An Interview with Roberto Mazzarella.

The Palermo Council, which has taken up the challenge over the last few years of transforming our city into a centre of attraction of international interests, could not miss paying particular attention to the numerous communities of Sicilians resident abroad. Roberto Mazzarella, Council consultant for institutional relations, illustrated the guidelines of the policy adopted by the communal Administration regarding emigration.

The communal Administration, like other local authorities, has fully understood the importance today of the enormous presence of Italian representatives abroad and for this reason has decided to draw up a policy of intervention aimed not to mortify but to develop the diversity of the Sicilian communities resident abroad so that they can become sources of wealth for us all.

What progress has been made?

"First of all, we have recently organised a twinning for classical music, in collaboration with the Teatro Massimo, between some young people from Detroit and Palermo. We played host to three of these young people and it’s the turn of our youngsters to perform abroad next spring. This twinning served, among other things, to create also new and interesting collaborative opportunities not only of a cultural nature, but also those of tourism and commerce with our overseas communities. In the itinerary there is, in fact, the project for another twinning between the Teatro Massimo and the Sidney Opera House. However, the Council’s policy is not to limit itself to occasional meetings but, rather, to involve the whole community, by way of two different needs: the recognition of civil rights, on the one hand, and the allocation of services on the other. Regarding the first point, even if it’s undeniable that the presence of Italian emigrants in the world constitutes, from a socio-economic point of view, a precious resource which must be guided towards the growth of wealth of our Region, it is necessary to be careful not to exasperate this aspect because we would run the risk of weakening the links with our emigrants and, in this way, seeing the failure of any policy regarding the question of emigration. This is why we believe it is important to establish long-term relationships with our emigrants, to harmonise the cultural and economic aspects with the recognition of some fundamental rights."

In what sense has the Council administration decided to intervene?

"On 4^th November, the Administration decided to enter into a civil battle for the voting rights of our emigrants. The mayor, Leoluca Orlando, together with Padre Loreto De Paolis of the Papal Council and a Swiss, San Gallo newspaper launched a petition whose slogan was ‘A life without frontiers for a vote without frontiers’. In our fight we have tried to involve the associations; we have sent them a copy of the petition and are waiting for their reply."

What initiatives have been taken regarding the services the Council intends to offer the emigrants?

"First of all, in September, we set in motion the AIRE computerization system to issue registry certificates in real time. This system offers our emigrants a notable advantage because it allows them to obtain family status certificates, resident certificates and various other documents by simply asking at any registry office in their own town. In the near future we intent to respond to another need of our emigrants: that of a continuous and up-to-date channel of information. For this reason we intend to open two windows in our Internet site in which we shall insert not only the Council’s activity at an international level, but also the services available to emigrants and a complete list of all the laws, both national and regional, regarding emigration."

Roberta D’Ancona.