Many families have been able to turnaround their fortunes, overcoming the poverty of their origins to achieve financial and social security. Many of these immigrants have returned to their homeland as affluents, allowing their descendants to take over their businesses and unlike them, have the opportunity to aspire to non-traditional occupations and even further education.
Language barriers and religious views
A minority of first generation Italians speak English, in comparison to the second and third. My grandparents say, why should we learn English? Everyone we know speaks Italian. Ironically, Italians back home are encouraged to learn English to enhance opportunities.
I believe, yet am not governed by religion, much to the disappointment of others in my family and community. I am not in communion with what they believe to be the right path. For example; I do not subscribe to the norms/ traditions of no meat on Friday or church every Sunday. We were given this freedom once we reached adulthood; up until then our parents had control. This soon changed when we saw the demolition of the Catholic Church. Two thirds of the parish objected to the proposal of flats, but the Bishop urged the congregation to ‘shed their emotional ties. Three years later the flats are still flat. My point being is that when something of importance happens we come together regardless of whether we follow the norms/traditions or not.
Theories of Community
Geographical
This is the place or locality at the core, the common denominator of our community – Italy. Within the wider community I feel the outsider, but surrounded by family I become more Sicilian. My deep connection is rooted to the burial place of my grandfathers.
The majority of first generation Sicilian-Italians possess a sense of belonging to two places, illustrated by the decision to own houses in both their “home” village and Woking. They always want to retain a connection to the motherland, with the desire to be finally buried there.
Anthony Cohen (1982; 1985) argues that communities are best approached as communities of meaning. In other words, they are symbolic and symptomatic of a people’s ability to define and generate their identity via a sense of belonging and ownership (Crow and Allan 1994). Interestingly, the reality of community, Cohen suggests, lies in its members’ perception of the vitality of its culture (Cohen 1985).
My self-identification is apparent when given the option to pick ethnicity. There is the attachment struggle, the place I was born and raised vs. culture. When there is cause for celebration there is a visible sense of pride to be part of all things Italian.
- Winning the 2006 World Cup.
- Villa Gino’ a family who periodically hang the flag from their purpose built Roman home.
-
Organisations: drop in centre’ for Italian exiles. Italian Association. Gli Azzuri’ youth football team.
- Nearly all Italians have Italian TV.
For all these reasons listed, I never consider myself fully British, given the numerous Italian influences around me. This connects well with the idea of interest or elective communities. People can also be linked together by factors such as religious belief, sexual orientation, occupation or ethnic origin. Many ‘outsiders’ choose to marry into the Italian community and adopt many of our customs and social mores – conversion to Catholicism for example. This sociological perspective is a move away from the traditional view of community as a collective group linked by place, to a view of community defined by human characteristics and behaviour (Hoggett 1997:7).
Political and social cohesion and collective action
The term used in policy, media circles to describe and define the processes thought necessary to develop communities in terms of shared values at local and national levels. Neighbourhood groups work across ethnic communities to educate, develop relationships and thus integrate. Mixing minority communities; e.g. organisations set up for residents, who feel neglected by authorities and service providers helps them to be self-sufficient. These groups are encouraged to establish a political voice to represent their common and collective interests.
Within local politics in Woking, the Italian community plays little part engaging in such activities. By comparison, the Muslim population, elected their first British Asian Pakistani councillor in 1996, followed by another four in 2008.
Education and community
My dedication to learning the Italian language and culture was reinforced by my experience in secondary school. These days intercultural understanding” is a statutory component of the National Curriculum and is absorbed under the umbrella of Modern Foreign Languages and Citizenship. These promote the following ideals in children:
-
Tolerance: openness to others; curiosity; respect, a willingness to listen and learn (Walzer 1997: 11).
-
Reciprocity: quid pro quo If I help you now you will help me later (Putnam 2000)
-
Trust: the confident expectation that people, institutions and things will act in consistent, honest and appropriate way trustworthiness reliability (Putnam 1993; Coleman 1990).
Conclusion
I have friends from all over the world. I choose to breakdown stereotypes, as I see them as individuals rather than members of ethnic and religious groups. This goes hand in hand with globalisation, as the world is getting smaller and businesses are becoming international, and as a consequence, so has communication. This has been facilitated largely by foreign travel and social media leading to greater ‘inter-cultural contact’.
In summary what I have learnt from this reflection is that 2nd generation Italians are at one and the same time removed (physically, by birth) from the homeland whilst not fully being integrated into the place of our birth. Whilst government policies attempt to address these issues, they do not always reflect the obstacles we face in our day to day lives.
What I have discovered undertaking this research, is the scarcity of written records and resources on Anglo-Italian history, despite a large local history centre and newly refurbished library
More astonishingly, is the absence of any setting or platform where the younger Brit-Italian generation can participate. This makes integration difficult, unless of course you have Italian friends. The result is “we keep ourselves to ourselves.” Life, experiences and employment opportunities push us to form social networks beyond our community and outside the neighbourhood.
Family - la familiga are the closest link to my cultural heritage. Unlike my predecessors whose relationships were strengthened due to the necessity of their economic situation. If they had the choice I am certain they would choose the same. I am now looking to take my findings further to hopefully establish the missing gateway to what is fundamental for the Brit-Italian community to prosper.
Word count 1482
References
Cohen, A. P. (1985) The Symbolic Construction of Community, London: Tavistock (now Routledge).
Cohen, A. P. (ed.) (1982) Belonging. Identity and social organization in British rural cultures, Manchester: University of Manchester Press
Frazer, E. (1999). The Problem of Communitarian Politics. Unity and conflict. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hoggett, P. (1997). ‘Contested communities’ in P. Hoggett (ed.) Contested Communities. Experiences, struggles, policies, Bristol: Policy Press.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone. The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Sampson, R. J., McAdam, D., MacIndoe, H. and Weffer, S. (2005). 'The Durable Nature and Community Structure of Collective Civic Action', American Journal of Sociology 111: 673-714.
Venkatesh, S. A. (2006). Off the books. The underground economy of the urban poor. Harvard University Press.
Walzer, M. (1997). On Tolerance. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Margherita Ferlita
1203331 ‘Explore what is meant by the term community’ CY1807 Community and
Woking Brit-Italians Community Development
by
virtual_reality (student)
