Riace migrant project provides hope
Calabrian town offers training and jobs to foreigners
ANSA (Italy), April 1, 2009

Riace, Italy (ANSA) -- A tiny seaside town in southern Italy is bucking the usual trend of hostility towards foreign newcomers and has welcomed dozens of immigrants with open arms. Riace, commonly associated with the 1972 discovery of two ancient bronze statues off its coast, has implemented a successful integration project that is now being exported to other areas. Funded by the Calabrian regional government, the project provides housing, training and jobs to immigrants, who are now working alongside the town's younger inhabitants engaged in apprenticeships. ''The people who have settled here have become a real resource, and the townspeople are well aware of this,'' said Riace Mayor Mimmo Lucano. ''They are a far greater resource than the Riace bronze statues, which to be honest, we hear have never even seen. ''The arrival of these newcomers has created a virtuous circle that has helped kick-start local development''.

As a result of the project, a whole series of tiny crafts workshops have opened in Riace's network of narrow streets, helping preserve ancient craft traditions. The workshops, specializing in glass, pottery and fabric are run by foreigners, such as 40-year-old Issa. Issa, who had to leave his wife and four children behind when he fled Afghanistan, has made a new life for himself in Riace, where he has lived for eight years. He creates plates, vases and other pottery pieces, which sell well at a nearby fair-trade outlet, speaks fluent Italian and has learned how to swim - despite only seeing the sea for the first time during his crossing from Turkey to Italy. A number of cooperatives have also opened, where Eritrean and Somali women work together making carpets, cushions, lamps and other traditional local products.

The new arrivals have been given homes in a number of empty buildings in the historic centre. Abandoned years ago as Riace's younger residents steadily emigrated abroad in search of work and excitement, these have now been recovered and have restored life to the heart of the town. According to Lucano, the town's project has proved so successful that the Calabrian government is now working on a regional law that could help inject fresh life into dwindling towns throughout the south. But most importantly, he said, the model is proof that prejudice is not inevitable, as the foreigners have been welcomed with open arms by Riace's 400 native inhabitants and are now fully integrated into the town's everyday life. ''Riace is proof that 'fear of the other' is nothing more than propaganda, which is usually twisted for political purposes,'' the mayor said. ''Prejudice only arises from a lack of understanding. The important thing is for people to get to know one another gradually and with attention to numbers - for example our newcomers are always in proportion to the existing inhabitants. In such circumstances, we have shown that prejudice fades into nothing, even in poor areas such as ours,'' he concluded.