Last Wednesday, the group as a whole went to the market of Piazza Vittorio, this neighborhood is well known for being where you would be able to find the ethnic community of Rome. It was very oblivious once we were there because of the abundance of Chinese shops. Our assignment was to interview people at the market. The interview was very simple; it was approached in a casual standpoint where the interviewer and interviewee could be in a comfortable environment and to learn more about issues of a multi-cultural community in Rome.
Once in the market, some might say that it is multi-cultural but this was easily explained by the first person that we interviewed “everyone here is from Bangladesh.” Although there were other ethnicities represented, Bangladeshis were predominate. The market itself differed from other markets that I’ve been to in Rome, the workers were different, the products were different, it was clear to see that the market catered to the surrounding neighborhood and it’s residents.
My partner and I were walking around and we came across the seafood section, a man working at one of the stands then approached us. He first spoke to us in Italian but with my Italian not being anywhere close to hold a conversation I simply replied “sono americano, parlo italiano un poco. parli inglese?” Our interviewee laughed a bit and told us he could, this started our interview with him as well as him asking us questions. We asked various questions about where he was from, why he was in Rome, if he liked it here, and so on. He wasn’t hesitant to answer our questions, he also was from Bangladesh and told us that he had only been in Rome for a short time but has been an Italian citizen for 5 years now. He continued to tell us that he had traveled around Asia and Europe but decided to reside in Rome to work in his brother’s business, which was a fish stand in the market. He was very optimistic about saying that he enjoys his stay here in Rome, and that he didn’t have plans on going anywhere else.
The other person that we interviewed wasn’t a native Italian but he had been living in Italy for 30 years now. He was from Egypt and traveled back there twice a year. He worked in a meat stand where he thought I spoke Italian and when I told him different, he advised me that knowing Italian would only better myself. He claimed that Rome was gave him a great opportunity for his business. I assumed that since he has lived in Rome for an extended amount of time and travels back and forth from Egypt that his residency in Italy is stable, whether or not he’s a citizen. He too also stated that he enjoyed living in Rome.
Comparing my experience at Piazza Vittorio and then watching the film, it is clear that the creator of the film wanted it’s audience to know of the diversity through musical talents of the ethnic community but he also showed the problems that arose when being an ethnic minority here in Rome. The film also showed how the neighborhood become so diverse and the anti-immigrants sentiments towards the migrants settling in Piazza Vittorio and the efforts to demonstrate that there was an established ethnic community of Rome.
Coming from an immigrant’s viewpoint, both of our interviewees had nothing bad to say about being treated negatively for being immigrants as they were both employed and of middle to higher economic class. It would have been nice to get a viewpoint from an immigrant of lower class and an actually Italian, but the only Italians we encountered were at the nearby University and classes were in progress and the ones I spoke to didn’t understand what I was trying to ask them.
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