Directors: Andrea Segré, Dagmawi Yimer, Italy 2008, 60 min.
Dag used to study Law in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. Prompted by the strong political repression he had to face in Ethiopia, he decides to leave the country. Giving voice to the Ethiopian refugees living in Rome, the film provides a direct insight into the brutal ways in which Libya, aided also by Italian and European funds, is operating to control the immigration movements of people from Africa. It is a journey of pain and dignity, through which Dagmawi Yimer voices his memories of unthinkable human suffering to denounce what appears to be a tragic political and humanitarian situation. In this respect both Italy and Europe share responsibilities for this situation and should be made accountable for it.
Director: Luigi Perelli, Italy 1968, 32 min., it. oF
The film describes the drama of the exile of millions of Italians and their conditions of living and working in North Europe.
Director: Hans Andreas Guttner, Germany 1981, 110 min.
dt. oF mit it. U
The everyday life of an extended Italian family, which decided to stay in Germany after several home comings to Italy. The movie depicts the changes of the traditional Italian way of life of the family caused by confrontations with the German society.
Director: Werner Schroeter, Germany 1980, 177 min.
A young Sicilian men emigrates to Wolfsburg to find work at Volkswagen Factory; he is confronted with exploitation, loneliness and incomprehension.
Director: Franco Brusati, Italy 1973, 115 min., it. oF
In the desperate attempt to solve his financial problems Nini Garofano emigrates to Switzerland. But the stay and the work permit are inseparably affiliated with each other. Although Nino is keen to integrate into the exclusive Swiss reality, he gets inescapably into conflict with the state.
Director: Thomas Ciulei, Romania 2008,87 min.
A father lives with his son and two daughters on a farm in Moldova, which has no running water or automated machinery. They have to do all the work in the fields and garden, and also tend to their animals by themselves. They have to cope with housework as well, and the children somehow have to find time for the school they regularly attend over the hill. Their mother lives faraway in Italy, where she is earning money for the family. This poetic film about the everyday life of humble people with a very low standard of living, who experience feelings of happiness and sadness with temperance, portrays a world in which man is in harmony with nature. Nevertheless, the closeness between the family's individual members is stronger here than it is elsewhere, which helps partially compensate for the absence of their mother. This documentary has won several awards at international festival.
Director: Piero Nelli, Italy 1967, 16 min., it. oF
The total impoverishment of the rural population in Sicily in the 60s and the almost medieval conditions of living force particularly the young men to emigrate. The ancients and invalids, the women and children stay back in the desolate villages.
Director: Fatih Akin, Germany 2002, 124 min., dt./it. oF mit it. U
In the sixties Romano Amato, his wife Rosa and their two sons Giancarlo and Gigi emigrate from Solino in Italy to Duisburg in the Ruhr area and establish the first Pizza restaurant in town. Their business emerges well and both children get used to Germany. 10 years later the brothers fall in love with the same woman; they break tie with each other in anger and Gigi returns to Solino with his mother. A decade later both meet again and have a retrospect on their lives.
Director: Ettore Scola, Italy 1973, 101 min.
A young worker emigrates from the south (Trevico) to Turin to work at Fiat. There he realizes that the working migrants from the south were discriminated.
Director : Bruno Ulmer, France 2006, 90 min.
A haunting documentary that depicts the portrait of ten young immigrants, accompanied by Bruno Ulmer throughout several months in different European countries. Arriving from Romania, Morocco, Turkey, they were pushed by the hope for a better life. But in longed for Europe they find themselves struggling for bare survival, without documents and working permits, discovering soon that no place is left for illusions. While portraying the intimate, daily struggle to conserve their dignity in a merciless environment, the film reflects the bitter outgrowths of the Schengen agreement and the contradictions of wealthy Europe.
Aragall, X.: Migration in the Mediterranean, 2010
The 12th ISMU Report on Immigration in Italy, 2007
Campani, G.: Migration and Integration in Italy, 2007
D'Orsi, L.: The "Pacchetto Sicurezza" and the Process of Ethnogenesis, 2010
Schmelz, A.: (Post)Colonial Remembrance(Policy) in European Societies, 2009
Wisthaler, V.: The paradox immigration puts traditional minorities in, 2008
Human Rights Conventions Overview
Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, 2005
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and fundamental Freedoms, 1950
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, 1994
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965