Feature: Integration only way to face migrant crisis in Italian city

As the migrant crisis becomes more and more serious in Italy, local officials in the Sicily city of Catania, say integration is the only way to face the challenge.

Paola Scuderi, the head of the Homes of Peoples here, has been working at the center since it was created in 1995. Thousands of desperate people escaping from wars and unrest arrive here every week.

Homes of Peoples, located in a central area of Catania, is a permanent structure for foreign citizens who can ask for information or take part in cultural programs, which include Italian language courses and intercultural exchanges.

"Contact changes people. If we put migrants in a separated area and we leave them alone, they will not learn the local language and customs. This will be harmful to them and for us. If we put them together with citizens, they will start the integration process," Scuderi told Xinhua in a recent interview.

She talked about the strategy of her territory in handling the "Sprar" system -- the Italian protection project for asylum seekers and refugees -- through a network of small apartments which host a few migrants each.

"Our decision to use different private properties, currently nine properties and a total of 96 beds, in good areas of the city, is a specialty of the Sprar project of Catania. We want to favor the process of integration through hospitality in close contact with the local community," she said.

Only this way, the official said, is it possible to educate migrants about coexistence and contribute to ending stereotypes.

According to Scuderi, Catania has around 300,000 inhabitants. "When we opened the Homes of Peoples, we counted some 1,500 regular migrants in Catania. Today, there are more than 10,000 registered migrants in the municipality, without counting the thousands of irregular ones," she said.

The four most ancient communities in Catania were Tunisians, Mauritians, Filipinos and Senegalese, but the scenario has significantly changed in recent years. "Today, the cultural landscape of the city is a mix of different languages and traditions," Scuderi said.

"Until five years ago, the great part of migrants coming to Italy were economic migrants. Then suddenly we observed a growing number of asylum seekers," said Fabio Di Naso, a lawyer at the Homes of People.

However, European countries started to fear the incessant migrant influx and hampered regular immigration, he noted.

"The result is today economic migrants arrive together with asylum seekers. But no matter how you call them, they are all escaping from poverty, wars, violence and persecution," Di Naso stressed.

In particular the Syrians, he noted, "are engineers and other professionals of the middle class escaping from wars and violence."

"They arrive in Italy but want to reach other destinations in Europe. We only met three of them at the Homes of Peoples, among tens of thousands have transited through Sicily," he said.

Di Naso told Xinhua the Italian state pays Sprars around 35 euros (37.5 U.S. dollars) a day for every migrant.

"Many Italian citizens have complained that their state helps the migrants too much, but in fact the economic advantage mainly goes to local companies as the amount includes services, activities and salaries of the Sprars' employees," he noted.

Gueye Alioune Badara, a cultural mediator at the House of Peoples, originally from Senegal, arrived here 21 years ago. "At that time I came to Italy together with my aunt with a work visa. At the beginning, I did not want to stay. I do not why but I am still here," he said.

"Lately, many countries are in conflict and big economic disparities lead people to move and seek fortune in other countries. We try to be as close to them as we can," he added. Endit