The main workshop I will be attending (providing pre-registration works) at the NMC First Youth Meeting for Sustainable Development (check Twitter next week, #NMC) will be on the impact of forced migration. This applies to the recent race riots in Southern Italy, as well as to the recent riots in Kenya.
The anti-immigrant violence followed a riot on January 7th when 100
African farmworkers rampaged through Rosarno, uprooting traffic signs,
burning cars, terrifying inhabitants and clashing with police. Those
disturbances were prompted by an apparently unprovoked attack by white
youths who shot and injured two of the farmworkers. But there was far
more to the migrants’ fury. Church leaders claimed that many local
people were sympathetic to the itinerant farmworkers, but there is also
evidence that plenty were engaged in systematic harassment. Rosarno is
in Calabria, the toe of Italy, a lawless place at the best of times. It
is a fortress of the local organised-crime group, the ‘NDRANGHETA.
I’ll try to dig some useful lessons from the mass of information I will be absorbing. Unfortunately, solving the prejudice against foreigners in already poor countries starts with the economy and unemployment – and we know how hard that is to fix (not to mention sorting out the country in conflict issuing these migrants).
I guess the most we can hope for – pending government and religious leaders speaking out – is that Kenyans, no matter how uneducated and poor, will keep their heads on straight and understand that violence in their country, especially linked to Al-Shabaab, will not further their cause. Like the post-election violence, it will chase off investors and continue the bad reputation Kenya already suffers from.
