Feature: Why migrants are making many Sicilian citizens anxious

Anxiety is the unspoken sentiment many inhabitants of Catania, a port city of Sicily region in southern Italy, feel as they experience tens of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants arriving after making the perilous crossing into the Mediterranean.

From teenagers to the elderly, many local residents who live or work in the port's surroundings interviewed by Xinhua said they could not take it anymore. Despite pitying the desperate migrants who escape wars and unrest in their countries of origin to seek a better life in Europe, the residents said they could not tolerate the many "problems" together with the migrant influx introduced to their everyday life.

"Nobody wants the migrants here," 16-year-old Andrea Lanza told Xinhua while having a walk with a friend near the port of Catania. "They steal our jobs. There is not enough work for everybody here in Sicily. I am studying to become a pizza maker, but many migrants work as pizza makers even though they are not good at it, just because they accept lower salaries and unfair work conditions," he added.

His friend Samuele Catania, 17, agreed. "Moreover, they make our life difficult. We are afraid of going out in the evening, not to mention girls, who risk a lot every time they walk in the street alone," he said.

Some weeks ago, local police arrested a migrant from Ivory Coast hosted in Cara di Mineo, Europe's largest reception center for asylum seekers, around an hour away from Catania, accused of the brutal killing of an elderly couple in their home and the suspected rape of one of the victims.

"Violent facts happen every day. Some days ago, we witnessed a fight between migrants not far from here, and police did not arrest them, they are still free around here," Catania noted.

"Unless they commit crimes, they are free people according to the Italian law," a policeman at the port of Catania explained to Xinhua. "But we know that citizens are tired, especially those living in small neighborhoods where the migrants' presence is perceived as more intrusive. Our job has also changed a lot since thousands of migrants started to reach the port every week," he said.

Only the port of Catania receives 500 to 600 of them every week, the policeman went on saying. And every time, as many as around 100 aid workers, including sanitary personnel, armed forces, social work assistants and all kinds of volunteers are ready to welcome them, he added.

"Please, write it down clearly," another citizen working close to the port told Xinhua. "Write it down clearly that I am Fabio Cosentino Carmelo, the owner of this bakery and that my family and I are very hospitable people," he said.

"We tried to help the migrants, we gave them bread and all sort of cakes for free. But what did they do in return? When they left my bakery I found that my cell phone had been stolen. It was right here on the counter. They stole it while I was in the back shop taking the fresh bread for them. Please, write it down that we are not racist, we just want respect for our lives," he insisted.

"We are honest workers, and when we see groups of migrants passing through outside our bakery, we are terrified," Carmelo went on saying, as his aunt was coming out from the back shop with a flour-white apron down to her knees.

"Another time that I tried to tell them something, one of them shouted at me that I should immediately go back into my shop, otherwise he would cut my throat," he told Xinhua.

"I am a mechanic and my wife is a housewife, and we have four children," said another man, Gaetano Castorina, carrying his youngest child in his arms. "The government is paying each of these people some 30 euros (32 U.S. dollars) a day. Do we not deserve the same? We are Italian, we were born here. Why does the state help the migrants and not help us?" he said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, the director of Cara di Mineo explained that the Italian State pays the rent of the compound as well as 29.5 euros (31.7 U.S. dollars) per day for each migrant, which include services, activities and salaries of the center's employees.

Cara di Mineo is managed by seven companies specialized in services including health and food. The center was also recently involved in a scandal having to do with the alleged rigging of a public contract.

"Reception centers are flourishing. They are big business for private companies, they get rich and the state creates a good reputation for itself by saying that it is able to welcome the migrants. Look at us poor citizens. Can this be called hospitality? Is this the way things should go?" Castorina told Xinhua. Endit