A television commercial with the faces of migrants is being used in Italy to revive a campaign to change the country's immigration law.
Foreigners' faces flit across the screen alongside the most common stereotypes about migrants.
"I am a thief. I am a terrorist. I steal your jobs. I bring diseases."
"You tell me to go home. This is my home - I was born here."
The images broaden to show daily lives made up of jobs, friendships and integration. "My home is where I work, where I raise my children and where I pay my taxes and social security contributions that are for your pension and future as well."
The television commercial has been created to support the "Ero Straniero - L'Umanità Che Fa Bene" (I Was a Foreigner - The Humanity That Does Good) campaign for the collection of signatures to propose a citizens' initiative law on immigration. The initiative is sponsored by various associations and parties, such as the Italian Radical Party, ACLI, ARCI, ASGI and Centro Astalli, with the support of hundreds of unions.
The video ends with the slogan: "To put an end to the lies, you just have to look beyond the prejudices. With a signature, you can give certain rules to integration in our country, because humanity is good for everyone and one cannot feel like a foreigner for one's whole life."
Commercial to change the narrative
The campaign aims to "change the narrative on immigration" and "modify the most mistaken laws in our country, which have produced problems, insecurity, precariousness and illegality," stressed Radical Party chief Riccardo Magi. The commercial, made by Cut and produced by Ang Film, is meant as a tool to relaunch the campaign, which has already garnered about 30,000 signatures across Italy.
"Over the next two months, we want to reach and cross 50,000 signatures. This is not easy, given the political and social climate that has been created," he added. This is an initiative "that isn't popular, but we believe it must be done," he added.
New law for migrants in Italy
The draft law calls for channels for the legal entrance for migrants who want to request asylum as well as ones coming for economic reasons. It also proposes alternatives to legalize foreigners with roots already in the country, integration measures for asylum seekers and refugees, the right to vote in local elections and the abolition of the crime of clandestine immigration.
In Italy, migration "was long considered an emergency issue, until we realized that it is a cultural one," underscored Emma Bonino from the Radical Party. There has long been a lively debate in Italy on the issue of migrants, she added, mentioning debates on evictions, rapes and the "the mosquito case," which concerned a young girl who died of malaria.
Through this campaign, Bonino said, "we are trying to react using a different sort of discourse," alongside a request that "our proposals be considered" for inclusion in the preparation of a government plan for integration.