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Giacomo Sini
Riace, Italy experienced a revitalization thanks to its active welcoming of migrants. It has become a global symbol of solidarity with refugees.
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Giacomo Sini
A new resident passes by one of the numerous new murals of the village. This one reads: “Where are the clouds going?”
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Giacomo Sini
Migrants and locals gather for a talk in front of the “Taverna Donna Rosa,” a main center for the protest against the central government.
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Giacomo Sini
Giuseppe Civati (center left), a former progressive member of the Italian Parliament, talks with the vice-mayor of Riace, just days before Mayor Domenico Lucano is arrested for “aiding illegal immigration.”
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Giacomo Sini
New residents of Camini, a village near Riace. Of the 350 people living in the village, 250 inhabitants of the village are newcomers, and 120 of them are asylum seekers, largely hailing from Syria and African countries.
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Giacomo Sini
A recent law school graduate and resident of Camini helps process asylum applications. The town has taken inspiration from Riace in welcoming refugees.
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Giacomo Sini
Domenico Lucano, current exiled mayor of Riace, founded the “Città Futura - Future City” in 1999, and was listed as one of the fifty most influential people in world in 2017 by Fortune magazine.
The village of Riace, in southern Italy, has become a global symbol of solidarity for its unique way of welcoming refugees. For years, the region suffered from a declining population, as young people left, many migrating north in search of jobs and culture.
In response, Raice began to enthusiastically welcome refugees in the late 1990s, offering migrants abandoned housing and job training.
As a result, Riace began to experience a resurgence. People renewed traditional arts and crafts, and opened bed and breakfasts, workshops, and art exhibitions. Some of the original villagers returned from the north, motivated by the promising economy and revitalized culture. They have been working with the new migrants to clean streets, renovate houses in ruins, rebuild schools, and establish educational farms, vegetable gardens, and olive presses.
The mayor of the village, Domenico Lucano—listed by Fortune as one of 2017’s most influential people—called it the “Riace Model,” and has inspired other small towns in the region to follow suit.
But a new rightwing Italian government has severely cut financing for the entire welcoming project, and a personally and politically hostile Ministry of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, has repeatedly attacked Mayor Lucano.
In June of this year, Salvini told immigrants in Riace to “pack your bags,” ordering their transfer to migrant reception centers. He has also blocked funding for the System of Protection for Asylum Seekers and Refugees, a major source of support for immigrants to the small villages. A number of migrants and locals went on hunger strike in August, temporarily shuttering workshops and stores.
In October, Mayor Lucano was arrested by the Public Prosecutor of Locri, Italy, accused of “aiding illegal immigration.” Lucano was released within a few weeks, but has had to leave the southern town to comply with a court order banning him. Many villagers say that they are ready to continue the southern town’s widely lauded model to integrate migrants—even without public money.