Programme Erasmus + Europe on the move : Migration Biographies Essays-Biographies
" Human beings , wherever they are , when they see in the distance , wrapped in mist , the port they are heading towards , they understand what it means to be a foreigner .“
Banana Yoshimoto
PROJECT OF CITIZENSHIP CONSTITUTION : Why treat the issue of migration ?
The goal is to make a comparison between the current migrations and the migrations of the past centuries , of which the Italians have been protagonists . Our aim is to bring young people closer to a phenomenon not fully known . Sometimes it is the past that gives us the tools to better understand the present , to grasp what is happening in the light of what has already happened , to give a new meaning to events , to be fully evaluated .
Migrants ( today as yesterday ) are people who leave all their certainties to undertake an often risky journey into the unknown : Why do they do it ? Is it right to welcome them ? What does it mean to be a " foreigner "?
It is important to ask ourselves about this phenomenon beyond the prejudices because we cannot say that the migrants ' drama does not concern us : we were migrants too .
Italy , city of emigrants …
FIRST PHASE OF THE " GREAT MIGRATION " ( 1876-1914 )
Around 7 milion Italian people leave their country . This is mostly an individual migration : individuals , mainly men , leave their families to move to France , Germany , Argentina , Brasil and the USA . The USA welcomes 45 % of migrants .
SECOND PHASE ( 1918-1940 )
The migration wave decreases in many countries . Laws are passed limiting the entry of migrants . Closure of borders
THIRD PHASE ( 1945- 70 ’ s )
Milions of Italian people are heading especially to rich European countries like France , Belgium and Switzerland . It ’ s a migration that helps Italy in the year of the Reconstruction and ends with the crisis of the oil shock and with the changes of the industrial setting .
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