The Culture of Multicultural Integration: Tertiary Organisations' Role in Immigrants' Reception in Sicily

4 INTRODUCTION In the last decades and – above all – in the last months, Italian and European political debates deal with the issue of clandestine immigration. The growing figures of arrivals in the Sicilian shores, the so called ‘emergence’ faced by the Italian state regarding this wave of migration from the Mediterranean countries, the apparent closed-doors of the other European countries – reluctant in plunging in the management of this issue – all these issues represent only a snapshot of the whole situation. Disorders in North and Sub- Saharan Africa, conflicts in Middle East with other various reasons, they all fostered immigration from the MENA (and Sub-Saharan) area to the Italian – and therefore the European – shores. Reactions have been many and diversified: claims of closing borders, proposals for migrants’ offshore ‘processing centres’, growth in aid and trade with countries of emigration in order to spur the economic development, information campaigns aimed at informing migrants of the condition faced by their predecessors in the path towards EU 1 . These proposals have been accompanied by a growth in the far- right political parties, especially in the Mediterranean EU members states (Lega Nord in Italy, Front National in France, and others), but also in other parts of EU. Both European and national laws have been questioned, in order to search a solution for the reception of immigrants and, in some cases, also for their repatriation. Two operations patrolled the Mediterranean Sea and the Sicilian Canal in the last years, catching – and saving – many lives of ‘boat immigrants’ in search of the ‘European El Dorado’ 2 . The Italian government found itself in difficulties in managing these flows of immigrants. Historically, Italy adopted an ‘emergency approach’ 3 , underestimating the actual value of the migration phenomenon. The group of actors involved in the reception process is wider, and goes beyond the only political ones: there are many groups, associations, cooperatives, NGOs working – hopefully – for ensuring better conditions to immigrants. In Italy the relevance of the (immigration) issue appears widely accepted, and this fostered the growth of this kind of actors. Nevertheless, this does not ensure a growth in the level of multiculturalism 1 H. DE HAAS, The Myth of Invasion: the inconvenient realities of African migration to Europe, Third World Quarterly, 29:7, 2008, pp. 1306 and 1313 2 Idem, p.1305 3 M.T. CONSOLI, Migration Phenomenon in Sicily, Catania, Laposs, 2006