FROM CASABLANCA TO CALITRI

With summer quickly approaching, my research days are numbered. Nonetheless, I’ve been continuing to gather lots of interesting material.

I finally met with some Moroccan families a few times, though I haven’t been able to get very close to any women. The Moroccan women I’ve been able to meet in this area have not learned enough Italian to communicate much, and my Arabic can’t get me past a simple greeting.
The older men, the heads of the households, are friendly but aren’t really interested in giving me their time. Instead, it’s the eldest sons—who in some cases are currently in Italian schools and in all cases speak the best Italian—whom I’ve been talking with.

For the most part, I have learned nothing I didn’t already know from reading academic articles, fiction, and journalistic pieces about North African immigrants in Italy. I have, though, finally confirmed my hunch as to why people would move to such a rural part of Italy when the urban centers have more jobs and more services for immigrants—not to mention greater access to food and goods from the immigrants’ home countries. They live here because it’s cheaper—plain and simple.

On first consideration, even factoring in the relatively low-cost of living, the choice still seems odd for the North African immigrants who make money as traveling street vendors. It makes more sense for people who have local factory jobs or work in people’s homes (see some of my earlier posts, e.g., “One Woman’s Experience” and “Em/immigration”).

As I’ve noted, the Moroccan men I’ve met (or have heard about from others) all work as street vendors, moving from outdoor market to outdoor market, and in some cases from door to door, selling their goods. They have to drive to Naples (1-2 hours away), where they buy their goods from Italians or other immigrants (mostly Chinese). Cars are expensive here, mostly because gasoline costs about three times as much as in the U.S. So while the cost of housing is relatively low, it still is somewhat surprising that Moroccan families would choose to move here given the mobility their jobs demand. Also, I’ve been told that it’s a challenge during the winter months for street vendors to make much money, and so some men leave their families in these smaller towns and spend 1-2 weeks away at a time, living with friends/relatives in larger cities in Italy (even going as far a way as Perugia in Northern Italy). This seasonal migration again adds an expense to their overall living arrangement, but one that must be financially worthwhile.