Letter From a Mother

The barbarism which befalls the vast majority of migrants, people simply searching a dignified life, leaves deep and indelible wounds on their psyches, exacerbated by the violence which the Italian reception system so often inflicts upon them as well. Every day, people tell us about their tragic experiences in Libya, in the desert, on the crossing, all moments in which so many people lose someone along the way. These are journeys in which death is always present, burrowing deep down into these people's souls.

Illustration by Francesco Piobbichi

Hard to Accommodate: Palermo

In the past few days we have read about the announcementsby the mayor of Gorino and the protests held by its citizens, and many of us have condemned such acts. Without doubt, racism and ignorance have created some monsters for the front pages, but in the end it has been too easy to “pick off the easy targets”, and no one in the media has examined the errors committed by the Prefecture and other institutional agents, who were unaware of how to set up a reception project: there was no plan prepared for any interaction between the new arrivals and the indigenous community, but instead they were inserted into a situation of emergency, causing simply the latest social conflict which has served to demonstrate quite clearly the true face of migration policies and to continue to reap its harvest of victims.