Stephanie G. Mathis This case is similar to that of a young Cote d’Ivoire woman who died from thrombosis at a center for migrants in Venice, Italy, near the start of 2017. The center was built to house 540 people, but at the time, it actually held 1,400.
The sanctuary city
Since 2015, there has been a growing trend in Europe.
Local authorities in these places are responsible for the conditions and methods of integrating migrants to balance the fact that the governments are shirk from their responsibilities.
Glasgow, Barcelona, and Madrid are also known as cities of asylum and cities of welcome and solidarity.
The concept is nothing new. The idea is not new. In 1996, French philosopher Jacques Derrida called upon local officials to come and renew their hosting traditions.
Venetians, in particular, had already developed their traditions of hospitality long before any other sanctuary cities appeared.
Refugees arrive from Padua on Dorsoduro Island in a fresco painted by Antonio Zonca at San Zaccaria Church, Venice (circa 1684). Didier Descouens/Wikimedia, CC BY-NC-SA
The Balkan precedent
According to migration specialist Christopher Hein, Italy welcomed 80,000 refugees during the Balkan Wars. Over 70,000 people received visas for humanitarian reasons, including 57,000 between October 1991 to October 1995. He wrote:
Only 2,000 people were accommodated by the state. The rest relied on private organizations, parishes, and pilgrim centers, as well as other non-government organizations.
In 1992 and 1993, around 500 Balkan migrants settled in Venice. Faced with the proliferation and size of the makeshift camps in the city, the local authorities organized the new arrivals quickly while trying to provide more comprehensive support.
This act of solidarity is in stark contrast with the current situation. The violence in Syria and the broader Geopolitical Instability are continually increasing the exiled population’s ranks. They look to the European Union for assistance. The EU limits its approach primarily to crisis management and containment. Local authorities and citizens have developed alternative forms of hospitality.
‘Emergenza’ in Venice
The first problems with ex-Yugoslavian immigrants in the 1990s were sanitary, sociocultural, and material issues. The Venice Town Council responded by holding public meetings in order to discuss how to live with and welcome new populations. They also asked for community suggestions.
This bottom-up method contrasted with the faceless and quantitative institution approach to crisis management. Beppe Caccia’s deputy mayor for social affairs at the time explained this in 2004.
The strategy for managing refugees, ‘Emergenza,’ was always meant to be long-term and progressive. The goal was to integrate these people into society.
The majority of the people who attended the induction centers settled in the area thanks to the support they received in finding employment, housing, and schooling. The Venetian Town Council decided to continue the program using its budget when the Italian government cut funding for the program after declaring the end of the emergency and removing the Italian military from the former Yugoslavia.
The Fontego Project
The town council refined its integration methods in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2001, Venice introduced the Fontego Project – three centers that could accommodate around 110 people.
After signing a contract, asylum seekers received a stay of six months, medical care, administrative assistance, and training to assist them in integrating and forming ties with local communities. The asylum seekers took part in workshops on music and theater, as well as the Mostra del Cinema and an opening of an “Exile Cafe.”
