Free Mind

Heather Parisi

The answers you don't expect and nobody will tell you ....

Posted September 22th, 2015

 

Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable ... We close one ear, but listen from the other, or it seems, as in we didn't catch on. This is what certain people want you to believe ...

My Grandfather, Nonno Frank was an immigrant. He left Terra Vecchia, a province of the beguiling Cosenza in Calabria in 1921 ... He arrived thru Ellis Island in New York with his Father, Mother and 6 brothers and sisters. He was only 10 years old ... His plan was to seek a new beginning ...

A shrewd and clever man, he became extremely weathly with a ranch full of purebred Stallions. He opened up 3 "Parisi's Spaghetti House" restaurants, the glamorous River Mansion Hotel, and the Mansion Belle, which was a restaurant boat that floated down the Sacramento River in California!!! ... Yes he was successful and had ambition in his blood. 

The "immigrants" had their eye on the United States .... arriving from England, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Germany, Russia, China etc etc ...

Just a few "immigrants" that have arrived in America: Albert Einstein, Joseph Pulitzer (must I say who he is?), and Sergey Brin as in Mr. Google!! ... 

And, some that arrived in the United Kingdom: Sigmund Freud, T.S. Eliot, and Henry James, to only name of a few ...

Taken from an article written by Jacopo Ottaviani in "Internazionale", concerning the immigration phenomenon ...

Is it just an alibi, to find an excuse, as in bla bla bla-ing? ... 

1)      Is Europe at risk of an invasion?

Information given by UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), 875 thousand immigrants and refugees arrived in Europe via ocean from 2008 to September 2015. Even if all of them remained in Europe, it would be approximately 0,17 % of the European population (which has 507 million residents).

2)     Is Italy the country with the most refugees in Europe?

No. As Valigia Blu highlighted in an enquiry, it welcomes 1 refugee in every thousand and it results below average in Europe (1,1 each 1,000) and really below Sweden (11 every 1,000) and France (3,5 every 1,000). In the Middle East, Lebanon accepts approximately 1,2 million refugees (232 refugee every 1,000 resident), equaling to a 1/4 of the population and in Jordon 672.930 refugees, (87 every 1,000 resident) ...

3)      Do the immigrants in Italy pay taxes?

Yes. Looking from a fiscal point of view, the Moressa Foundation estimates that in Italy, as in the rest of Europe, Foreign workers pay more taxes than what they receive by their achievement (12,5 billion of expences against the 16,5 of contribitions paid) ...

4)      Do immigrants increase disoccupation?

No. The statistic analysis reported by the European University Institute -  a study cofinanced by the European Union - shows that unemployment and immigration in the European countries, do not walk side by side, on the contrary, they move in opposite directions. In Italy, for example, the figures that processed from the Moressa Foundation show how the working immigrants tend to work in different areas than the Italian workers.

I immigrated to Italy from the United States, but not once, while living and working there, did someone make me feel like a foreigner or uncomfortable ...

HP

 

 

5 comments

September 22th, 2015 12:01

What can I say, you're right on every front Heather.
The father of my grandad moved from a tiny village in Tuscany to Brooklyn - then he went back. Almost every family in Italy has a grandad or somebody who moved to France, to Germany, to Belgium, to the US to improve his/her life.
But short memory is a curse, dear Heather, especially when money is lacking. There's always somebody who rises up to tell you how miserable you are and to blame those who are, in fact, in a worst situation. And if you have short memory, you tend to believe that.
You were shiny and blonde and American when you moved to Italy. Sadly, we have to point out that there are immigrants of A class and immigrants of B class. Nobody'd ever dare to say that Heather Parisi stole her job from some italian dancer- you're a sort of national treasure. would that be the same if you'd have come from some poor country of asia/africa? I don't now. I was just listening to a trash-dance song from 1981 (I'm a radiospeaker). The lyrics is like, a vamp-girl is talking to a womanizer and asking where he's from - every time she says: "well I think you're from Morocco" we hear on record a huge sound of laughs. Well... yeah, of course is a joke-song but I thought that actually was a little racist...
Ignorance is something very dangerous, as Orwell pointed out.
(I'm glad you started this blog, proves that you're not only a talented dancer but also a clever woman).

September 22th, 2015 13:54

Tu sei SEMPRE stata e rimani un valore aggiunto. Sei arrivata quasi per caso nel bel paese, l'Italia, ma con un curriculum da far venire i brividi!!! Non sei fuggita da niente e da nessuno. Questa marea infinita di profughi merita sicuramente una chance di riscatto umano e la possibilità di una vita migliore e onesta. Solo che parte col piede sbagliato della clandestinità...e rimane impigliata in una rete dalla quale liberarsi è un'utopia...

September 22th, 2015 16:19

Concordo con la bella riflessione di Roberta. Vero, Heather e' arrivata in Italia si, ma con una enorme dose di talento , cosa alquanto rara, cosi come le personalita' sopra elencate. Pur con i disagi di chi emigra, e' chiaro che se si nasce con qualita' che si elevano abbondantemente sopra la media, si hanno meno problemi.

Si dovrebbe parlare invece di chi emigra dalla guerra e dalla fame, di chi non ha potuto studiare, informarsi, di donne giovani con bimbi in braccio ( quindi con le spalle gia' cariche di pesi ) , di chi arriva ed e' ancora imprigionato in un'ideologia religiosa e sociale che non puo' che collimare contro una societa' come la nostra completamente differente, aumentando cosi le difficolta' di un ipotetico inserimento sociale.

Questo non vuol dire non si debba dare una possiblita' a tutti, infatti in Italia direi che molto si sta facendo , dalle parrocchie ai comuni, si cerca di donare speranza e futuro. Ma chiaro che molto dipende anche dalla persona , la sua capacita' di adattamento, di apprendere ( dalla lingua, al modo di inserirsi , di vestirsi etc. . ), di cercare di stare lontano da giri sospetti e illegali, alcuni riescono altri, purtroppo, no.
Se si cerca la via, paradossalmente "facile" del contrabbando si continuera' a rimanere 'immigrati', se ci si impegna affinche' la propria esistenza viri veso una meta dignitosa, penso che non sia impossibile per nessuno, come dimostrato anche dagli esempi di Heather del nonno , persona "comune" come potrebbe esser un qualsiasi immigrato di oggi.

September 25th, 2015 09:49

Argomento molto delicato e complesso, anche io sono dell'idea che bisogna dare una possibilità di una vita migliore a tutti, spesso dico che noi abbiamo la fortuna di essere nati nel luogo giusto... In realtà però non è tutto così semplice, bisognerebbe avere la cultura dell'accoglienza e imporre delle regole che, purtroppo, nel nostro bel paese che, credetemi, tanto adoro, non rispettiamo nemmeno noi! Bisognerebbe fare dei corsi in Italia per insegnare educazione civica, è fondamentale, sempre secondo me, imparare a rispettare prima di insegnare a farsi rispettare, no?!

December 28th, 2015 02:32

Heather!
I was fine-tuning my lineage charts and came across your wonderful blog! We are 3rd cousins - are grandparents (Frank and my Grandmom Anne(92 and still staying strong) were 1st cousins! (Serafina and Frank were brother and sister) Frank even invited her for her honeymoon but she could not make it! I just got married and go to Terravecchia in the next week or so to see if I can find some more out! Then off to Rome! Email me if you should desire some pictures that may be of interest irene.trantas@gmail.com. Happy New Year and best of health and happiness to you and yours, Irene

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