This article was originally published on UmbraVoice.
Nowadays, integration is one of the most commonly discussed topics. The historical period we are living in forces us to think about that, aiming for a deeper knowledge of the subject that should go beyond obvious considerations, or superficial and misleading behaviours. Going beyond is what we have done this semester in PYIR 450: Community-Based Research in Psychology.
For one of our projects, we worked with CIDIS, a non-profit organization that promotes the culture of hospitality and helps asylum seekers and political refugees during the process of integration. We had the chance to see how organizations like CIDIS manage this hard process and, most importantly, how refugees live during what is probably one of the hardest challenges of their lives. Doing that, i realized that my knowledge about those kinds of situations was really superficial and I’ve never spent any time trying to figure out how I would react in their situation. All of a sudden my inner voice started talking to me; it said:
“Imagine yourself being forced to leave your homeland in which you probably had a job, maybe you finally were a teacher and, once you arrive to the new country, you discover that your education and your degree are not recognized and accepted. You probably are not even able to speak the language which is the key to both expressing yourself and having social interactions. In the meanwhile, you’re seen as a number or a resource to reallocate by the government and as the “Schroedinger’s Immigrant” (simultaneously stealing people’s job and too lazy to work) by some people. What would you do? How do you think you would manage this situation?”
I still have no answer to those questions. I felt anxious and frightened by the thought that it could happen to me. Then, I realized that’s exactly what refugees feel but, for them it’s a reality and not a simple thought. They have to build a new image of themselves, they have to start again from zero. They have to retain their culture while joining a new one. How difficult could that be?
The lack of empathy in our society is enormous, it’s so easy for us to create our “comfort zone” filled with what we care of and to bind everything else into oblivion. In the era of communication we don’t communicate, in the age of virtual friendships we are alone; we’ve lost our rationality, we don’t question anymore.This experience gave me the opportunity to notice the importance of thinking about something and trying to find new perspectives. I aspire to a society that welcomes differences instead of building walls, we believe in the real meaning of globalization. As always, knowledge is the answer: even if, sometimes, you will not find the right answers easily, you will be easily able to formulate the right questions.
Vincenzo Romano was an Italian philosophy student at the University of Perugia. Vincenzo spent the spring of 2017 studying at the Umbra Institute where he enjoyed meeting awesome people, studying, and playing bass guitar in his jazz band.
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