Exploring the poetry found in life
We All Bleed Red
On Saturday 20 June, nearly 1,000 people danced, sang and marched in Parma to mark World Refugee Day, at an event in the city centre organised by CIAC (Centre for Immigration, Asylum and Cooperation) and other civic associations.
The day before, the City Council, which had backed the event, voted to introduce Ius Soli (the Latin for “right of the soil” – the legal principle whereby a person’s nationality is determined by their place of birth) and ‘Civic Citizenship’ into the City Charter. In a city in which over 22 per cent of young people are of foreign origin, this is a highly symbolic gesture at a time when European governments are erecting walls and legitimising the detention of people at borders and many right-wing movements in Italy and beyond advocate the “remigration” of foreign nationals (the forced or voluntary return to their country of origin not only of those residing in Italy illegally but also, according to the more extreme views, of naturalised and second-generation immigrants).
Saturday’s march marked the culmination of a long process of meetings and workshops organised across the city during which ideas and projects were shared. This process gave rise to a document, read out during the event, which denounces the legal limbo in which many are forced to live, the institutional indifference, and the systemic racism that limit migrants’ opportunities of all kinds, from housing to work. The document, the result of a collective effort, also puts forward specific proposals to create shared physical and cultural spaces to promote inclusion.
On Saturday, migrants and refugees were not alone. The day celebrated the strength of human bonds: a determined light shone in people’s eyes, revealing a belief in the transformative power of human relationships, solidarity, and active citizenship.
