Immigrants/Locals Tension as a manifestation of tension in appropriation of Space

2 Case Studies

A research group called ‘fuzzy places’ comprising of anthropologists and cognitive psychologist established in University of Verona are now studying how the appropriation and perception of space can result in tension by different groups. They took an approach which sees space composed of both socially constructed perceptions and well as physical reality. The anthropologists looked primarily on the use of physical space by individual space (itineraries, crossing, visiting, waiting, avoidance behavior) by individuals and social categories; the ‘habitus (learned practices of the physical and cultural environment) of the social actors; and collective and individual representation of space. The psychologists were interested in application of empirical findings on perceptual organization of margins in outside space: streets, squares, pavements and building. Together, they hypothesized that some margins and spaces are perceptually ‘fuzzy’ (ambiguous) where contradictory and overlapping representation and uses of space can occur by different people and others were ‘crisp’. They also speculate on the importance of the ‘fuzzy space’ between space of domestic and the public, between work and social life, and between inside and outside.

Informal process of social segregation by gender, class or ethnicity, mark space in qualitative ways. At the same time, the kinds of space define the people who frequent them. Diverse and competitive representations – what Filip de Boeck has called ‘the invisible city’ – gives meaning to places, cities and urban areas.

The hypothesis proposed was that it was this affective city and the issues of symbolism wrapped up in it that lay at the root of rise of citizen’s committees and their protests concerning the presence and activates of immigrants in the neighbourhood.

We must examine the city from the grass-roots perspective where we can grasp this emotion and affective nature as opposed to through the rational and planned perspective of the formalized institutions. It has been pointed out that official representations are static, and freezes social processes. The boundaries might make more convenient grasping the flow and mixing of people, information and goods, but it fails to address the ‘chronotopographic’ aspect of the city, the way the memory and representation treats space as ‘public’.

Verona
Citizens have complained about potential threat of crime, but evidence suggests that immigrants are more likely to be victims of crime and exploitation than its perpetrators. Yet, a cry for ‘security’ is uttered by citizens’ committee in common with the usual perceived threat of immigrants.

However, closer studies suggest the real problem is more to do with the observance or non observance of symbolic boundaries than crime. Immigrants especially men, socialize in the main street, particularly in the evening. The main-street and side streets currently are lined with shops that are commonly run by Nigerians, Moroccans, Sri Lankans and Chinese. Moreover, a small open market is open on several days of week. This predominant male use of public spaces turns Veronetta into a place where woman feel particular ill at ease – a town that historically described women sitting outside to chat with neighbors and craftsman working in the street where they met most of their customers. Furthermore, the roaring traffic inhibits this kind of use of the street anymore, and the neighbors are increasingly isolated.

The comment by Verona official on potential resolution has unfortunately relied only on neo-liberal force. They ultimately hoped for gentrification, with its property speculation and rising rent forcing immigrants out.

San Salvario and Porta Palazzo
There had been many complaints against ‘delinquents’ often identified with immigrants in Porta Palazzo. The neighborhood is dominated by a large square where the main open-air and covered markets are held. Immigrants have taken much of the heavy work in market and gradually opened their own stores. They often lived in dilapidated and overcrowded houses, rented at outrageous prices and various kinds of illicit activities (prostitution) happened.

San Salvario is a neighbourhood of solid mid-19th and early 20-th century building, sometimes run-down, and surrounding a popular open-air market. Immigrants, many illegal, comprise 20% of the 40,000 and are concentrated in relative few buildings and were actively resented by their Italian neighbours in the 1990s. Italian law also permits prohibition of certain kinds of behavior if they pose ‘public scandal’ The visibility of immigrants, and the fact their activities are seemingly shrouded in mystery carried in the street, have caused considerable concern that legal standard.

In 1995, a local parish priest claimed that the situation of the neighbourhood was explosive. The ensuing commotion enabled rapid decisive actions by the municipality in the two neighborhoods. Substantial funds were earmarked for physical refurbishment and both San Salvario and Porta Palazzo were transformed. Gardens were enclosed to discourage pushers and prostitutes, lighting was improved and parking patrols introduced. The most triumphant of changes include a permanent covered structure for the market. In Porta Palazzo, construction o fan underground through-pass siphoned traffic form market, conversion of the neighbourhood into an attractive pedestrian area with shops and cafes and building a Turkish Bath and an Intercultural Center.
Research indicates that perception surrounding these development in the realm of the ‘affective’ city has been important in amelioration of intercultural tension.

Using previous ‘crisp’ and ‘fuzzy’ spatial perception, following interpretation is advanced:
-Invasion of neighborhoods by traffic and supermarkets coincided with changes in work pattern and decline of small local business
-Dislocations of firms to countries where labour costs are lower, and the disruption of traditional social networks in the city results in fragmentation of society and identities such that established channels of public life (parishes, political parties, trade unions) lose relevance.
*Office set up to collect complains registered tension between Italian neighbors as vis-à-vis the immigrants of whom had become their scapegoats.
-The ex-industrial workers in Turin, many of whom felt that their previously assured future of their children by emigrating to the industrialized North faced the declining industrial sector of the city with bewilderment.
-They were filled with dismay at the predicament of immigrants who worked in dangerous, underpaid and polluting jobs and lived in crowded, insalubrious flats, being prey to mafia and solicitation.
-Thus, Italians saw their dreams of emancipation, democracy and social order shattered.
-The plight of immigrants threw back to the Italians who were immigrants themselves as the image of their neighborhood reminds them of frustration in social mobility and respectability.
-The result is a confusion between different kind of space where previously there exist once a sharp divide which protected familiar neighborhood near home with its work and social routine from the area given away to traffic and strangers.
-This confusion give rise to images of disorder, contamination and danger and the highly visible immigrants were the first to blame.

The measures of the municipal authorities restored ‘crispness’ to the distinction between kind of spaces, by providing perceptual props or ‘affordances’, moving the noise of traffic and promiscuity of markets away from quiet, previously familiar area. Controls on rent, sales licenses and prostitution emphasized the distinction between legal and illegal actives and reduced overcrowding.
Thus the familiar protective environment could be seen to include both Italians and immigrants.

In general terms, the measures taken in Turin redrew normative boundaries and restored order, as opposed to be a strategy of governing disorder. Turin thus present a strategy that is both touch, but at the same time invested great efforts in providing social rights for new comers and their children. They emphasize renovated notion of citizenship and intercultural mediation as opposed to distinction.

Conclusion:
Spaces must be recognized for its socially and symbolically structured value. Porta Palazzo is a place to meet, a ‘suq’ and for exchanging news, information and help and maintaining closeness’. It is there where rhythm of periodic meetings, exchange of help and information and guidance form religious leaders that create a shared symbolic place to where they can ‘belong’.

The process of religious and social mapping is called ‘reterritorialization’ because the networks of contacts structure the city and gives its meaning. To the extent that discrimination, disadvantage and lack of communication with Italian create social distance. Not surprisingly, African and Middle Eastern immigration to Turin revealed that those which include more Italians in their network are at a higher chance to job and housing stability.

At the administrative level, the emphasis not on ‘cultural difference’ but on citizenship, common humanity and possibility of intercultural mutual comprehension can allow development of daily relations of friendship and civic collaboration among different people. The former only encourage segregationist policies and inhibit development.

Attention to spatial perception offers a methodological aid to living together in difference. Spatial perception and practice are structure to certain extent by cultural categories, but also by he cognitive capacities, physiological and psychological needs common to all human beings. The recognition of these two dimensions may be a precondition for negotiation of norms for sharing common space and collaborative relationships. Local administration must assume responsibility for material intervention in situation of conflict. But measures must be taken with prior research and mediation carried out by experienced researchers to establish the real cause. These policies will typically encourage cultural inclusion and the respect of specificities of place.