If only we could turn back the hands of time...Unfortunately that's not possible, and today we're paying the consequences of some disastrous decisions made in the last 15 years. And now the situation is really critical. If you simply decide to take a stroll around Padova after sunset, you'll see that the number of Italians around has drastically decreased. At every corner - even near the city center - you find people from almost every part of the world, doing what? Well, dealing illegal substances, checking out that their "protette" are doing their job properly, looking for cars to steal and so on and so forth. The result is that common citzens have lost their freedom to go out and, personally, I would never ever walk alone near Stanga or Portello; you seriously risk to get robbed, or even worse. Therefore, people are starting to feel they're invaded and they've lost their freedom in their own country. They're angrier and definetely less tolerant than what they used to be. Surprisingly, the presence of more immigrants has led to a less open attitute towards them.
Why have we got to this point? Because of the basically wrong attitude towards this issue; because it is an issue and not just a global phenomenon tout court. In the early 90's it seemed that immigration could be a source for our country: in fact, Italians were aiming at higher social positions, thus refusing to do more "humble" jobs. Immigrants should have filled in this gap. What happened instead? That a number of people started to come to Italy, hoping to have a better life, but even a higher number simply decided to come here and scratch a living - most of the times in a pretty doubtful way. Every year, our government would plan to welcome a certain amount of immigrants, according to the need of industries. The thing is that our frontiers were not controlled enough, so that many people entered the country illegally. They would live on their wits and it all went on without much control.
Now, multiply all this for 15 years and what you get is today's situation. Moreover, the government didn't work out any project to help these people integrate in our society. What we would have needed is a gradual process: to let few people enter the country, so that they could find a place in the system, and Italians would have had the means and the time to accept them. After all, we are creatures of habit and don't like radical changes.
Whenver we switch on our tv, we see all these people standed on our Southern costs. They flee from the first aid centers and most of the time the police cannot track them any more. How long will this continue for? Why do we let them in if then we know they won't go out if they break the law? It's high time that things changed; the right of Italians and of honest immigrants to have their freedom should be finally granted.
