MIGRANT JOBSEEKERS NEED TO TRY FIVE TIMES HARDER (Europe)

A migrant worker in Europe has to make up to five times more applications than a local resident before getting a job offer, an International Labour Organization expert said Wednesday.

A migrant worker in Europe has to make up to five times more applications than a local resident before getting a job offer, an International Labour Organization expert said Wednesday. "A person with an immigrant origin or appearance has to apply four or five as many times to get one positive response in any stage of the application process," said Patrick Taran, a migration expert at the ILO, quoting findings from a survey across 10 European countries. Underlining that there is a "surprisingly high and generalised level of discrimination" against migrant workers in the countries examined, the expert said that the phenomenon also posed a "serious threat for social cohesion." He called on countries to put in place independent anti-discrimination watchdogs which could give advice to or help defend victims against such abuses. Such institutions, coupled with firm legislation could help to improve the lot of migrant workers, he added. "There is a fundamental policy interest" for greater protection of migrant workers, Taran argued. Discrimination can push migrant workers towards the informal economy, where they would not contribute to the state through taxes or other social contributions, he pointed out. The ILO report is based on real experiences of resident and migrant job seekers in France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark.

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Is Italy’s Xenophobia Creating Slave Workers for the Mafia?

The recent rioting caused by African immigrants in the picturesque town of Rosarno, Italy has brought to light a disturbing fact of how organised crime within the country is still extremely widespread.

The riots broke out after it now appears three local residents shot a number of the legal immigrants with pellet guns.

Immigrants who arrive in Italy find themselves ending up trapped in a system where they work 10 – 14 hours a day for around $3 an hour. They live in improvised shelters of shacks or tents without any of the modern appliances or basic human resources we take for granted. They have no right to health care and support service’s/organisations to aid them are extremely scarce, non-white police are never seen and therefore many immigrants do not report any form of crime they fall victim to and often people go missing and are believed to be killed.

So these people become prime picking's for the organised crime gangs within the country as a slave labour force. And you can understand why. They receive a higher rate of pay, better living conditions and apparently better treatment from such gangs than the Italian government or officials give them.

Incidentally Italy’s parliament has only one non-white person representative

Still the Rosarno riots highlight the fact that this is a very volatile situation and at any moment more civil unrest can occur and that racism seem to be very much ingrained into the Italian governmental system which is obviously torn between acceptance of the immigrants and very xenophobic stance.

Many countries have now addressed these concerns to Italy. But as of yet Italy seems reluctant to really fully deal with the situation and until they do we should expect more of such incidents.

Resources

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1953619,00.html?xid=rss-world

 

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=336963&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21

Race Riots Grip Italian Town

Over the past weekend extreme race riots have erupted in the working-class city of Rosarno, Italy which included cars being burned, shops being damaged and more than 70 people, including 30 immigrants, 19 policemen and 17 Italians were injured.

Due to these riots the local authorities put more than a thousand African workers aboard trains and buses and shipped them to immigrant detention centres following the worst riots the country has seen in years.

It is believed that the riot was started following what the workers believed to be racist attack on a 2 legal immigrant worker with a pellet-guns by locals. Authorities are unsure who pulled the trigger but they are investigating the theory that organised crime may have been linked to the incident.

For more to this story please click the link below

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