I rom di via Rubattino a Milano: una storia interculturale di educazione alla cittadinanza

Abstract

On November 19, 2009, the via Rubattino shantytown, on the eastern outskirts of Milan, was forcibly evacuated. The eviction was amplified by heavy media coverage, as customary when the Nomad State of Emergency is concerned. 400 Romanian Roma, of whom almost none had a regular work or residence permit, lived in the via Rubattino camp. 36 were minors who had attended school only a few months. After ten years, the majority of those families, although in situations different from one another, have a regular residence in regular housing units, with at least one adult working and children attending secondary school. In terms of numbers via Rubattino's is one of the most significant examples of successful transition from shacks to housing units, over the last few years. The aim of this text is to bring into focus the essential role played by the citizens living close to the camp (the so called "mothers and teachers of via Rubattino"), with the support of Community of Sant'Egidio. Their reaction against the relentless inhumanity systematically carried out by the Municipality has become a form of shared moral capital making common life possible. This experience should provide valuable insights aimed at improving the social conditions of the Roma population living in the slums, through an intercultural approach. But it is also a significant experience of education to citizenship for the local residents. The via Rubattino facts can also be read as an outstanding example of implementation at the local level of the National Strategy for the Inclusion of Roma, Sinti and Caminanti (2012-2020). Paradoxically this positive outcome is the result of an informal alliance between citizens and private association in opposition to, rather than in collaboration with, public authorities.