“A day without us”: The first immigrant labor strike in Milan, Italy

Abstract

In March 1st 2010, an all-embracing mobilization took place all over Italy. It was the “immigrant labor strike”, which aimed at driving people’s attention to the xenophobic policy reinforced in Italy. In addition, it also claimed for the recognition of some rights that were denied to the foreigners arriving in the country. This was one of the most interesting moments to realize the categories at stake in the foreigners’ quest for recognition in Italy. It was a day full of protests.

The current photo essay depicts different moments of this event in the Italian city of Milan, from the participants’ gathering to the instant they went to the streets. It aims to highlight the intense migratory flow and the mobilization strategies used by several immigrant groups in the city.

Italy has presented policies that assert its intolerant position and it shows itself refractory to diverse and alien elements that generate tension with and among the immigrants in the daily life of the city. In terms of public policies, there is the trend to protect the essentially Italian society. Sometimes there is the denial, sometimes the reappropriation of categories that seem to threaten this society. Foreigner and non-EU people are definitions that, generally speaking, identify the immigrants. Nonetheless, other definitions emerge in social situations in which the immigrant appears as “different”, “alien”, “exotic”, “other”. Race and ethnicity, for instance, are speech-incorporated categories spelled out in the mobilization held in March 1rst. The criticism to the immigrant criminalization was one of the main flags raised by the protesters. Tensions and conflicts were intensified simultaneously to the accommodation, integration and to the participation in workplaces and social life environments. Thus, the current photo assay aims to value the images of these events, since they enable the mapping of the organized immigrant groups' political actions and allow a different reading of the social dynamics.

The city landscape was covered in yellow - the color adopted by the mobilization – and it contrasted with the grey color in the buildings and Milanese monuments and with the vibrating blue sky at sunset. The participants organized themselves in groups that coordinated the mobilization. The leading groups were trade unions, political parties opposed to Silvio Berlusconi government and Italian supporters who showed their solidarity to the immigrants cause. Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Moroccans, Algerians, Pakistanis, and others, whose representation was more disperse, were organized in flanks.

Despite the fact that the commercial standstill and the lack of immigrant-performed activities were not noticed during the day, the evening was marked by a march. It began in Piazza del Duomo - in the heart of the city -, went through the main downtown streets, and ended up in a stage set up in front of Sforzesco Castle, another icon in Milan. Statements, music and passionate speeches marked the event. The posters, the speeches and the march’s spatial distribution urged me to identify the categories engaged in the immigrants’ mobilization. At night, the flaming torches carried by the participants would gather to the yellow from the bands, balls and posters. The slogan of the first strike of migrants stated that "Italy can not exist without us" - "Non più c'è Italia senza di noi".

Credits:

Authors: Vânia Fialho (UPE-PPGA/UFPE)

Photographs: Vânia Fialho (UPE-PPGA/UFPE)

Direction and text: Vânia Fialho (UPE-PPGA/UFPE)

Image editing: Açony Santos & Tiane Souza