Thoughts of an Italian Writer: (2b)

Dr. Antonio Castaldo, Sociologist and Journalist, Brusciano, Italy

"The Half-Century Italian Emigration in Germany. Recollections of a Gastarbeiter "Working Guest." (3)

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In the Italian general condition there remains nevertheless problems of integration and of improvement of the social condition of many people, in greater part of the emigrants' first generation after decades of stay in Germany they do not speak well or almost entirely the German language. There are few who also have a German passport and the citizenship of origin is the most kept among all the foreign presence in Germany.

The Italian school population is that one that more suffers the selectivity of the German society. In Bavaria there has been detected data which also reflects the national dimension: about 8% of Italian schoolchildren attending a school differential, unlike those from other EU countries that are 5,2% and by the German equivalent to 3.2%, the grammar school sees the Italians present with 4.7%, other EU students with 9.1% and Germany with 18.5%. The certification training is owned 46% of young Italians than the 64% of Germans. This qualification is present in the workplace for 45% of the unemployed in 85% of Italians. The certification training is owned by 46 % of young Italians than the 64% of Germans. This qualification is at work for 45% of the unemployed and 85% of Italians.

The general economic situation remains difficult, the high unemployment of the Italians and the reforming of the German Welfare system unfold a panorama of uncertainty and insecurity for our fellow countrymen.

According to the data of the Federal Institute of Statistics, the temporal datum of permanence of the Italians tells us that they are exceeded ten years with the declared intention of a provisional stay that often however is never translated in complete repatriation.

The researcher A.M. Minutilli conclusively, in her interesting investigation, notes that "the Italians in Germany are in the middle of the ford, with unresolved old problems, but also with new challenges and opportunities to be gathered in a European context. The route which can and must complete, from Gastarbeiter to citizens in full permanence of the host country, may enable them to work as active agents on their future in the host society, and, paradoxically, can offer the country of origin, in economic terms, of cultural exchange and European integration, of how much (little) they have received in the years passed in social dependency that have not had some significant effect on their social growth.

This while Italy has itself become a land of immigration and to me remains a bitter memory of the visual warning in neon signs placed at the entrances to some public places of any civilized city in Lower Saxony; "Keine Ausländer". No entry to foreigners. But this is past history. Or is it still present and does it affect all western nation's sentinels of passageways of the new migrant populations?

Dr. Antonio Castaldo

Translation from Italian to English: Miriam Medina

To contact: miriammedina@earthlink.net or miriam@thehistorybox.com
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Thoughts of an Italian Writer: (2a)

Dr. Antonio Castaldo, Sociologist and Journalist, Brusciano, Italy

"The Half-Century Italian Emigration in Germany. Recollections of a Gastarbeiter "Working Guest." (2)

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I remember a trip in the Beetle, from Wolfsburg to Bremen and vice versa, for a concert of Genesis. I was with an Apulian friend which from Brindisi had gone up our Peninsula, before reaching north-east Germany, with one five hundred which was finally yielded to an interested dealer receiving in exchange a Käfer.

The German Industrial success therefore is also a child of so many Italian workers. But how is the situation presented today? Very interesting reading data and conditions of the Italian emigration in Germany fifty years since its inception (1955-2005) has been found in the valuable study of Anna Maria Minutilli, PhD in Contemporary History at the University of Aachen. "The Italian Community in Germany: A challenge still open," is present in an excerpt from the website: www.bekar.net - www.giornalistiitalianinelmondo.

In this research the emigration distinguished into three generations is introduced. The first, after a lifetime of work and sacrifice in the reconstruction and growth of the German economy is now tempted by a return to Italy but feel a certain instability of the new role in both family and society.

The second generation of Italians feel the precariousness and threat of insecurity in the workplace for the economic crisis that for three years also affects the prosperous Germany.

Arriving at the third generation we encounter the young people who have acquired language skills but pay a limited vocational training and schooling in the case of better serving the scarcity of jobs and not long periods of employment. Here too we find, according to the study of A.M. Minutilli, uncertainties and precariousness.

From 1990 to 2002 approximately 2 million workers emigrated to Germany, of which a numerous portion of them were Polish and Romanians. Italians are now about 600,000, or 8,3% of the population. The Italian unemployment rate is 19.2% almost double the German even at 10.3%. When the Wall fell in 1989, German reunification took place, initiating major works in the Berlin Capital where there was a great migrant influx from the countries of the East, decreasing those that came from the Mediterranean countries. From Italy alone in 1995 there were 48,000 workers, while for the year 2002, at least 25,000 new arrivals were counted. The Italian community "is characterized by a strong male presence (59.3%), Italians living in the host country for over 30 years and a moderate share of young born on site (28.2%). There are about 71,500 Italian schoolchildren: much is the presence in the school of the obligation and in that of the differential, a few in high school." Among the countries of the European Union we are the most represented and to Wolfsburg in Low Saxony in the Volkswagen factory the Italians represent the greatest number of foreign workers. In Berlin, however, we find with the research of Minutilli a more youthful presence with diplomas and degrees in search of cultural experiences, artistic work and of life in general without the pressure of economic needs that have characterized other migratory groups.

In this attractive international metropolis in full development our compatriots have opened several autonomous activities above all in the clothing trade and restaurant industry which alone employs 59% of them. In Berlin there are over 12,600 Italians, around 800 restaurant-pizzerias and there are also many ice cream parlors. A waiter comes to earn about 2,000 Euros per month, including tips, working in a premise of good level.

To be continued: The Half-Century (3)

Translation from Italian to English: Miriam Medina

To contact: miriammedina@earthlink.net or miriam@thehistorybox.com
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Thoughts of an Italian Writer: Article #2

Dr. Antonio Castaldo, Sociologist and Journalist, Brusciano, Italy

"The Half-Century Italian Emigration in Germany. Recollections of a Gastarbeiter "Working Guest." (1)

In the late '70s, with the self-confidence of my twenties, I launched myself onto the circuit to discover Europe's emigration to Germany. For two years I lived the special condition of the migrant people in the multicultural of Italians, Turks, Greeks, Yugoslavs, Kurds, Pakistanis and others. I remember a substantial amount of Italians from Sicily and Sardinia, some Neapolitans and rare northerners.

Each one of us was a Gastarbeiter, guest worker, in the productive panorama of the industries, construction sites and services, provider of arms and sweat that was feeding the unrestrainable boom in Germany ,who came out destroyed from World War II, but was reflecting its revenge with a safe revenge in terms of social, economic and cultural competitiveness with other rich nations in the race for supremacy of the society of well-being.

The indelible images of my short but intense migratory experience, among many others, of those living in Wolfsburg, the city of the Volkswagen on the Mittelland Kanal and of the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the building whose first stone for the foundation was laid on May 26th, 1938.

In 1934 Hitler and the Austrian Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951) met for the first time. The German dictator illustrated the necessity of a "machine for the people" according to specific conditions. Quite soon the prototype was presented with the required characteristics: speed of 100 km/h, consumption of 7 km with one liter of gasoline, air-cooled engine, robustness and reliability, transport capacity for 2 adults and 3 children, and for the military event, 3 soldiers and a machine gun. The cost of less than 1,000 Reichsmark, the profit of 5 monthly salaries of a skilled worker reflected the demands of Hitler.

Success was immediate and exceeded even the war to become a symbol of the German economic rebirth together with the largest factory in the world the Volkswagenwerk. The attention of Disney, in 1969, helped make it a cultural phenomenon through film production.

The assembly line on which I worked for just over a year no longer produced the Beetle whose assemblage had been moved to the factory in Mexico, while the Queen had become the Golf. I remember how I worked very hard behind the colored carcasses alternating with a Turkish guy while a Neapolitan sang "O sole mio" and the German workers with the pride of participating in a common national enterprise without distinction of roles and responsibilities, while feelings of nostalgia for family and friends in Italy was growing inside of me.

The production of Käfer, ceased in 2003, showing a total sales count in the record of 22,000,000 models placed on the world market. This figure was surpassed by the Golf model.

To be continued: The Half-Century Italian Emigration in Germany. (2)
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Translation from Italian into English by Miriam Medina
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To contact: miriammedina@earthlink.net or miriam@thehistorybox.com
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