An Interview with Vincenzo Cusimano, Consultant for the Regional Province of Palermo.

It is the intention of the Regional Province of Palermo to open an Internet site, in the near future, to create a privileged communication channel for Sicilian communities living abroad. We spoke to Vincenzo Cusimano, who is the Province’s consultant for relations with Sicilians living abroad, about the project.

"This means of communication will not only make it possible to confront the many needs of our emigrants, which range from those that are purely informative to those of a link with the province of origin in investment terms, but will also offer the advantage of an easy to use, low cost and wide range communication system."

Why has the Province seen the need to modify the means of approach regarding Sicilian emigrants?

"The Province is fully aware that today emigration has changed completely because of the effect of the mixture of the culture of the past with that of the present consisting of second and third generations. Among other things, we believe it’s necessary also to repair, in some way, the substantially negative effects produced by preceding policies concerning emigration. Today, in fact, the communities are rather sceptical about the Italian State over the question of voting rights. They are tired of links and connections which are interrupted because of continuous changes of administration and also of receiving visits which culminate in promises unlikely to be maintained. Despite this, however, the Sicilian emigrants have tried to transmit a feeling of love for Sicily to their own children and grandchildren. It’s exactly for this reason that we don’t want to lose the golden opportunity which could result from contacts and exchanges of various types with emigrants who have decided to experiment with a new means of communication, capable of playing on the strong sense of identity which still exists among young people."

What will the characteristics of the site be?

"The site will not be an open window on the question of emigration in general terms but will consist of two distinct parts. The first will be of an informative nature whilst the other will serve to create a meeting point between the needs of the Province to maintain relations with the communities and those of the communities to establish links with the land of their origins and also exchages of an economic nature. The informative part will answer, not only the need for greater and more constant information about Italy from our emigrants, but will also help to minimise the problems connected to a scarce knowledge of our bureaucracy which very often create obstacles for the realisation of investment in the territory. Concerning the second part, we have, for some time, organised a series of meetings with the institutions operating in the territory to create a new synergy with the objective of spurring our emigrants to invest in Sicily. Palermo will be the venue of an international conference on emigration in April or May and on that occasion we will probably be able to evaluate the progress of the project set in motion by the Province and on the synergy that we have able to realise with various operators."

Rosa D’Ancona.