22 January - G2 presentation

On Saturday evening two representatives, Ezequiel Iurcovich and Alphius Militant, from G2 came to talk to us about their mission. Both of the men are Italian immigrants. Ezequiel was born in Argentina and moved to Italy when he was 3 years old with his family. Alphius is from South Africa. Both men recently gained Italian citizenship.

G2 stands for second generation and was founded in 2005. “Second generation” is referring to second generation immigrants – immigrants whose parents came to Italy and had a child or brought a child with them. G2's main goal is to change immigration laws and accomplish cultural reform. Currently under Italian law it is very difficult to gain citizenship.

A few examples of how difficult it is to gain residency include:

• living in Italy for 10 years before applicable to apply for residency
• If a child moves to Italy at a very young age or is born in Italy to immigrant parents, they must wait until they are 18 to apply for citizenship and even then it is a good chance they will get denied – if the individual is denied the Italian government negotiates with the government of the individuals home country to set up a way for the individual to move back to their country of origin
• The individual applying for citizenship at age 18 must have lived in Italy for 18 consecutive years without any 'black holes' or missing documents of residency
• Immigrants can obtain citizenship by marrying an Italian
• Citizenship is automatically given to anyone born to Italian parent regardless of where they are born
  
  
  

Immigrants who are living in Italy but are not applicable to apply for citizenship are banned from working in most of the public sector. Public sector jobs include bus drivers, lawyers, doctors and so on. In Italy the public sector is much larger than in America and many of the high paying jobs in Italy are public jobs. Because of this factor, many immigrant workers are forced to work in low wage jobs in restaurants and the like. This is one aspect contributing to the growing inequality gap in Italy between immigrants and Italians. Another issue involving immigrants and the workforce is if ones job is lost. If you are an immigrant in Italy and you lose your job you have 6 months to find a new one or you lose legal residency status.

G2 is working towards cultural reform and acceptance of immigrants and non-Italy born citizens. The people of G2 are proud Italians who are tired of being seen as “the other.” Ezequiel, who came to Italy when he was 3 years old, has a last name that is obviously Eastern European. When he meets people he says they often make a comment about how good his Italian is. Many are surprised that a 'foreigner' can speak Italian so fluently and with a Roman accent. Ezequiel also said that in elementary school he was one of the only immigrant children, now days, that is very different. He says from what he has observed, there are many more immigrant students.

G2 has come a very long way in a very short time – only 5 years. They have made a booklet of information and a short graphic pamphlet about who “real Italians” are. The face of Italy is many different colors, shapes and sizes. Italy's 15^th brithday is in March and G2 hopes to see a “New Italy.”