Interculturalism, multiculturalism and Italianness: The case of Italy

Abstract

Until the 1970s, Italy’s population trajectory had demonstrated a clear propensity to be an emigrating nation. Over its almost 150-year history, it had witnessed four major phases of outward migration which had defined this country and created large diasporas across the globe. However, major changes began occurring to this demographic trajectory. It saw the unexpected arrival of large numbers of migrants from mostly poorer nations which it only reluctantly acknowledged. But, Italy was both unprepared and unconvinced to respond to this new phenomenon of incoming migration. Even though many of its European neighbours began to engage with this new and wider multicultural paradigm emerging in the 1980s, this multicultural approach never took hold in Italy. At the same time segments of the Italian education system were obliged to tackle recently arrived large numbers of migrants and their children requiring integrated models of education. While the political elites sought to remain immobile with large numbers of incoming immigrants, schools and educational institutions had little choice. Unfortunately, as this paper will demonstrate, this approach was mostly limited to the area of education. Although Interculturalism received a boost from its European Union promotion in 2008, it remained largely an activity exercised within the domain of public education. Fundamentally multiculturalism, like interculturalism were never officially embraced in Italy. While some sectors of society constructively engaged with interculturalism arguably as a different and more developed idea than multiculturalism, Italy and its policymakers continue to avoid engagement with migrant integration models whatever they be.