Immigration in Italy

Todd: Hey, Yuri, I thought we would talk a little bit about immigration because you're from Italy, and I'm from the U.S. and both of our countries have issues with immigration. Can you talk a little bit about the immigration issues now in Italy?

Yuri: Yes, immigration in Italy is a recent problem because until maybe the 80's the population was mostly Italian. Later we got a lot of people from Africa and from Eastern Europe, and people started getting a bit dodgy with that.

Todd: Right, so people were't happy that non-Italians were coming into the country basically?

Yuri: Right, some people think that it is bad for the economy, and some people think it's bad for Italy itself.

Todd: For the culture?

Yuri: For the culture itself.

Todd: So basically you said people came in you said to the economy for jobs to do … ? Were they coming in to do jobs that Italians didn't want to do?

Yuri: Basically we have two different kinds of immigration. Lately, a lot of people, they are from country with the war problems, so they try to come into Italy with boats. They are illegal. So, and what people think is that they shouldn't even try to come in.

Todd: Right.

Yuri: Other people think that, as Italian we are a real population. We immigrate all over the planet. Everybody should be welcome and get the favor back.

Todd: Right, so basically, the population in Italy is divided. Some people are for the immigration and some are against.

Yuri: Exactly, yes.

Todd: What are your feeling about immigration?

Yuri: Well, I myself have lived in different foreign countries. I always been welcomed. I never had problems with it, and I think that if people, they come to Italy, they're honest people, they want to work, please. No problem at all.

Todd: Is the Italian government trying to do anything to stop immigration or slow immigration, or are they trying to encourage it?

Yuri: It depends what government goes. Sometimes if it's a left government, they try to help. The right one, they try to stop.

Todd: So if somebody is caught trying to come into Italy on say a boat, are they expelled from the country?

Yuri: No, they get to refugees camps, and then since they are usually smart they come without papers, they are very difficult to track down, and they try to help them at the police. They don't beat them up or anything. No violence. The problem is the people that actually bring them in, they make a lot of money on them. That's the bigger problem. Also, they are connected with the mafia as well.

Todd: Yeah, the smuggling. The human traffickers. Yeah, the U.S. has the same problem. Anyway, thanks a lot. It sounds like it's very similar to the U.S.