Joe Cochran

The word immigration has a dynamic character: it invokes the ideas of arrival and change. It is also a state, a category designated for those who weren’t born in / aren’t citizens of. The immigrant by consequence undoubtedly encases a substantially complex semiotic and cultural interpretation that is often used negatively: the immigrant is a poor and/or untrustworthy person, a threat to national homogeneity or, romantically, as the noble savage that deserves our pity and protection. Doubly so if they are “illegal”. Those of us in the occidental world, along with the rich and privileged ( or with such appearance) are not afforded such miseries. Socially we are not immigrants, we are expats.

In 2018, 2,229 Migrants, mostly fleeing Africa through Libya perished in the Mediterranean Sea en route to Italy which, according to the organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (I.O.M) is the deadliest route. This represented the fifth straight year at least 1,500 migrants died in the Mediterranean. With the far-right Lega Nord’s ascent within the Italian Senate, formation of a coalition government with the Five Star’s Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle) in 2018, and appointment of Matteo Salvini as the Italian Vice-premier and Minister of The Interior, Italian resentment towards migrants and asylum seekers reached its arguable apex.

In February of that year, Luca Traini, a 28-year-old, one-time Lega Nord candidate in Macerata, wounded six African migrants in a drive-by shooting. Just a month later Idy Diene, a Senegalese migrant, would be gunned down by Roberto Pirrone at Ponte Amerigo Vespucci in Florence, Italy. Nevertheless, The Vicepremier continued his xenophobic rhetoric. Shortly after his swearing-in, Salvini stated that Tunisia “ isn’t exporting gentlemen, it seems more often they’re exporting convicts” prompting immediate backlash from Tunisia. Only days later he would announce the closure of all ports in Italy. The Aquarius Dignitus, a search and rescue vessel operated by crew from Médecins Sans Frontières and SOS Méditerranée would be refused disembarkment at Italian ports which would leave the ship and it’s six hundred plus passengers stranded in the Mediterranean for seven days until its acceptance by Spain. Salvini would later be removed as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of The Interior with Prime Minister Conte's formation of a new cabinet with the Country's Center Left Partito Democratico Party, but this would prove only to stem the damage already done.

Soggiorno is a collection of anecdotes gathered from asylum seekers and refugees at Donneda refugee camp in Nuoro, Sardinia. These streams of thought paint a picture of uncertainty, pain, and hope. At the behest of those who wish to maintain anonymity for their safety, I have only provided their testimonies. All those pictured have given me permission to show their faces as they no longer live in fear.

These texts have been edited for the sake of clarity

Excerpts of Interviews by Daniela Floris & Joseph Cochran

Translated by Daniela Floris

On Ignorance

The other day I met a man at the soccer field that asked me: “ what are you doing here?’ and I answered: “ I play here and am helping the team prepare the field for the championship”, and he got mad, really mad and started saying that me and those like me came here to steal jobs from people like him. I said: “Well, you were born here, you are a grown man. All this time, all your adult life you have looked for a job and you haven’t found one yet?” but he didn’t want to listen to me, he just kept being angry and screaming that I should have stayed in my country, that I came here to steal Italian men’s wives and jobs.In the end, I called Franco (the team’s manager) and I told him that this man was harassing me and it was handled.

You know what, if he really wanted the job he could have asked the manager, told him that he could do the job I was doing - he could have asked for it, got a schedule and did it. But he won't, he rather do it this way and this is clearly not the way you should look for a job. The issue with this man’s thinking is that he thinks that I want to be here, that I am happy and grateful. No one is happy to be forced to leave their country, their family. I came here to Italy through the mediterranean sea and I just want to work legally, stay here for a few years and then return home - If I can do that I know I’ll feel good there: my family is there and I’ll be free to do everything I like if I’ll have money. If an Italian or any other foreigner comes to my country, looks for and finds a job, I don’t see how I would feel envious of him. He has money and I have money, we can both take care of our families.

Everyone has their own destiny and I accept mine. Many people don’t accept theirs because they went to school, they studied, possibly got their job, car and home yet are still unhappy. These kinds of people don’t know the importance of education. It’s like reading a book without understanding the meaning of its sentences. you need to accept life, you understand? If I was born sick I can’t let myself down because of that, I should do everything I can to feel better, to heal. But if you constantly look at those in very good health thinking “oh look at him, his health is perfect while I’m so sick” you’ll end up abandoning life. You should never abandon yourself. Or, for instance, if you have a job and I don’t: I shouldn’t be looking at you, I should strive to find a job for myself. So many people lack the ability to do this.

If your country is full of ignorance, everything will sink. For example, many years ago my country had a very small population, around five to ten million people. Foreigner’s started to come because of agriculture, cocoa was doing well, we had elephants and a lot of resources. People from Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Ghana started to come and before you knew it our population was now around 60 million people. When the foreigners first arrived some people immediately said “ we are better than them” because these strangers were poor, but didn’t realize they were coming to build our country. Today, those in my country who felt they were worth more because their clothes were nicer and cleaner are poorer than those who once were immigrants. Because they didn’t work as hard as those people did.

Imagine a rich man who needed someone to clean his house or take out the trash: he was paying a poor foreigner to do it for a small amount of money, something like 2 or 3 Euros, while he never taught his sons to do it. Why? So he could keep smelling good while the poor that he deemed without dignity could do such a job. See, my country became big and those foreigners are rich today, because they worked, they worked hard, they accepted to use their bodies to win against poverty.

Italy is now in a similar situation - Many young Italians are sitting around waiting for their father’s retirement funds. The Majority of young Italians think like this; if “I am unemployed and my parents have a good salary or pension they will give me some cash”. But what happens when their parents are no longer here? They will then see someone like me, a Black man with a car, nice clothes and so on and be jealous, looking everywhere else for answers instead of within themselves. To them there should be no way someone like me has the opportunity to earn such things. if there’s no fire, rice won’t cook itself, you get me?

I’m telling you, it’s ignorance. The man who is in the Government now [Matteo Salvini], says a lot of bullshit and it’s mostly the uneducated that follow him. I have seen people here who, while they are with their friends, say to people like me in the street, “You gotta go home, go back to your country” and everyone agrees with them - as if they are Salvini themselves. This is the effect he has had on the country - people are just listening and not asking why.

Humanity should come first, but it has been devalued. I recently saw a wildlife documentary. In this documentary, a snake attacks a crocodile in the water and another crocodile immediately comes over to save him. If I started limping, people wouldn’t say “ oh I’m sorry for him” they would just turn away from me, and ignore me while I am in pain. Humanity is disappearing. In the past, if your brother or friend had an issue, you would worry for him. Today, if somebody has an issue we kinda feel glad about it. We feel so happy because it means he failed at something. Where’s the humanity in that? For us Muslims, historically, if I have five Euros to eat and you have nothing, It is my duty to take away two or three euros and give it to you. Nowadays, you could be starving to death and people will just parade in front of you. Why does one person want to be worthier than the other, why can they talk but don’t want you to talk? Why am I down here while you are up here? This mentality has ruined society.

Before we move forward, Italians and Africans have to be human with one another, we have to have consideration for each other. This needs to be instilled in the youth. They have to understand that the people they look at, who may or may not be different from them, gave their blood for Italy. If we don’t accept this, we can’t accept anything else. If you spent your days working, helping to create many things for me and my country, like these sodas or things that my mom prepared, I can’t take it for granted. Humanity has changed. You know, animals were bad before, they were fighting against each other. But today, cows live together, a lot of them, together. They don’t hit each other, they eat together, and they love each other. But we are not cows. We have guns.

Before coming to this house, we were warned not to talk too much or too loud because other people live on the floor beneath us. So, we can’t talk because of the people downstairs? How can we not talk? We are people, we are human beings. Even if you would bring animals to this apartment they would make some noise. So are we human or are we animals? Something is not right here. Why are you afraid of me? Give me a reason, we don’t eat anyone. And it’s getting worse. I bet that because you guys have traveled and have seen many things, feel ashamed of such things. If you go to the supermarket, and two black men want to pay for their groceries but the cashier is disgusted by them you’ll feel ashamed, but the people behind won’t, they would say “ bravo, that’s right, keep it up”.

Does that make sense? Well, that’s how it is, although it shouldn’t be. And do you know why? Because we all want to be stars, above others. There’s no equality, there’s no humanity. If I think I’m worth more than you, then we can’t be equal. This is what they think. If a man loses his leg and he has to use a wheelchair, he’s less of a human than a man with two legs. That's what ignorance looks like.

- Azhar, 21 years old (Aug 22nd 2018)

"If a person wants to know you they must know who you are, your origin, your goals. My name is Kaoussou. I am Senegalese and was born on April 3rd, 1992 in Karoumbou. My dream is to improve the lives of myself and my family and it is a dream I will realize"

" I arrived in Libya July of 2007 to work for a Chinese construction company. In 2011. Libya fell apart, the Chinese left and I stayed while the chaos unfolded. In 2015, things intensified. During this time there were many bandits, human traffickers and a lot of violence from the military. People were killed everywhere. 
I lost two of my friends in this violence. I was also attacked - soldiers shot at me and luckily a bullet did not hit me.

There are also those who are lost. We do not know what happened to them, they are gone. Maybe they are slaves, maybe they are dead. In Libya, it did not matter where you were, they will come for you, it is only a matter of time. 

That's what pushed me to leave. I preferred to die in the sea than by the Libyans "



- Rasmane Zeba, Arrived in Italy April, 2017