Romanians in Italy- a complex world. Without doubt, a numerous community and too little aware of the power it would represent, through number and through the capacity it could have to influence things. It is certain that in Italy this political issue exists, an aspect through which one can actually influence decisions and from this point of view the Romanians are inexistent, although they are over one million of persons with legal documents who work and pay taxes; they have truly let themselves fooled, the Italian authorities haven’t sent them the necessary information so after the last elections I believe that in the whole Italy we only have one member of a council, which is incredible, because there should have been a few dozens and they would have influenced the change of policies at a local administrative level.

 And Italian politicians are pretty cynical themselves. From their point of view, if someone doesn’t bring them votes, that person doesn’t count; and as in this respect the Romanians aren’t organized, the one million Romanians living there “do not present any interest”- this on one hand. On the other hand, with respect to the environment of associations, I have heard more than once representatives of associations in Roma saying that they feel as if they were in Romania at the beginning of the nineties, meaning that they have just opened their eyes in a new world, some of them have good intentions, they would like to do something, they lack the knowledge and, beyond all doubt, it is very difficult to do everything on a volunteering basis.

There are over 150 thousands of mixed families in Italy and I have met some of them, some are even very much aware of the issues the Romanians have to deal with. I was impressed to see that lawyers from mixed families devote their time to solving this kind of issues, especially those concerning employment and residence and this doesn’t bring them any profit, it is more of a voluntary activity, but they have engaged in it because they were confronted with this  kind of problems themselves.

I believe that even at the Romanian authorities’ level there should appear a change in the way they relate to the environment of associations in Italy. In a place where you have one million people it is unrealistic to believe that only one organization can represent all of them. Accordingly, I believe that diversity should be encouraged and the union of these associations should be made only punctually, on projects, some for the benefit of everybody and some just for the benefit of one or more communities.   

 The change of Romania’s image can not be done only through cultural promotion, through music, dance, fashion shows and this kind of things, because Italians see also another reality, for example that of the meeting place of the Romanians in Roma, Anagnina. I think it was one of the most traumatizing experiences I have ever had, I have never believed that some people who had left Romania in search of their luck and of opportunities in another country could become so brutalized.

The place and what is happening there are both sordid. It’s something that you wouldn’t see anywhere in Romania, not only because the people wouldn’t behave in such a way, but also because there would exist authorities to intervene. From this point of view Italians as authorities have a totally neglecting attitude. They really don’t care. The police crews were standing beside, of course nobody was intervening, I understood that they were present just in case altercations occurred.

This so-called meeting place of Romanians is, practically, a big, horrible, dirty parking lot, dirty from all points of view, in which at the entrance- let’s call it that way- you are greeted by the seed sellers (the husks of which are, of course, spat on the ground).

Next is a mixture of small tubs ( for washing children) and  basins full of ice for keeping the beer cold, and, eventually, some refreshments that are all desperately consumed at some long wooden tables with wooden benches where our conationals sit crammed like sardines. They simply sit and drink. Meanwhile the music (manele) is screaming from the music players.

Right behind, three meters away, somebody was grilling meat and less than another three meters from this place there were some sordid toilets and behind the toilets, again two-three meters distant, a sort of open air barber’s with four barbers who were cutting the hair of some young men, there was hair everywhere and people having fun- it was a bewildering scene.

Though I have lived in different towns in Romania, I have never seen something like this back home, not even in my childhood and I can’t realize where is this custom they practice there taken from. And let’s not make the Roma people the eternal scapegoats, because the only Roma person there, was the seed seller.

The place gives the impression of rather shady affairs happening there. It is true that this is the place from where minibuses transporting parcels back to Romania leave- and this activity takes place in a sordid way, there is no sort of image of cleanliness or rule whatsoever there. Also, it is the place from where buses leave to different cities in Romania.

It seems that someone makes profit out of this situation, it seems that even a license was given to the transporters - I don’t know if they are Romanians or Italians, but it is sure that there is an interest for things not to change there. Still, I repeat: whoever passes through that place, if that is the image they form about Romania, one can dance calusarii (a Romanian folk dance) or even Swan Lake in Rome but the image of our country won’t be changed.

And to make complete the image of this place the size of half of a football stadium, I must say that there was even a Pentecostal group (I think), that was holding the religious service, with a choir that was singing religious songs, everything, I repeat, literally two steps away from the tables with beer, the little tubs filled with beer to get cold, the grilled meat next to the toilet and the hair from the open air barber’s. Absolutely horrible! I have talked to Romanians who wanted to meet there with other Romanians but their first experience there was also the last.

I saw after that the meeting place of the Ukrainians and, by comparison, I want to say that I had a true cultural shock, because at the Ukrainians I saw cleanliness, order, discipline. At the Ukrainians’ place I saw a logical approach of the whole community that met there. At the entrance you were received by the police gendarmes, who were not treating you bad or asking you to prove your identity, but they were taking care that everything happening there was in the right order.

Besides, the meeting place of the Ukrainians is also on the outskirts of Rome, but in a much more coquettish and prettier area- Rebibbia (though nearby is one of the most well-known prisons).

Everything there is in order, you have the line of the people looking for a job, but also panels with prints of the possible jobs that can be found, you have very, very many market stalls, small booths full of Ukrainian magazines and books. I saw women who were exchanging books.

Probably they don’t have very much money to buy them, so someone reads a book and then exchanges it with another conational. But they were buying magazines and I even saw them talking about how they will exchange them also. There were Ukrainian magazines, not even so old, they were from the current week. The minibuses that carry their parcels were also aligned in a perfect order, because, evidently, they also send home different things.

They were also selling products made by them, but everything happened in a hygienic space, everything was wrapped, not like I saw at our meeting place. Not to mention that in the same place there were also some kind of tourist agencies giving the possibility to buy plane tickets- because they don’t have buses to travel home, they usually go by plane. But they were offering other trips also, not only for Ukrainians, but for everybody else, including trips to Paris or to other places, by bus. So you can’t not wonder how come the Ukrainian community has organized itself in such a civilized way while at our place it is an inconceivable situation. Even if we thought that at home there are also many persons damaging the nature when they celebrate the 1st of May with beer and grilled meat, there is still no comparison with what I saw there. And this goes on every Sunday.

Also by comparison, I want to say that I saw the Roma people camp, it is true, legal, on the outskirts of Rome. And I want to say that the Roma people I saw there can give lessons, because that camp was very clean.

Of course, it was obvious that it is a poor community, there were lots of children, they were sleeping crammed full in trailers, but everything was clean: clean in the trailers (they let me go in some of them), and clean outside  them.

I haven’t heard the music (manele) screaming like I heard at the so-called meeting place of the Romanians. Some of the Romanians meeting at Anagnina are working, others are unemployed- but that is not the place to go and pick people for employing. As it was at the Ukrainians, where you knew you could go and find people to employ- either for taking care of an old person or baby-sitting or some other kind of activities.

At Anagnina that would have been impossible, I wouldn’t have picked anybody- no offence!- because everybody was drinking from 10 o’clock in the morning, so how could you trust them? Meanwhile, in the Roma camp we have visited, Italians come to employ them.

I found out that they are paying them 20 euros per day for the jobs they do- cleaning in schools, cooking, men were also doing all kinds of carting, unloading and transporting activities, but- I repeat- in the Roma camp there was even a bit of too much restriction imposed by the owner of that place.

But not everything was gloomy in this visit. There were also aspects that surprised me in a pleasant way: the talks I had with the organizations I met there- practically there were 5-6 organizations that invited me to Rome, and all these places I have talked about we visited together, at their suggestion. And I want to say that Italians, some of them with a economical situation above average, having mixed marriages, were involved, they wanted to change something- because they have Romanian husbands or wives, or children from mixed marriages and they suffer when it is said that the image of Romanians is given by that meeting place.

What I liked was the existence of a very clear intention to change something there- for example from the Dacia Felix organization. Concretely, the intention to offer some other place for meeting or to enter and build something different there. To destroy is easy. They want to rebuild. Everybody is aware of the need for the Romanians to meet- evidently not one hundred thousand Romanians in Rome at once. But one wants to find out what’s happening back home, to hear others speaking in Romanian or to ask for a piece of advice- the problem is that a decent leaving and dignified Romanian won’t go to that place.

The intention of this organization, supported by others also, is to discuss with local authorities from Rome, so that the later either puts at disposal another place or enters that place and reconsiders the way things are happening there. Evidently, the authorities in Rome can’t and shouldn’t organize something, they can, at the most, put a place at disposal. It is clearly all about the intervention of the Romanians. Instead of so many boxes with drinks, maybe it would be normal to have also some magazines from back home, some books in Romanian, to have some information about what work in Italy means, about the rights one has there, the changes that might intervene, so for the people to be informed. Instead of a brutalizing area, it could be an informing area, appropriate for spending a couple of pleasant hours “between your people”.

I have passed through very many places and I was being told, look, I’m sure there are more Romanians “living” in the bushes there. And we’re not talking about Roma people, because we, in Romania, have got used to cast everything on Roma people’s shoulders. It is not true. The Roma people are better organized, even in those camps. The Romanians were the ones living under the bridges for months and years.

And again, I appreciated this desire of associations to take a place and transform it in a living place, some kind of shelter where people could live more decently. Of course, their contribution would consist inclusively in the fact that they would work to arrange these places, which seems natural to me. But you can’t say you went abroad to find a better life while you are sleeping under the bridges and in bushes. This is not a solution! So I think that some help should come from the country also, it is an absurdity to think that if they go to Italian businessmen they would contribute to support such projects, I don’t think they will do this because they are not interested.

And if we talk about support from Romania, I think it could come from the authorities’ level, from the business area, from NGOs also, because- I repeat- after all we are talking about one million people who are working legally and there are probably some hundred thousands staying without documents there, and some of them could make their situation legal, they just need a little help.We are talking about very many people- there are countries that have this population.

So it is a very complex situation, I have decided to go back to Rome and try, and meanwhile see how could be made progress in all these projects the Romanian organizations have there. I repeat, there are many things to be done: from a constant support consisting of a minimum logistic assistance for these associations in Rome, to the support of the project about founding a shelter for the people that haven’t managed to stabilize their financial and living situation in Rome or support for another project very important to them- the construction of a Romanian Orthodox church. Because for a population of one hundred thousand Romanians there isn’t actually, any church there. There are some places, at the basement, where one or two religious services are officiated, but it is inadmissible not to have a church as long as the community itself would like to contribute with both money and man power.

There are also some very laudable intentions about what can be done for the children not to forget Romanian language because they study in Italian at school and they face the risk of talking, at some point, a sort of Romanian- Italian mixture, but the parents really want their children to know Romanian literature, Romanian geography, so they thought about organizing some contests.  

In conclusion there are many ideas, but somehow I think that their priority is to change something about the meeting place of Romanians from Anagnina, because the Romanians in Rome feel it as a slap on their face and I sincerely confess I have felt it in the same way.