Esoh Elamé, Per un nuovo paradigma dell’intercultura / For a new paradigm of interculturality, pp. 535-544

This paper, considering the social representation of interculturality in the Italian society, attempts to bridge the concept of interculturality with environment and sustainable development issues, proposing a new paradigm. Therefore, the topic of interculturality refers to the deep dimensions of culture, developed in a specific ecological and social context, enabling to build up economic and political thought. The author wants to demonstrate that it’s impossible to talk about interculturality without taking into consideration the social, ecological, economic and political dimensions of culture.

Gérard Marandon, La communication interculturelle: éléments constitutifs, obstacles, conditions de réussite, enjeux / Intercultural communication: constitutive elements, obstacles, positive outcomes and challenges, pp. 545-570

This contribution relates to the fundamental theoretical aspects of intercultural communication and lays down four goals: 1) to specify the status of intercultural communication in relation to ordinary communication. This goal implies to define culture and interculturality; 2) to review the various types of obstacles – intercultural, personnel and situational – inherent in intercultural interactions; 3) to define the conditions for a good communication in intercultural situations, while insisting on the importance of trust and intercultural competence; 4) to underline the stakes and the interests – organisational, political and educational – of intercultural communication.

Antolin Granados Martinez, Giovani immigrati e cittadinanza: una questione di comunicazione interculturale? / Young immigrants and citizenship: a question of intercultural communication?, pp. 571-577

When the hierarchical divisions of class, sex, race, ethnicity, nationality or age come together they produce many “noises,” which in turn interfere with the communication between people or groups, changing it or transforming it. Due to their youth – a category that defines access to certain spaces and social rights – and to their condition as children of immigrants – a political, social and cultural category that adds new limitations – the children of immigrants in the EU countries, when relating to the Public Administration, find themselves in danger of exclusion or marginalization from the point of view of intercultural communication.

Esoh Elamé, Comunicazione interculturale e vocabolario discriminante nella lingua tedesca, francese e italiana / Intercultural communication and discrimination dictionary in German, French and Italian languages, pp. 578-586

Discrimination issues have become very popular and focus on sectors like intercultural communication. This paper attempts to propose a conceptual and practical introduction to discrimination words found in the dictionary or not present in it. There is no doubt that the latter ones, as latent and hidden forms of discrimination, can encourage attitudes, stereotypes and prejudices. The author presents the results of a study, carried out by the Joseph Fourier University (Grenoble, France) in cooperation with the Istituto Comprensivo Galilei di Pesaro (Italy), the City of Grenoble and the secondary school Théodor-Heuss-Gymnasium in Essen-Kettwig (Germany), in the framework of a European project Socrates Comenius 2 concerning the dictionary of discrimination in French, German and Italian languages.

Felipe D. Santos, The imprisoned youth: from exclusion to seclusion. An overview of the Caxias Youth Re-education Center, Portugal, pp. 587-600

Until recently the prison’s personnel in Portugal were not aware of, or prepared for, the new situation of widespread intercultural miscommunication. Bearing in mind that among the staff, as well as among the inmates, minorities are underrepresented, new problems arising from this intercultural coexistence require new skills from re-education agents. These professionals, besides being educators, are asked to perform parental roles of guidance and counselling, within a mixed cultural environment where social functions and values are diversely assigned and perceived. This paper analyses statistics, reports and statements produced by the Caxias’ staff during and after the Portuguese Workshop on Intercultural Communication in Public Service, 24-26th January 2005.

Esoh Elamé, Barbara Gambini, La comunicazione interculturale nel processo Agenda 21 Locale: i risultati di una ricerca pilota nelle Marche / Intercultural communication in the Local Agenda 21 process: the results of a pilot research in the Marche region, pp. 601-614

The authors maintain that intercultural exchange is the fourth, implicit pillar of sustainable development. Different cultural backgrounds, in fact, necessarily affect the perception of the recognized environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainable development. Having been devised as a tool for the concerted and participated planning of a more sustainable development, Local Agenda 21 offers a unique occasion to incorporate the expectations, needs, proposals and feedback of “cultural minorities”. The expression is intended in its broader meaning, as representing all those who are potential bearers of a culture that differs slightly or greatly from the mainstream, established one: immigrants but also women, youth, elderly people. This paper presents the findings of a pilot survey conducted on 12 municipal towns in the Marche region on the intercultural inclusivity of the Local Agenda 21 process.

Rita Minello, Interculturalità: i bisogni formativi degli insegnanti italiani / Interculturality: the formation needs of Italian teachers, pp. 615-627

From an intercultural point of view, the teacher is being turned into a psycho-pedagogic operator working in an environment of recent development. This new frontier «does not demand the adaptability of educators to a discontinuous and cyclic change, but the ability to foresee the request and to offer solutions to it». The teacher’s primary duties, then, will be educating children and young people to a face-to-face comparison method that will not exclude the preservation of diversities, while creating pedagogic times in which differences are being overcome. The requirements and proficiencies that ought to outline the Italian teacher’s intercultural preparation can be described as educator-mediator competences, with a particular sensitivity to factors linked to inter-language; cultural educator competences, with the ability to manage inter-cultural issues; and actions of cultural/relational mediation.

Antolin Granados Martinez, F. Javier Garcia Castaño, Comunicazione interculturale ed integrazione degli alunni immigrati nel sistema educativo andaluso / Intercultural communication and the integration of immigrant students in the educational system of Andalusia, pp. 629-640

During the last decade, the Spanish society in general and the Andalusian one in particular have been confronted with some challenges, which are the consequence of the increasing presence of immigrants who have reached the country due to economic reasons. The incorporation of foreign students into the Andalusian schools has been one of those challenges both in quantitative (more than 45,000 immigrant students have been accepted) and in qualitative terms, created by the variety of national and cultural origins. To manage their incorporation into Andalusian society in the sense of providing an intercultural reception through their school integration a series of strategies have been carried out, promoting intercultural communication among the different actors who are present inside the school system: teachers, pupils, parents and the school administration.

Julia A. Spinthourakis, Developing multicultural competence through intercultural sensitivity, pp. 641-656

Assimilation rather than integration is often required of non national cultural groups in their quest to become part of the fabric of society. This in many cases can result in giving up one’s own values and adopting the values of others, as a means to survival; a process not only uncomfortable but a violation of another’s inner self and identity. We know that we can learn to understand and appreciate the values, expectations, and communication styles of other traditions without giving up our own. Such understanding is called multicultural competence. Civil servants can develop their multicultural competence so that they can be more effective in delivering their services to the changing populations. This paper attempts to briefly present information on cultural and more specifically multicultural competence as well as cultural sensitivity and its necessity as a tool for civil servants working with diverse groups. It also attempts to set the record straight with respect to some of the myths surrounding working with individuals and groups from other cultures.

Rita Minello, Integrazione e formazione interculturale nel pubblico impiego. Per una concezione pluralistica dell’accoglienza / Integration and intercultural formation in public service. Toward a pluralistic understanding of welcoming, pp. 657-676

Analyzing the connection between the social services provided to immigrants necessarily involves an analysis of the factors that influence the use of those services; an analysis of the dimension shown by cultural differences in the area of health and illness; the understanding of migratory streams’ characteristics and policies, and of the meeting between the service provider and the user in a complex process. Because organizations and institutions become themselves fields and environments in which cultures can develop, the governance of the social-welfare service system requires networking, mental and organizational flexibility to welcome an ever-changing group of users.

Belén Agrela, Gunther Dietz, Martin Geiger, Multilevel and public-private integration management in Spain. Implications for migrant workers in the agriculture of Almería, 677-698

This article analyses the increasing diversification of migration policies in contemporary Spain, the elements that have contributed to this situation as well as the perverse effects and consequences for both admission as well as integration politics. We examine, on the one hand, how the immigration policy system and its regulations are directly determined by the European Union’s restriction philosophy and imperatives. Consequently, the admission policy cannot be implemented successfully, and this has a rather negative impact on migrants. On the other hand, we focus on the way the immigration policy has been adapted to the peculiar Spanish public policy institutional design, consisting in a multilevel structure that embraces different polity-levels (central state, regional and local) as well as their administrative apparatuses and the diverse public-private actors. In consequence, after presenting some essential features of the Spanish immigration-related legislation and regulations, the structural aspects and mechanisms of integration management in Spain are outlined. At this point, we pay special attention to Spain’s National Integration Plan and its implementation in the context of a complex and asymmetrical regime of multilevel governance based on the axes of centralism vs. federalism, state ownership vs. privatization, and universalism vs. multiculturalism. The effects of this multi-level governance in the domain of migration are illustrated in the case of agricultural migrant workers employed in the export-agricultural province of Almería (Andalusia). Finally, we conclude by presenting and discussing some policy recommendations, particularly regarding the political challenge of addressing the need to control the Spanish labor market instead of the migrants; the contradictions between the external and internal controls and their effects on the entry and presence of migrants; the need to readjust the quota system to a more realistic process; and the urgent call for designing a new way of effectively managing immigrant integration concepts.

Dionisia Russo Krauss, Camille Schmoll, Spazi insediativi e pratiche socio-spaziali dei migranti nella città sud-europea: il caso di Napoli / Settlements and socio-spatial practices amongst migrants in Southern European cities: The case of Naples, pp. 699-719

This article investigates the spatial dimension of the migratory phenomenon in Italian cities. It focuses on the varying forms of migrant settlements within urban spaces, with particular reference to the case of Naples. Both residential spaces and “other” spaces are analysed in the paper, with particular attention to public spaces being transformed on the basis of the migrants’ interlocking factors of belonging (gender, ethnicity, labour). The case of Naples questions conventional interpretations of migratory phenomena in Southern Italy. In the past, the position of the South within the geography of migration flows in Italy and in the Mediterranean region has been generally reduced to that of a transit area. From our point of view, however, this interpretation runs the risk of neglecting the complexity of the migration dynamics in the South of Italy. In particular, it leaves under-researched the issues related to the role played by the mobilisation of migrants’ strategies and relational resources in their socio-spatial integration into the host society. For this reason, the observation of the multiple migration dynamics in Naples requires a multi-scale analytical perspective, which takes into account social and spatial practices taking shape both on a local and on a global and international level. From this perspective, Naples no longer seems an “exceptional case”, as it has been conventionally regarded in the literature, but a laboratory of the emerging migration dynamics.

Mohamed Abdillahi Bahdon, La Inmigración y las elecciones regionales y municipales en España. El caso del municipio de Murcia y de la Comunidad Autónoma de Murcia / Immigration and municipal and regional elections in Spain. The case of the municipality and of the Independent Community of Murcia, pp. 720-738

The Autonomous Region of Murcia is among the top ten Spanish regions of immigrant destination. Their presence and their permanence create new issues to this Community, which political, social and business leaders must solve. The purpose of this article is to analyse the position of the political parties in immigration issues through their electoral campaigns, i.e., what the candidates proposed regarding the different aspects of migration at the municipal and regional levels. For this purpose, a comparative study of the electoral programs is presented.

Maurizio Ambrosini, Paolo Boccagni, Lavoro autonomo e piccole imprese come canali di integrazione dal basso degli immigrati: il caso della provincia di Trento / Self-employment work and small enterprises as channels of Integration for immigrants: The case of the Province of Trent, pp. 739-758

This article analyzes the main theoretical interpretations of the spreading of self-employment and small enterprises among immigrant workers in Italy, building on empirical research in the local area of Trent. Generally, the Italian context provides immigrant entrepreneurs with several opportunities, as well as constraints, on institutional, economic and cultural grounds. Immigrant self-employment, in Italy, relies both on demand factors (e.g. vacancy chain dynamics, outsourcing, differentiation of consumption models, and the first signs of “ethnic markets”) and supply factors (e.g. immigrants’ research for social and work mobility, not to mention their adaptation to self-employment, when unable to find more stable job solutions). This articles analyzes the methodological and substantive results, of a local research, relying both on quantitative and qualitative techniques. Access to self-employment (and possibly to enterprise creation) for immigrants turns out to follow on a relevant experience in the local job market (as employees), more often than being just a “second best” choice. Immigrant entrepreneurs in Trentino mostly deal with Italian customers and providers, “ethnic” patterns of consumption being the exception rather than the rule, as they seem to endure a widespread isolation from local institutions. The article concludes focusing on some possible guidelines for a better governance of immigrant entrepreneurship, involving local interventions in technical guidance, training and credit facilities, building on the assumption that the growth of such enterprises, as long as they are properly regulated, may have a positive impact both on immigrants and on receiving societies.