NOTE SU PLURILINGUISMO E REPERTORI LINGUISTICI DI IMMIGRATI NELL’ITALIA

DELL’INIZIO DEL XXI SECOLO/

SOME REMARKS ON IMMIGRANTS’ LINGUISTIC REPERTOIRES IN ITALY, AT THE BEGINNING

OF THE XXI CENTURY

Marina CHINI (University of Pavia)

MERIDIUM International Conference, Perugia, 23-25 November 201124th November – II Session – The impact of migration flows

Schema / Outline

1. Il contesto dell’immigrazione nell’Italia di oggi / The context of immigration in contemporary Italy

2. Immigrazione e plurilinguismo in Italia: filoni di studio /Immigration and multilingualism in Italy: some research trends

3. Lingue d’origine e comunità linguistiche immigrate /The native languages and some immigrant linguistic communities

4. Repertori linguistici di alcuni gruppi immigrati /The linguistic repertoires of some immigrant groups

5. Conclusioni, con alcuni spunti comparativi /Conclusions, with some comparative remarks

Some statistical data

Official ISTAT data:

January 2011, in Italy 4.570.317 immigrants, over a population of 60 million = 7.5%

Dossier Caritas Migrantes 2011 estimates about 5 million immigrants in Italy in 2010, among which 3 million came to Italy in the last 10 years.

Cf. 150 years ago: Italy 1861, 88.639 immigrants = 0.4%.

International and EU context

International level: in the last 10 years the immigrant population in the world grew conspicuously, + 64 million - > now 214 million people + more than 15 million refugees.

EU: almost 1 / 10 inhabitants was born in a country different from the country he/she is living in now. In 2009 in EU 32.5 million people had a foreign citizenship, 6.5%. Almost 15 million were naturalized.

Origin of immigrants in Italy

Table A: Immigrants with residence permit (1980-2011) (Source: Caritas/Migrantes based on ISTAT)

Year Origin (%) total n.Europe Africa Asia America Oceania others

1980 53.2 10.0 14.0 21.0 1.4 0.4 298.7491990 33.5 30.5 18.7 16.4 0.8 0.1 781.1382000 40.7 28.0 19.2 11.8 0.2 0.0 1.388.1532003 47.9 23.5 16.8 11.5 0.1 0.1 2.193.9992008 53.6 22.4 15.8 8.1 0.1 0.1 3.891.2952011 53.4 21.6 16.8 8.1 0.1 4.570.317

Main features of immigration in Italy - 1

Unequal distribution of the immigrants on the national territory, see Table 1: 35% North West; 26.3%, North East; 25.2% Center; 13.5% South and Islands. More precisely 24% of them live in Lombardy, about 11-12% in Lazio, Veneto, Emilia Romagna; about 8-9% in Tuscany and Piedmont.

In some regions and towns immigrants are about 10-12% of the whole population: Emilia Romagna, Lombardy and Umbria; Brescia, Mantova, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Prato.

78.8% of the immigrants are of working age; low mean age, 32 years vs. 44 years of Italians; only 2% of immigrants are more than 65 years old vs. 20% of the Italian population.

almost 1 / 10 of the whole working population of Italy is immigrant

Main features of immigration in Italy - 2

frequent mixed marriages, in 2009 1 out of 10.

growingly stable phenomenon: 600.000 acquired Italian citizenship according to ISTAT (66.000 in 2010).

growing number of minors, almost 1 million, and of second generation people, almost 650.000.

Migrants with residence permit in some Italian regions Region Migrants with residence permit - beginning 2010

Piedmont 377.241

Lombardy 982.225

Veneto 480.616

Friuli-Venezia Giulia 100.850

Emilia Romagna 461.321

Tuscany 338.746

Lazio 497.940

Campania 147.057

Abruzzo 75.708

Apulia 84.320

Sicily 127.310

Sardinia 33.301

ITALY 4.235.059, 22% minors - SOURCE: Dossier Caritas 2010

Immigrant pupils in Italian schools

Foreign pupils in Italian schools in 2010-2011: 711.046 = 7.9%.

35.8% of the total number of foreign pupils are in primary schools;

20.3 % in preschools, 22.3% in junior high schools, 21.6% in senior high schools.

Heavy growth in the last years in senior high schools: 14% in 2001-02 -> 21.6% in 2010-2011.

The whole world is represented in Italian schools

First native countries of pupils with non Italian citizenship, 2010-2011 –

Total n. immigrantsNative country Pupils,

2010-2011Total n. of immigrants coming from these countries,I.1.2010

Romania 126.452 887.763 (2011: 968.576)

Albania 99.205 466.684 (2011: 482.627)

Morocco 92.542 431.529 (2011: 452.424)

China 32.691 188.352 (2011: 209.934)

Moldova 20.580 105.600

India 20.536 105.863

Philippines 19.766 123.584

Ecuador 19.537 85.940

Tunisia 18.333 103.678

Ukraine 17.408 174.129

Italian educational policy Focus on teaching Italian L2, intercultural education and

dialogue, more than on L1 maintenance (although some pertinent hints are given in several laws)

Some laws and regulations: CM 301, 8.9.1989; law 40/1998; Regolamento DPR 394, 1999, etc.

CM 24, I.3.2006 Linee guida per l’accoglienza e l’integrazione degli alunni stranieri [‘Guidelines for welcoming and integrating foreign pupils’];

the 2007 document of the Italian Ministry of Education La via italiana per la scuola interculturale e l’integrazione degli alunni stranieri [‘The Italian way to intercultural school and integration of foreign pupils’]:Main principles: inclusive policy, promotion of the acquisition of L2 Italian and of intercultural dialogue, care to the uniqueness and relational character of every pupil, [weak] development of multilingualism, parental involvement

A recent resolution of the MIUR

January 2010 the It. Ministry of Education and University establishes that 30% is the

maximum percentage of foreign pupils in a class, in order to avoid ghettoisation.

It also establishes that schools ‘can organize a first phase of language learning for foreign pupils [newly arrived in Italy], before they enter the class or in parallel to their setting-in phase, in order to facilitate their integration in the class’;

Furthermore schools ‘can organize enhancement courses where it is possible, resorting to teachers from the same school. Therefore it is convenient, in teacher training, to give special attention to methodologies and teaching measures suitable for promoting integration’

(cf. http://www.istruzione.it/web/ministero/cs080110)

Italian L2 in the schools and teacher training

Some Italian L2 teaching projects: - MILIA, in the Nineties; - integrated e-learning teacher training project Italiano L2: lingua di contatto, lingua di culture, 2003-2006

http://venus.unive.it/italdue/index.php?name=EZCMS&page_id=326&menu=100

Some problems: - still few resources at the financial and organizational level for promoting multilingualism and a real intercultural dialogue; - often not enough competence at the pedagogical and linguistic level among teachers; - non systematic intervention in this field; - in principle no special teacher for Italian L2

Some positive sides, inter alia

growing expertise and sensitivity among teachers;

significant involvement of the civil society and of volunteers;

some costless public courses for immigrant adults, also in order to help them getting a certification

for ex. in Lombardy; www.certificailtuoitaliano.it.

Some research trends on immigration and language in Italy - 1

a. Studies on immigrants’ acquisition of Italian as a second language (Banfi 1993, Giacalone Ramat 2003), also with a sociolinguistic perspective on pidginized learner varieties (Orletti 1988), on Italian ethnolects (Vietti 2005).

The so-called ‘Pavia Project’ on L2 Italian:some developmental regularities at the morphological, syntactic level, then also at the lexical and discourse level (cf. Giacalone Ramat 2003, Bernini et al. 2008).

Since the Nineties more interaction with European networks on SLA, work on Italian L2 in a comparative perspective: -Vigoni-Project on Italian-German L2 (Dittmar/Giacalone Ramat 1999); -The Learner varieties project, in different phases, coord. MPI of Nijmegen NL, with W. Klein, C. Perdue, then H. Hendriks, C. Dimroth cf. http://www.learner-varieties.eu/

Some research trends on immigration and language in Italy - 2

b. 2001-2002 new interest in the entire immigrants’ linguistic repertoire: first sociolinguistic outlines of the linguistic situation of migrants in Italy

[Mioni 1998] and presumptive lists of migrants’ native languages. Cf. Vedovelli & Villarini 2001.

National CNR-Agenzia 2000 Project "Le lingue straniere immigrate in Italia" [lit. ‘The immigrated languages in Italy’], coord. by Massimo Vedovelli, University for Foreigners of Siena. Six Italian Universities [Bergamo, Cagliari, Milano Bicocca, Pavia, Siena, Verona]. On linguistic repertoires, language maintenance and language shift in some Northern Italy contexts, such as Turin, Pavia, Bergamo, Verona (Chini 2003, 2004; Massariello Merzagora 2004; Chini 2009c; Valentini 2005, 2009; Chini 2009a e 2011), the structure of immigrants’ repertoires (Guerini 2006; Berruto 2009), presence of immigrant languages in the Italian linguistic landscape (Bagna et al. 2004).

Possible rise of ethnolects and their internal variation in Italy [Vietti 2005].

CNR-Agenzia2000 Project –

The Pavia research Unit

The Pavia research Unit, coord. by M. Chini, with C. Andorno, M. Biazzi, G.M. Interlandi, investigated some sociolinguistic aspects of migration in the Province of Pavia and in Turin in 2002:

some qualitative investigations [Chini 2003] a quantitative research based on a questionnaire studied

the linguistic repertoire, the linguistic competence and the language uses of 414 immigrant pupils of public schools (9-20 years) and of 171 adults in the same areas, in Pavia and its Province and Turin (Chini 2004)

The main native languages of immigrants in Italy

1) Romanian (21%) 2) Albanian (11%) 3) Moroccan and Tunisian Arabic, various Arabic dialects

(13%) 4) Chinese (5%) 5) Ukrainian (and Russian) (4-5%) 6) Tagalog/English (3%) 7) several varieties of Spanish (about 6%).

On the whole possibly 122 languages according to Vedovelli/Villarini (2001: 228-229).

Lingue immigrate

Some L1 can become or are ‘immigrated languages’, i.e. languages socially rooted and potentially able to influence the local linguistic setting

[lingue "di sicuro radicamento sociale" in grado "di condizionare l’assetto idiomatico locale"; Bagna et al. 2003: 203].

Possible immigrants’ minority communities in Italy

[Source: ISTAT 2011]Country % living in the provincial or

regional capitalsFive first towns with at least 5000 immigrants in 2011

Romania 30.6 Rome, Turin, Milan, Padua, Verona

Albania 27.1 Rome, Turino, Genoa, Milan, Florence

Morocco 22.2 Turin, Milan

China 46.8 Milan, Rome, Prato, Turin

Ukraine 38.6 Rome, Neaples, Milan

Philippines 80.1 Milan, Rome

Moldova 45.2 Rome

Poland 35.1 Rome

Peru 62.3 Milan, Rome, Turin, Florence

Ecuador 56.9 Genoa, Milan, Rome

Criteria for identifying proper immigrant minorities

[Lüdi 1990, Chini 2004, 2009a] 1) sufficiently high number of migrants; 2) existence of a migrant community sharing the same culture

and language; 3) quite regular and frequent interactions also in L1 within the

immigrants’ community; 4) the migratory project should be definitive (long duration of

stay; high number of young immigrants attending schools; important number of naturalizations);

5) creation of (cultural, religious, sport, recreational, union, media) institutions specific of the immigrant community.

6) positive intention to maintain L1.

Immigrants’ media in Italy 2005

about 50 newspapers and magazines, printed or on the internet, on the whole 350.000 copies (3000-20.000 copies each); 70% is distributed free of charge.

Main languages used in these publications:

English and French for Africans; Albanian; Romanian and Italian for Romanians; Spanish for Latin-American immigrants;Portuguese for immigrants from Brazil and Portuguese-speaking African countries;Chinese and sometimes Italian for Chinese people;Arabic, French, Italian for people from Arabic speaking countries;English and Tagalog for media from the Philippines;Polish in media for Polish people; Urdu, Bengali, English, Punjabi, Sinhalese for immigrants from the Indian Region; Russian, Ukrainian and Italian for Ukrainian [and Russian] people in Italy. [Fiorentini 2005]

Immigrants’ media in Italy in 2007

The 2007 survey of the Cospe organization (Cooperazione per lo Sviluppo dei Paesi Emergenti) found:

about 150 newspapers and magazines in immigrants’ languages: 63 magazines, 59 radio broadcasts, 24 TV broadcasts

two thirds of them are born in the last 5 years.

cf. Dossier Caritas 2008.

Main immigrants’ native languages (Pavia and Turin; Chini 2004)

Indo-european languages: Albanian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Sinhalese, Croatian, Kurdish, Indian and Iranian dialects, Romance dialects, Farsi or Persian, French, Greek, Hindi, English, Macedonian, Moldavian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romany, Serbian, Spanish, Romanian, Russian, German, Ukrainian, Urdu.

Languages from other language families: Amarish, several varieties of Arabic, Bata, Berber, Bini or Edo, Standard Chinese, Wu Chinese, several Chinese dialects, African dialects, Diula o Jula, Lingala, Quechua, Swahili, Ruanda, Tagalog, Tigrinya, Twi, Yoruba, Zagon.

Multilingualism before migration

Syria: Kurdish/Syrian Arabic Romania: Zagon/Romanian Ukraine: Moldavian/Russian/Ukrainian Ethiopia: Amharic/Tigrinya Nigeria 1: Bini/Edo/English/Pidgin Nigeria 2: English/Yoruba Ghana: English/Twi Angola: Portuguese/Lingala Congo: French/Lingala Morocco: Moroccan Arabic/Berber (Chini 2004)

Language choices with different interlocutors in Italy

Verona (n. 267) Pavia (n. 309) Turin (n. 105)

L1 IT L1+IT L1 IT L1+IT L1 IT L1+IT

%With father 59.6 10.9 14.2 48.5 14.6 26.2 53.3 12.4 27.6

%With mother 58.4 9.4 20.2 47.9 10.4 35.6 46.7 19.0 27.6

%With brothers/sisters

25.5 28.1 18.4 28.2 19.7 35.0 31.4 24.8 22.9

%With grand-parents

79.4 2.2 1.1 80.9 2.2 8.5 80.9 2.2 8.5

%With friends (non-it/it.)

4.1 62.6 24.7 33.7/1.0 29.1/92 24.6/1.9 39.0/- 25.7/97 27.6/-

%With neighbours 6.0 79.8 4.5 - - - - - -

Scale of language shift to Italian and L1

maintenance in immigrant children

SHIFT:

school, Italian friends > transactions > non Italian friends > family (brothers/sisters > father > mother > grand-parents

MAINTENANCE:

grand-parents > father/mother > non Italian friends > brothers/sisters > school, Italian friends, transactions (Chini 2004)

Relevant factors for language use and L1 maintenance

native country sex generation length of stay in Italy endogamy parents’ profession

school attendance in the host country

school attendance in the native country

interlocutors social context of life others(Chini 2004).

The linguistic repertoire of immigrant communities before migration

1) a national language and local related varieties and dialects, sometimes in a diglossia relationship;

2) a national language, (local related varieties) and a minority language;

3) an (international) exolanguage (also in pidginized varieties), sometimes one or more vehicular languages or lingua franca (cf. Wolof in Senegal), national languages, and local varieties and dialects;

4) two widely spread languages, and sometimes more local varieties (i.e. Standard Arabic together with French, besides regional varieties of Arabic, among educated people from Morocco and Tunisia).

Multilingual practices, code mixing and switching

mio fratello eh before arbeit lavora Pakistan + tre/äh du/+ anno + Germania ++ and then go/and then gehen Pakistan and eh + una fabbrica + fabrica and then arbeit ålf [elf] person (Pakistani immigrant in Alto Adige – South Tyrol;

Banfi 1995: 146-147)

Some immigrants’ linguistic repertoires in Italy

Ghanaian community in Bergamo and its province (Guerini 2006)

Nigerians in Turin (Berruto 2009) Pakistani immigrants near Milan (Berruto

2009) Peruvian immigrants in Turin (Berruto

2009)

Italian and Romance dialects in immigrants’ discourse

(8) dove vivo io parrano tutti il dialetto – dov|dove vado io a comprare un pane mi fa – rice- “quanto t’accattari?”, cioè quanto t’accattare è:: dialetto. e vabbene. piano piano::: mi sono imparato. già delle volte mi trovo difficoltà di parrare italiano perché già ! parro il dialetto meio di::: l’italiano vah! (Palermo, Sicily; D’Agostino 2004: 207)

(9) c’era da scegliere far su famiglia + o andare sempre avanti + eh e niente con/ poi è stato + diciamo ‘sta ragazza qui “ma no state qui ma qui ma no” va ben abbiamo valudato che poi c’era il lavoro, c’era la casa e qui e là e quindi i conti li abbiam fatti io e lei + ?s’è ca fuma [= che cos’è che facciamo?] (Lombardy, Chini 2003: 237)

The typology of immigrants’ repertoires depends on

number of languages in the pre-migration repertoire and its complexity;

status, functions and prestige of the languages of the original repertoire in the immigration context;

presence, function, penetration of Italian and its dialects in the immigrants’ repertoire;

structural distance between the languages of the repertoire; if reduced, probably more contact phenomena (Chini 2009a: 296)

Some conclusionsMain results: - principal immigrants’ languages; - initial language shift also in intra-ethnic domains.

Data to collect or topics to elaborate on: statistical data on native languages and language use of immigrants

in whole Italy; language attitudes of immigrants and of native residents in regard to

the languages of the repertoires, inn regard to multilingual practices and multilingualism;

rise and in depth analysis of the sociolinguistic situation of specific new linguistic minorities;

possible rise of new ethnolects in Italy; impact of immigrants’ languages on the Italian "linguistic space" (De

Mauro 1980).

Comparing language uses in different immigration contexts - 1NISU Project in Scandinavia (Boyd & Latomaa 1999): intra-ethnic friendship networks are very conservative in relation to

L1 maintenance; 90-100% L1 usage among partners from the same country; gradual shift and decreasing L1 maintenance along the following

scale [cf. scale for Pavia and Turin]:

Maintenance of minority language among immigrants’ children in the Nordic area: Father or mother of the minority language [ML] > adult of ML > brothers and sisters [younger > older] > father or mother of the majority language (Boyd & Latomaa 1999: 309-311)

Comparing language uses in different immigration contexts - 2Australia: in many immigrants’ communities L1 is more often used by children with their parents

and among the parents, than by the children with brothers and sisters (Clyne & Kipp 1999; Clyne 2003: 42-46).

The factor ‘native country’: Chinese immigrants and often Moroccan Arabic immigrants show high L1 maintenance

(cf. in the Netherlands and in Australia: Extra & Verhoeven 1999: 19; Clyne 2003: 35). Data about Spanish speaking immigrants are less coherent in various areas.

Other possible explaining factors: - linguistic and cultural distance; - socio-cultural condition; - settlement patterns in the new country; - migration models- migration phase.

Grazie molte dell’attenzione!

Thank you very much for your attention!Mulţumes mult! Hvala!Grazzi ħafna! Merci bien! Gracias! Danke sehr!

NOTE SU PLURILINGUISMO E REPERTORI LINGUISTICI DI IMMIGRATI NELL’ITALIA

DELL’INIZIO DEL XXI SECOLO/

SOME REMARKS ON IMMIGRANTS’ LINGUISTIC REPERTOIRES IN ITALY, AT THE BEGINNING

OF THE XXI CENTURY

marina.chini@unipv.it