% Of ER Residents Will Not Be Italian Born.

 

According to the register published in 2012 the total number of 'foreigners' living in Emilia Romagna was 530015. An increase of 5.9% on the previous year, a total that places ER third on the list of regional 'foreign populace' numbers. Forecasts suggest, that by 2050 approximately one in four of ER's resident population will not be 'born in Italy'.

Welfare councillor Teresa Marzocchi says that the region will endeavour to create the conditions so that immigrants can be accommodated and  will have the same level of access to Govt. services as native born Italians.

Source: ANSA 01072013

Vaguely interesting, but not a lot of information. Presumably in ER there are bags of Chinese, (and whether they are useful immigrants from the demographic point of view I'm not sure).

But the bit which caught my eye (maybe something is lost in translation): why on earth should a 'legal' foreigner NOT have the same level of access to government services? I guess we are talking about welfare and healthcare in this carefuly crafted phrase, but ask a straniero what hurdles are put in their way even to get the simplest bit of protocol eased by a zenophobic comune clerk. 

It isn't as if it is easy (for a non rich straniero) to get legally into Italy - quotas, deadlines, queues you wouldn't believe - so once you have jumped those huge hoops a bit of politeness wouldn't come amiss. I shall don my pink tinteds and hope that's what they're talking about in this article!

Perhaps she's suggesting that the commune move to a multi-lingual access system to accommodate non Italian speakers, thereby improving access for all regardless of status.

That having been said, this sort of approach has recently been abolished here in the UK as it is seen to be encouraging the migrants NOT to learn the language, a consequence of which is their (effectively self imposed) increased isolation from the main native community at large.