Class 5: Introduction to Italy and Immigration

Today was an extremely informative day. We started the class session checking in with Manka, and sharing our travel experiences to Florence. Seemed as though everyone who traveled had an amazing time in Florence and are ready to be back at our home away from home, Rome.

We continued the class session with a learning method called KW(L): What do you know about immigrants and immigration in the US and Italy?, What do you want to know about immigration in Italy?, and what have you learned about immigration after the interactive lecure? Based on the essays that we read for today, "Law, immigration and exclusion in Italy and Spain" by Kitty Calavita and "Age of Migration" we all knew some information about immigration and immigration in Italy. We joined groups and answered the KW section of the questions. Following, Manka presented a lecture that informed us of Immigration as a Global Phenomenon, Immigration and Migration, Immigration in the US, and Immigration in Italy. This gave us a great backbone structure for the basis of our learning experience both in class and in our internships for the remainder of the quarter. For me, I was most interested in learning about migration, interdependence, and transnationalism and how all of these concepts influence national identity and the social, economic, political structures of every country. I want to learn more about the construction of "Otherness" and how the workforce and  immigration laws of a country leads to integration and exclusion of immigrants which in turn influences racial and ethnic ideologies.  After the lecture, we all complete the L component of the questions in which we wrote down what we had learned from the lecture. For example, I learned the importance of understanding transnational ties to in order to understand  immigration in one country, and I learned that Italy's national identity is tied to their particular "Ethnic Model" making acceptance of immigration and immigrants more difficult. During lecture Manka said, "Italy is in its' youth in terms of immigration" which was a great metaphor to understand immigration in Italy compared to the immigration in the US.

We have a very busy schedule this week and we will hopefully all begin our internships. Tonight, we are all headed to Manka's for a delicious home cooked meal. See you all there! Ciao, Ciao!