There are more than 50 associations formally organized and registerered into the volunteer associations list in Bologna. In order to know each association activity and also to start sharing opinions wirh foreign citizens on immigration politics, we met Agorà di Mondi, an association made up of foreign and Italian women.
An interview with Blagovesta Guetovi, president of the association.
Question: How was the association born and which are its fields of intervention?
Answer: Agorà di Mondi was born in 2002, women from different ethnies felt the need of working on women’s issues, particularly on migrant women’s. The associations is made up of women from all ethnies living in the territory, its aim is to recognize and affirm women’s dignity and emancipation.
Question: Are there diffences between problems migrant men pass through and women’s? Which are they?
Answer: There are no diffences between men and women, nor between local and foreing women, but there are differences among ethnies and among the same women: differnt religions, different colours. These are significant matters. There is also much disparity between women and men, in addition to this we are migrants. We are discriminated at work and at home. Even in a region like Emilia Romagna immigration is thought as mainly of men. Migrant women presence has recently been talked upon. Our association wants to be where politics that are to be enactacted are thought.
Question: Do you think that integration is moving towards the worthening of migrant women qualifications and knoledges?
Answer: No big changes lately occurred. There’s a quite general problem of having degrees recognized, but also experiences and qualifications are not easy to be respected.
Home duties are still not recognized as a work in migrant families. Foreign women life remain conditioned by colour, origins, religions, these make women work more ethnical.
Question: Is information well spread among migrant women?
Answer: The knowledge of Italian language is a problem, therefore knowing our rights and on laws and existing possibilities such as training courses and working chances. Our association desk tries to answer to these matters.
Question: Which are the problems you mainly face?
Answer: We mainly meet women who are in search of a job. We also helped women who have problems with families they work with as house helpers, or women that do not know how have papers and documents or women that need to meet with others because they feel homesick.
Unfortunately there are many foreign women who work as house assistants who come here because of sexual abuse. These are extremely delicate situations from a psycological point of view. We want to help them to have their rights respected.
We also have a desk helping on migrant women working problems. We cooperate in this with Cisl. The desk is in Via Milazzo 16 in Bologna.
Question: How is it to self organize work? What do you think of association politics?
Answer: Self organizing work is extremely difficult. We found it hard to open our association, now things are much better. We are still not financed but our aim is to have some of our projects organized.
Question: Are there easier rules to be followed by migrant people associations?
Answer: No, there aren’t. Laws are the same for everyone and some points of new local law aren’t very clear.
Agorà di Mondi is in Bologna, in via Andrea da Faenza 17/a.
Info: 051.353980.