Italy: Immigration in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond

Earlier this year the world watched as COVID-19 devastatingly swept through Italy. At the time, Italy was the epi-center of the pandemic and was under the lens of many western cultures to learn from. 

Only a few months earlier, before the world could even comprehend what a global pandemic would entail, a young, left-wing organization known as the Sardines, was protesting in piazzas over a politician who was not even in power. Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right, dominant party, the League, has become incredibly influential in Italy due to his anti-immigration and anti-muslim ideologies. Italians have embraced Salvini’s views towards immigrants, refugees, etc., and although the next Italian national election is a few years away, Salvini is expected to be the next prime minister. 

Today, Italy has not forgotten their dark days with COVID-19, as it suffered a large fatality rate of 12.3% and has gradually opened with many precautions in place. Salvini has used his view on immigrants and how they have pertained to COVID-19 to continue his anti-immigrant agenda. Many areas of Italy, such as Sicily, are not accepting immigrants due to the fear imposed by the media that immigrants are allowing COVID-19 to flourish in Italy. However, only 3-5% of positive cases in Italy are due to migrants and refugees, unlike the 25% that is a result of tourism. Salvini has also called on his supporters to protest the arrival of immigrants at ports, stopping them from being able to get off their ships, instilling in them that immigrants are a great threat to Italians in terms of COVID-19. Salvini’s influence has played a massive role in the capacity in which centers can account for taking care of migrants as well. For example, centers used to receive roughly 35 euros a day per migrant, now they are only provided 19 euros a day. This cut in funds has had profound effects on refugee centers that are now overcrowded, dirty, and a place for COVID-19 to spread with little consideration on the wellbeing of migrants. 

Italy’s prime minister is determined through appointment by the party with the majority. In the coming years, it will be interesting to see if the League rises to be the majority in the government and if Salvini will be appointed to be the prime minister. Italians are eager to support Salvini’s anti-immigration views and have continued to do so in the era of COVID-19.

 

Credit: Fabio Bucciarelli from The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-migrants.html) 

Credit: The Independent, Statista (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/europe-immigration-most-anti-immigrant-countries-italy-france-germany-uk-a7460301.html) 

Resource for migrants to Italy: https://cidisonlus.org 

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/world/europe/coronavirus-italy-migrants.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/packing-into-piazzas-italys-sardines-are-demonstrating-against-a-politician-who-isnt-in-power/2019/12/22/007b78f2-211b-11ea-b034-de7dc2b5199b_story.html 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/refugees-italy-bear-brunt-coronavirus-angst-200906223712235.html  

https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/The-legislature#ref258796 

Hong Kong: A Pro-Democracy Without the Freedom of Speech

    The people of Hong Kong find themselves with tape now permanently stuck to their mouths because of the recent passing of a new security law on June 30th. China claims that this new law will return stability to Hong Kong, but residents say that the new law forces them to stay quiet, and to no longer have the right of freedom of speech without worrying about facing punishment. The new security law gives mainland China jurisdiction to censor media, intervene in public affairs, extradite people who’ve escaped to Hong Kong for political sanctuary, and more. In simple terms, this means that the recent passing of China's new security law makes it easier to punish protests and reduce Hong Kong’s autonomy. This worries and scares the people of Hong Kong because they believe that with this new national security law, they have lost freedom of speech.  

Although Hong Kong is under China’s rule, and China is a “socialist democracy” which is really a system controlled under the Chinese Communist Party, Hong Kong is known for being pro-democracy and making the most out of their power to speak freely. Free speech in Hong Kong has played a role in international news media and rights groups. Even under China’s rule, Hong Kong clung onto an independence that allowed them to have material on political topics that was banned in mainland China, protest freely, and demonstrate a pro-democracy territory. However, with the passing of this new security law, limits have been placed where the people of Hong Kong feel like they longer have a voice. The police have arrested more than 20 people because of this new law, with the crimes being punishable up to life imprisonment and allowance for Beijing to directly intervene if they find if wanted.

Changes in Hong Kong have been visibly significant. The owners of a particular bubble tea shop (who had once supported the protests and the idea of pro-democracy) removed all signs of the support, posters, and signs that once was used as a form of decoration. Another example was a restaurant in Hong Kong that removed all supporting signs of the protest and replaced them with Mao-era propaganda posters. Finally, all publishers had to quickly rewrite various textbooks used in academic civic courses to avoid punishment, since the textbooks openly criticized the government. Libraries have also followed suit, where all books written by democracy activists have been removed.

Even with all of these changes, the limits of the new security law is “vaguely defined”, giving the people of Hong Kong the room to make risks seeing just how much they are now allowed to say, write, or tweet. Some individuals have brought creativity into this situation, carrying blank signs or signs with coded messages to continue to protest. They have also begun to play protest songs, but without the lyrics. But the police are giving the young protests warnings, telling them to watch out. Because as soon as they express any kind of criminal opinion, they will be punished and arrested because nothing can fight the law. 

Sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/04/world/asia/hong-kong-speech.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52765838

2020 Presidential Election: Do Political Advertisements need More Regulation?

    Swings states are being targeted by presidential campaigns for the 2020 election. According to Advertisement Analytics, an ad tracking firm, the Trump campaign has spent $57.5 million and the Biden Campaign $63.7 million on advertisements. The presidential nominees are targeting swing states in this extremely close election. Florida has been fought over between Biden and Trump since July. Their advertisements include some misleading information about each other and have the ability to sway millions of people. President Trump has portrayed Joe Biden as somebody who wants to take away social security and give it to immigrants. In the advertisements that have aired on television in Florida, the Trump administration has made false claims about what Biden would do as president. Biden has portrayed President Trump as someone who talks a lot but has done very little for the economy or pandemic. Both campaigns have spent enormous amounts of money on political advertisements in Florida. They are targeting Florida because the race is expected to be closer than any other state. Florida television screens are being overflowed with political advertisements to influence the election as it has done in the past, but where does it end?

Caroline Amenabar/NPR https://www.npr.org/2020/09/15/912663101/biden-is-outspending-trump-on-tv-and-just-6-states-are-the-focus-of-the-campaign

    Political advertisements should be met with more regulation and fact-checking. There should be non-partisan fact-checking for all advertisements that are aired for political purposes. In Florida, more than $200 million has been spent by the Democratic and Republican nominees in advertisements. There needs to be more legislation monitoring the accuracy of political advertisements because they persuade many voters. Legislation will allow people to vote based on the facts of the two presidential candidates instead of the lies. 

Sources

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/politics/trump-biden-ads-florida.html

2. https://www.npr.org/2019/05/14/723215498/florida-governor-says-russian-hackers-breached-two-florida-counties-in-2016

3. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/27/florida-russian-hackers-target-2020-election

4. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/biden-campaign-ad-spending/index.html

5. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/trump-campaign-slashes-ad-spending-in-key-states-in-cash-crunch

6. https://apnews.com/c8c65ca2021d4c7ec5542c5b9335600c

7. https://www.npr.org/2020/09/15/912663101/biden-is-outspending-trump-on-tv-and-just-6-states-are-the-focus-of-the-campaign

Mindfulness: Do (social) democracies have a leg up in tackling a pandemic? And why do women keep winning?

 The stress of a pandemic can serve as a good, not an ideal, litmus test for the integrity of a government. Ideologically governments are thought of as the equilibrium of freedom and equality, but on the ground governments are responsible for a whole lot of damage control. At a first glance it may seem that authoritarian governments would have the advantage in the matter seeing as though not only do they have the advantage of unitary decision making and cultures that are comfortable with the almighty grip of a centralized government. As the Los Angeles Times op-ed suggests,  “Democracies are slow and chaotic. Autocracies are fast and coordinated.” But maybe speed is not the name of the game.  The diverse civil societies and checks and balances in a democracy are lending themselves to greater innovation and adaptability in these challenging times. Slow and steady wins the race. Additionally the nuances of a bipartisan or multiparty system hold leadership accountable and set a certain standard of transparency which in the haze of this pandemic has been sorely lacking in authoritarian governments.  

The article also nods towards the advantages of a social democracy in contrast to a liberal democracy in handling a pandemic. The welfare states of a social democracy often lead to further developed civil societies which play an important role in solving for emergencies. Furthermore there is a norm of respect for government in social democracies which leads to people being more compliant in measures to decelerating the spread (ex. voluntary contract chasing  in Taiwan). Another common denominator of these social democracies that have  seen great success is women in executive positions. As the popular Forbes article points out the majority countries that have best handled the pandemic have benefited from the leadership traits most present in women. But empathy and honesty are not traits uniquely or over present in women, but traits that are valued in the fabric of social democracies. The fact that there are these strong women executives beating a pandemic speaks to the themes of acceptance and progressiveness that would lead to the opportunity for a woman to be elected nevertheless on the ballot. Whether it be a yoga class or a sudden pandemic mindfulness seems to be the key in overcoming obstacles. It may be no surprise, but flexibility, time, and collaboration lead to the solutions and accountability that it takes to tackle something so unprecedented. 

Are Democracies Equipped to Handle Fast-moving economic crises?

     As democratic rivalries rise, the discrepancies and issues with democratic governments are recognized and magnified. Out of 91 democratic governments that surfaced from 1974-2012, 34 of those democracies have collapsed while the effectiveness of 28 other democracies has flatlined. With the rise of COVID, democratic governments take a big blow from social issues such as inequality among the population, discrimination toward minority groups, and systematic corruption. 

     Over the decades, many countries have fought against tyranny for the ideal democratic society that ensures freedom among the population. However, just as though there are many positives about a democratic government during a crisis, there are many flaws and disadvantages as well. The problem for democracies during a national pandemic is the question of whether the government should take the proper precautions to ensure the preservation of the community as a whole and strive to minimize COVID even it invokes the population's freedom or should the government focus on minimizing economic costs while setting guidelines that could benefit the society during the pandemic while allowing the freedom of the population to continue? One false decision could end the democracy if the pandemic freezes the economy by its uncontrollable increase in cases. 

    These decisions cause a polarization of what is the true function of a democratic government. Originally, a democratic government is supposed to be able to create a society where the population can exercise free speech, press, etc. However, during the crisis in Indonesia, a poll taken by the people before and during the crisis had shifted from those original views to the idea that a democratic government should instead provide great decision-making on behalf of the people instead of leaving the decision making up to the people. The issue of modern-day Indonesia is that this pandemic can lead to civil unrest, political turmoil, and an economic meltdown. Indonesia's informal sector of workers is taking the biggest economic impact of this crisis and this is very dangerous because this sector makes up the majority of the workforce. The Indonesian government has implemented fiscal policies that plan to fund and advance healthcare and provide economic assistance to poor communities. The problem is whether these policies are adequate enough to work and if a democratic government is a sustainable concept during a crisis. With rising uncertainty on whether the Indonesian government is capable of willing their people through this pandemic, the efficiency of a democratic government such as this will be tested.

Sources:

https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2020/09/08/insight-are-democracies-equipped-to-handle-fast-moving-economic-crises.html

https://www.icis.com/asian-chemical-connections/2020/05/southeast-asia-polyolefins-demand-may-fall-by-as-much-as-during-asian-financial-crisis/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54034014