Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Cologne (Agenzia Fides) - "I have been in Cologne for sixteen years now, as parish priest for the immigrant Italian community. In the city, here in Cologne, there are about twenty thousand Italians and in the mission area about thirty five thousand. The phenomenon of the Italian community, of Italian immigration in Germany, in Italy is little known. Very few know of the existence of a flow of continual migration between Germany and southern Italy. An estimated 50,000 people come and go between Germany and Italy, according to economic circumstances, or situations of crisis in various countries.
I think the phenomenon is due to underdevelopment in southern Italy but also to the presence of the Mafia, which rules whole regions in the south. This immigration, being so mobile, has great difficulty in settling in Germany. One of the difficulties for insertion is school, and this is something the Germans realise: the German education system selects early, after only four years of school, the curriculum is chosen. In this field the Italian mission, later also the archdiocese and now the local community have invested considerable efforts, thanks to which today the city has an Italian School seen as an important element for community integration. There is a danger in fact that integration of the Italian community in Germany takes place only in the lower social strata. This happens all over the world where people from poor countries emigrate to richer nations.
Europe receives masses of immigrants from Africa, the East, Latin America; in this picture the migratory phenomenon between Italy and Germany has a special place. However while Italy also receives many foreign citizens, said to be several million, at the same time Italians continue to emigrate. Many come here to Germany, and they need assistance: whereas in Italy one hears about Italians all over the world promoting 'made in Italy' , here we have an Italian community in need of assistance.
The Italian Catholic Mission from the beginning focused on instruction and provided evening courses for Italian newcomers. Most new arrivals had no school diploma and a community to develop needs an elite, and this can only be created with education. As I said, instruction is a problem for the Italian community because, strange as it may seem, of all the foreign communities here in Germany, the Italians are the ones who have less success at school.
This tells us that immigration in Europe is not only a social problem, it is also, and indeed basically, a problem of culture, of identity. Therefore the schooling element is fundamental, and perhaps those who have no migratory experience fail to understand what it means to live in a place where the language is not your own. Even children born here who speak German better than they speak Italian, at home hear the family speaking dialect. rather than bi-lingual, they risk growing up bi-illiterate. This situation is a major concern for the Italian community and for the Catholic Mission here." (From Cologne, Luca de Mata) (Agenzia Fides 22/12/2008)
