Migration Italy : the art of talking back in a destination culture / Graziella Parati.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

These definitions and the complexities inherent in the different cultural, legal, and political positions of Italy's people are at the heart of Migration Italy , a unique work of immense importance for understanding society in both modern-day Italy and, indeed, the entire European continent.

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CHOICE Review

Focusing on the 1990s and current migrations to Italy, Parati (Dartmouth) comes to terms with Italy's multiculturalism--its complexities and its problems. In the Bossi-Fini law, attempts to criminalize undocumented immigration, and the success of Oriana Fallaci's La forza della ragione (2004), Parati sees how Otherness continues to be a threat. In fiction or "narrative of homogeneity," the migrant is reduced to a stereotype, becoming a nonperson, a source of labor to be exploited. Parati draws the reader's attention to migrants who "talk back" by telling their stories in Italian so that they can refute the "alarmist discussions of invading foreign identities." Although these works do not have a wide audience, they begin to tell the story of Italy as a destination culture. Among the writers Parati discusses are Pap Khouma, Saidou Moussa Ba, Jadelin Mabiala Gangbo, Shirin Ramzanali Fazel, Viola Chandra, Elvira Dones, and Ron Kubati. In film, Rachid Benhadj, the Manetti brothers, and Francesca Pirani talk back from the Algerian, Nigerian, Egyptian, or eastern European points of view. This book will be valuable to readers interested in contemporary Italy and the diversity of its voices in literature and film. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate and research collections. S. Vander Closter Rhode Island School of Design