Migrants in the 'Io Mi Racconto' Italian language course in Rome have sent messages to their friends in the documentary "Nero su Bianco" ("Black on White").

"Dear friends, three years have passed since I last saw you,'' said one.

"I hope that you are all well. I miss you all. I am well and now I am looking for a new job," said another.

The film was made after two months of training and includes interviews with migrants, other foreigners and Italians. The refugees discuss their countries of origin and their experiences in Italy, their future prospects and the challenges they face.

Daily life and difficulties in Italy

"I like studying, going to the cinema and playing football. I like Rome and there are many kind people," one boy says.

"I don't like being unemployed" and "it's difficult here in Italy at times," others say.

Some note that there is war in their home countries and men and women are not the same. 

The video features 25 young migrants from 14 countries who are in Italian asylum seekers and refugee protection system (SPRAR) centers. "It aims to provide an avenue to talk about their experience in Italy and tell the world about their past and present lives," Programma Integra, head of the course, explained.

An initiative to combat stereotypes

The course that led to making the film ''is part of a didactic experience that tries to create as much interaction as possible between participants and the country and led the class to carry out alternative activities to traditional classroom lessons,'' the cooperative noted on its website. The students visited historical sites in the Italian capital and shot the interviews included in the video, as well as with people they met on the streets. 

''We are all human beings,'' an elderly resident of Rome said in an interview in a park in the Italian capital. Programma Integra said the video project ''undoubtedly made it possible to enrich their experience and provide new tools for understanding the language and culture of the country hosting them." The initiative's goal is to "tear down cultural barriers given off by stereotypes and to provide new points of view in order to better understand the reasons why people flee their countries and come to Italy."