Spare a thought for the thousands of Italians here who..

..have lost their homes and the many who have lost everything - and I mean everything. It is impossible for Italians to get Quake insurance and, although the government will eventually pay for rehousing or repairs where feasible, it can take years to pay out (especially this time with the sheer numbers involved) nor does it cover personal effects. Our hilltop town (we live just on the other side of the valley) has been evacuated and sealed off (only acceisible if accompanied by a member of the protezione civile (the organisation who are responsible for coordinating rescue, temprary shelter, feeding and relocating displaced persons) Several other towns near us are closed and evacuated and various houses, churches and heritage buldings have either collapsed or are deemed unsafe.

It will be weeks before many can return, and there are long queues at centres for people arranging for the engineering inspections of their houses to determine whether they are safe to inhabit. Eve where they can we are experiencoing aftershocks which can cause collapses of houses weakened by the earlier quakes. It is like the blitz in that, unlike floods or hurricanes where you get some warning, earthquakes can strike anywhere at anytime with absolutely no warning). We are extremely lucky (uop to now, as when we restored our house it cost a lot of money to underpin the foundations and have a seismic ring supporting the roof to meet the latest regulations. Whilst it was an unforeseen expense meaning we had to forego one or two other things we would have liked and I had to do some of the finishing work myself, we are extremely glad we had a good architect and Geometra who insisted we did everything by the book. Som English friends of ours, whilst they restored an old house and had the roof renovated to the proper standard, they did not pay quite so much attention to the foundations and it looks as the moment like they will have to leave the house as it is unsafe without major repair work. Even that may not be possible and it may have to be demolished

Without coming a cross as racist, it is also bringing the migrant issue into sharp focus. As we are in a tourist area (albeit relatively low key) the contingency plans for past Earthquake events was to temporarily rehouse people in hotels either inland away from the damaged zones or at seaside hotels -particularly now the season is over). However quite a lot of the spare capacity has been taken by housng migrants on a long term basis. This is leading to resentment as locals see people sleeping on sunbeds set up in Gymnasiums and queuing for food at hastily setup kitchens whilst the migrants are receiving subsitence allowances, food, clothes and food and lodgings in 2* and 3* hotels on an individual room basis. Although this is no fault of the migrants you can understand people feeling that they are getting the sh*t end of the stick.

Italy financially was already struggling and taking a massive hit from the migrant crisis and now, on top of that is having to deal with tens of thousand of displaced people, and damage running into hundreds of millions of pounds which will take years to rectify even disregarding the heritage sites that will have to be made safe and eventually restored. The point being it is amazing how the media - celebrities and charities rush to the aid of migrants but all goes silent when a European country's population is in dire straights due to natural disaster. No foreign aid has been forthcoming so far and it isl been done by the Italian authorities. Help is needed NOW!!

 

I think there was some publicity in August after the earthquake that happened then where a group of about 20 African migrants volunteered and travelled about 30 miles from a hostel and helped out in Pescara Del Tronto in the way you suggested.

In no way belittling their efforts and they clearly did so on their own initiatives and showed great compassion and empathy but considering 420,000 boat people were accepted into Italy since 2014 it will take a lot more than 20 to win over the growing resentment. Last night on local TV they were showing people who have suffered and are obviously really upset, stressed and not exactly thinking clearly who were really angry with the organisations and authorities who were fully stretched and working flat out simply because they were bussing people out of the area to safe zones, temporary shelters and and seaside resort hotels where limited accomodation was being made available . They were shouting and arguing with the officials even though it was the safest and most logical thing to do.

Unfortunately there seem to be no signs of the local migrants around here replicating the behaviour of those in August as they are still begging outside supermarkets and hanging around in groups on their mobile phones which, again, is not endearing themselves to the population. Again, though, there seems to be no effort on the part of the authorities to actively seek volunteers. I suppose local Italians 'in the know' who have been through this before (albeit not on this scale) know how to join in with the relief effort but I have to admit that, with our still rather poor Italian language skills (we are learning) and limited knowledge of the way these things work in Italy, we are having trouble in volunteering our time ourselves. I am having to resort to emailing Italian friends to try and find out how we can help even if it means washing up at the emergency kitchens or driving people around. I went to the ccommune (local council) offices only to find the whole hilltop town is sealed off and everyone evacuated to the local gym pending engineers safety reports.

 

FFS jamdrop!! Where have I criticised or condoned the anti-migrant sentiment? It is understandable given what is going on here at present. You used to be a teacher so I credit you with being intelligent enough to distinguish between a migrant seeking asylum with no means of support who illegally entered the country being an undeniable drain on State resources (No apportioning any blame on them but it is a fact ) and someone who provides for himself and pays taxes etc and supports local businesses and tradsmen. There is a difference and surely you MUST see that!

 

PS. Just a additional thought.. What has that got to do with anything in the OP??

 

Err no. Actually its 'migrants with skills that can contribute to society and not be a huge drain on resources' good. Half a million arriving in 24 months without money or any means of support' bad. So come on then genius what is your answer??

 

Thanks for that. Anyone who leave their country of birth for whatever reason has something in common so you are right. The point though, that I was making though is that, whilst we as a couple integrated (yep the money helps and the fact that unlike Italians we actually pay our bills on time) we are not regarded as any sort of problem but more as positive contributor to the local economy and society in general and have been accepted as such, whereas the population see the mass influx of migrants all needing accomodation, food and clothes without any means of self support as problematic, particularly as it is impacting the solution to the current catastrophic situation brought about through the multiple earthquakes we are experiencing. The BBC reports only paint half a picture of how bad thing really are. In a way, tens of thousands of displaced people is much harder to deal with than thousands of dead and that applies equally to migrants and earthquake victims. Wasn't it a military tactic to wound rather than kill the enemy as it is a greater resource drain to have to treat wounded than bury them?? Just saying.

 

Not saying I agree with the anti -migrant sentiment but was highlighting its existence and the outlining the reason many locals feel that way and distinguish between dependent and non dependent migrants. As I said in my OP (I think) there are many migrants who would be willing to help in the present crisis but there seems to be no system in place to utilise migrant volunteers (including ourselves) We are trying, using Italian friends to try and find out how we can help. Unfortunately the authorities are firefighting the problesm and using locals and the protezione civile organisation, army police etc and have no time to create a system to integrate foreign migrants to help en-masse.

 

What point are you trying to make? As a 'Pensionata' I don't need to bring '"skills with me". Howvere, nor do I 'sponge off the state' if that is what you are trying to imply. Quite the opposite, many retirees, like myself, from different countries have restored derelict properties that Italians have ignored, helped the local economy by employing builders plumbers electricians accountants, and pay taxes and NI into the government coffers.

So again what point are you trying to make? You seem so bound up in left wing ideology you are incapable of discriminating between migrants who have either a neutral or positive effect on their country of residency as opposed to those who are a drain on the country.