On the Day against Discrimination, “Repubblica” has chosen to give a voice to young people of foreign origin, but born and raised here. They are professors, engineers, sportsmen, web influencers, model students. They have fought for years against racism and bureaucracy to have the right to call themselves full citizens of the country of which they feel they are children. And now they say: “We are over a million, we want to be protagonists”.
Tell your story as Italians without citizenship by sending an email to [email protected]
Simohamed Kaabour
“I teach civics and Arab culture in high school”
Simohamed Kaabour is 39 years old and has a slight Genoese accent. He teaches civics and Arabic language at the Deledda high school. He arrived as a child: “I remember the train trip. A gentleman gave us some drawings: on mine there was a balloon”. It was 1991. His father Hassan was polishing steel. “The companions were nice, but I didn’t know Italian. One would repeat to me:” Negro! “, The others laughed. My friend Idrissa, who had a father from Burkina Faso, explained it to me:” Don’t pay attention to them, they’re not bad. “. Now he has a restaurant in Bergamo.” Degree in languages, specialization in human rights. In 2006 substitute teacher in a middle school. “They discovered that I was not Italian, I thought a residence permit was enough. They threw me out badly”. Three years of battles to get the job back and citizenship. “The future is certain: the numbers say it. The present is less. It needs to be rethought, to give us the opportunity to become protagonists too”.
Hilda ramirez
“When I returned to Ecuador I was missing home”
Hilda Ramirez, daughter of two professors, suffered from meningitis as a child: at the age of 5 she left Ecuador to be treated in Italy. The treatments went on until he was 13, his family sold their home and moved. Dad was getting by as a bricklayer until he was hired by the Railways, Mom tried to get her degree recognized for a while, then gave up and started assisting the elderly. “I had citizenship on the eve of graduation, after twenty years. Then I gave it to my parents, who almost felt indebted to Italy, they didn’t want to disturb”. Hilda is now 30 years old, she is a webmaster, lives in the Bergamo area, married to another second generation boy: “He is an engineer”. He remembers his first holiday in his country of origin: “I was always crying, I missed home”. Then as a teenager, at the police station: “With my parents who had to renew the documents every time I realized that I was not Italian like the others: no one had told me before”.
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Giorgia Cociorva
“I graduated with a thesis on ius soli”
Giorgia has a degree in ius soli. “After years of fighting against an old law to be scrapped, feeling a foreigner in my house, I dedicated the thesis to all Italians without citizenship”. Giorgia Cociorva, 22, Albanian father, Moldovan mother, studies and works as a model. His father never met him, he was repatriated shortly after his birth. “I was born and raised in Bologna. I lived my whole life in foster care with an Italian family. I moved to Moldova, the land of my biological mother, only from 2 to 5 years old. When I came of age I applied for citizenship and I ‘they denied: Italy did not recognize me because I had lived abroad for three years. But I was only a child, how could I then understand what was best for me? “. Then, finally, the bureaucratic knots were dissolved and on 8 June 2017 he obtained the tricolor passport: “An unforgettable day”.
Mihai Zugravel
“I have an average of 9, but my dream is a passport”
Mihai collects records. At school he is a talent, average of 9.36, awards, scholarships. Your favorite subjects? Economics and mathematics. Mihai Zugravel, 18, is “100% Italian”, despite being born in Romania. His home is Ottone, in the province of Piacenza. Passionate about motorcycles and an excellent football player, he has two dreams in the drawer: to graduate in economics “and then make a career in a large company” and the Italian passport. Arrived in Italy in 2006 when he was just three years old, today he is attending the fourth year of the San Colombano technical institute in Bobbio. The racism? “The real one, here in Ottone I’ve never lived.” Soon he will start the lengthy procedures for obtaining citizenship. “In truth, those born here or arriving as a child should have a faster channel to become Italian. In my class there are two other students of foreign origin: this is normalcy, this is the future of Italy”.
Filippo Hu
“I speak Chinese badly, I eat and think only in Italian”
It was in doubt when, at the age of 18, the Turin-born Filippo Hu had to choose between Chinese and Italian citizenship. But today, who is 25 years old and is doing a doctorate in computer science, he does not regret the decision he made amidst a thousand perplexities: “My parents have kept a Chinese passport and a strong link with the country of origin”. He, who studies recommender system but was born into a family of textile entrepreneurs who settled thirty years ago in Moncalieri, soon realized that his future will not be in China. “I live in Italy, this is my mother tongue, I don’t know how to speak Chinese well, I eat and think in Italian, my friends are all Italian, like Eleonora, my girlfriend, who has always made me feel at home. citizenship was the most natural choice. On the identity card I am Zhongli Filippo Hu. An Italian and a Chinese name made up of two ideograms: they mean Italy and China “.
Gaia Cavina
“I play rugby and challenge prejudices even in sport”
In rugby, the scrum-half is the smartest: the playmaker. Gaia Cavina is the youngest of 4 sisters, all rugby players. Two, Giulia and Micol, play for the national team. But experts say she is the strongest, even though she is only 16 years old. The father, Stefano, is from Cogoleto. The mother, Nkem, of Nigerian origin. “The other day a partner showed me the chat of the males: I discovered that they make fun of me.” Negra di m … “, they write. And some drawings that I am ashamed to tell them. I always smile and I would like to be friends of all. So I talked about it with the classmates: maybe we will go and tell the school psychologist “. He also talked to dad about it. “He wanted to go to the professors, I told him to wait. They’re just kids, maybe they’ll understand.” He says that discrimination is not only on the skin: “Malagò, president of Coni, said he would like a son to play rugby. I didn’t expect it from someone like him.”
Tasnim Ali
“Thanks to TikTok I help those who follow me to understand Islam”
He is only 21 years old, Tasnim Ali, but already 307 thousand followers on Tik Tok and another 61 thousand on Istagram. Born in Arezzo of Egyptian parents, raised in Rome, she has had Italian citizenship and a job in her pocket for three years: influencer and content creator with an agency behind her. “Since December I have also been a Sky correspondent for the program” Every Morning “”. Tasnim is a beautiful volcano, which with its glossy and fascinating image promotes fashion objects together with its culture of origin, its religion, its being between two worlds and staying there very comfortably. “My followers are mostly 18-25 year olds, Italian guys like me, intrigued by the origins of my family and my culture, my way of life. They ask me questions, they want to understand me, imitate me. Someone criticizes me for the veil, but I answer in an ironic way. And many change their minds in their prejudices towards Islam “.
Gian Matteo Marie
“Born in Palermo but up to 18 I had no rights”
Gian Matteo Marie was born in Palermo to Mauritian parents. He won Italian citizenship at the age of 18, but he who is now 21 feels he has always been from Palermo. “Citizenship has allowed me to say even more strongly that I am Italian. It is unfair, however, to have to wait until the age of 18 to obtain it,” says Gian Matteo. He returned to Mauritius once when he was eight. “My future is in Italy, I hope also in Palermo, even if it is difficult to find a job”, says the boy. He is enrolled in the first year of the degree course in Electrical Engineering. He lives in Ballarò, a multi-ethnic neighborhood in the historic center. Beside the studio he cultivates a passion for the theater. “Apart from some unpleasant incidents in the oratory, with the bully on duty calling me ‘Turkish’, I grew up well here. I have friends of all nationalities. I speak Sicilian dialect as well as Creole. Palermo is my home”.
Hasnain Abbas Bhatti
“Pakistani or Italian? I don’t want to choose, but to claim a double identity”
“Pakistani or Italian? I have asked myself several times: the truth is that I don’t want to choose, but to claim a double identity”. Hasnain Abbas Bhatti, born in Pakistan, arrived in Italy in 2003. He has always lived in Carpi, in the province of Modena. Today he is 24 years old, he is close to a degree in management engineering, he is the owner of two Caf and Patronato offices, he is involved in voluntary work and in politics, he is part of the Consultation for the integration of Carpi and he is a practicing Muslim. On December 21st he became Italian: “It took 4 years and seven months of paperwork”. He often felt like a stranger. “In elementary school, I showed up in a pink overalls. The other children laughed. I didn’t understand. In Pakistan, pink is not associated with girls. Then I remember a teacher I was discussing with who asked me:” You treat women like this in your country? “. But my country is Italy!”.
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