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'Social Inclusion: The Chinese and Italian Communities in Prato'
A one-day academic conference organised by Monash University professors Russell Smyth from the Business and Economics faculty, Graeme Johanson, director, Centre for Community Networking Research, and Annamaria Pagliaro, director, Monash Prato will be held on 27th October, 2008. The workshop will be an opportunity to hear and discuss research findings from the groundbreaking study of the Chinese communities in Prato. The project examined the work choices, image and perceptions in the media and in the community, uptake of new communication options, issues of identity and integration and other issues affecting the expatriate Chinese community in Prato. This workshop will be of great interest to academics, policy-makers and NGO representatives from Italy, China and Australia. Those attending ‘Integration Futures’ http://www.monash.edu.au/cmo/immigrationfutures/index.html are encouraged to attend this workshop as a localised 'case study' on cohesion and integration. For further details on the conference, contact We thank the following sponsors: 
Monash: Building Communities in Prato While Italy has traditionally been an important source of migrants for countries such as Australia and the United States, over the last three decades there has been much inward migration to Italy from Asia and Africa. As a consequence, Italy now has the fastest-growing immigrant population in Europe. According to the latest figures, in 2006 Italy received around 700,000 new immigrants, compared with 660,000 in Germany.[1] The influx of large numbers of immigrants is impacting on the economic and social fabric of Italian life and contributing to mounting social tensions. China has become an important source country for immigration to Italy since the opening up of the Chinese economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The flow of migrants from China to Italy has experienced rapid growth since the beginning of the 1980s, such that the Chinese are now the fifth largest immigrant population group in Italy. Prato has always been a popular destination for Chinese migrants as the city supports a large textiles industry and a ready-to-wear garment sector keen on flexible and low-cost labour. The Chinese now constitute over 45% of all migrants in Prato and, in per capita terms, represent the largest Chinese community in Europe. Most of the Chinese in Prato come from a concentrated geographical area in China . Over 80% of Chinese immigrants in Prato come from Wenzhou in Zhejiang province. Since the beginning of the 1990s, pockets of the Chinese migrant population in Prato have become increasingly entrepreneurial, embarking in textiles and clothing sector-related manufacturing, importing and exporting activities. The immersion of the Chinese community into the local economy has meant that increasing contact between the Chinese migrants and the local non-Chinese Italian population in Prato has become unavoidable. This has resulted in some social tensions, but has also generated enormous opportunities for enriching the outlook and understanding of both groups. Monash and Prato’s Chinese Community Monash University has operated a Centre in Prato since 2001. Monash launched a research program on the Chinese community in Prato centred on the Monash Prato Centre in 2007. The overriding objective of the research program is to study the multicultural transformation taking place in Italy as a consequence of the influx of large numbers of migrants from Asia and Africa, through an in-depth study of the achievements and challenges facing integration of the Chinese and local communities in Prato. Monash’s physical presence in Prato means that it is well-placed to engage the local Chinese and Italian communities in Prato and contribute to addressing issues relating to multiculturalism that are central to the Prato community. As Marco Fedi, the Australian member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, has stated: “Prato represents a real opportunity, given its transformation in a multicultural sense, which is a process now common in Italy ….. [T]he theme of multiculturalism can be examined thoroughly offering a service to politicians, managers and firms, who are involved in and committed to making Italy more competitive abroad. Monash can contribute to this at an educational level, allowing a greater awareness between different realities that are now closer”.[2]
The specific objectives of the research program can be summarized as follows:
Ongoing research projects at Monash on the Chinese community in Prato span the Faculties of Arts, Business and Economics and Information Technology as well as the Monash Asia Institute. Projects are diverse in nature, reflected in the following topics:
Monash Forging Links in Asia and Europe The research program has provided a basis for Monash University to extend its institutional links in Asia and Europe. In 2007 Monash signed a Record of Understanding with Wenzhou University . The success of the research program depends on the goodwill of both the Italian and Chinese communities and the Record of Understanding with Wenzhou University has proved vital in assisting Monash’s researchers to develop relationships with the Chinese community in Prato . The Record of Understanding with Wenzhou University is also proving useful in extending the research program back from Prato to Wenzhou and in particular facilitating the projects on migrant remittances and financial flows from Prato to Wenzhou and the Wenzhou model of development that entail fieldwork in Wenzhou. One example of how the Monash team is working backwards from Prato to Wenzhou is through the study of migration patterns from Rui An. Rui An is a mountainous town about two hours drive from Wenzhou . It originally had a population of about 8000. Now its population is 3000 with the other 5000 emigrating overseas. Of these 5000, 4000 are in Italy , although the exact number in Prato is unknown. Working with researchers from Wenzhou University, members of the Monash team plan to study both the reasons why large numbers of people are emigrating from Rui An to Italy and elsewhere in Europe as well as the effect remittances from migrants in Europe are having on the economic development of Rui An. Other research will compare Chinese migrants in Prato with China ’s internal migrants or floating population, estimated to conservatively number 120-150 million. One of the current projects being conducted by Monash and Wenzhou researchers in Prato is examining how attitudes and behaviour of local non-Chinese Italians towards Chinese immigrants is influenced by different forms of contact, such as knowing a Chinese immigrant as opposed to more intimate forms of contact versus friendship, using adult samples. Future research will examine how attitudes are influenced by mere contact versus friendship among children using data collected from a Chinese school associated with Wenzhou University in Prato and a migrant school in Beijing . This will facilitate comparison between different groups of children; namely trans-national Chinese migrant children and local non-Chinese Italian children in Prato and internal migrant children from China ’s less developed provinces and local urban Chinese children in Beijing. The Record of Understanding with Wenzhou University complements existing relationships Monash University has with European Universities that have formed the basis of specific research partnerships centred on the Chinese Community in Prato project. Through existing Memorandum of Understanding, Monash is cooperating with researchers at the University of Florence and the University of Nottingham. Monash has also developed good links with bodies within Prato such as Prato Futura, an industry group representing ‘traditional old enterprises’. The research program has also generated informal links between researchers at Monash and several other European Universities working on either Chinese communities in other parts of Italy or other parts of Europe. In addition to the Universities of Florence and Nottingham, there is ongoing collaboration with individual scholars at the University of Bologna, University of Udine and Catholic University of Milan in Italy; University of Paris 7 and University of Paris 10 in France and the University of Mainz in Germany.
Building Communities in Prato In November 2007, the Monash University Prato Centre hosted a workshop ‘Building Communities: The Chinese in Prato’. The objective of the workshop was to present preliminary findings from research projects commenced by Monash researchers in 2007 and receive feedback from the local Chinese and Italian communities in Prato about the issues they would like to see addressed in future research. The workshop which was opened by Amanda Vanstone, Australian Ambassador in Italy, Eleonora Maffei, Prefect of Prato, Massimo Logli, President, Province of Prato and Gu Honglin, Chinese Consul in Florence addressed the question: ‘What are the challenges and opportunities for the Chinese and Prato communities in Italy today?’ The challenges on both sides are clear. Andrea Frattani, Councillor for Multiethnic Affairs for the Commune of Prato, stressed that from the perspective of the Prato Italian community the Chinese community in Prato seems closed and unwilling to integrate. However, others at the workshop such as Andrea Angelo Andrea Di Castro and Marika Vicziany, emphasised the confrontationist approach of the Commune of Prato in placing severe restrictions on Chinese New Year celebrations in 2007. A clear message that came out of the workshop is that there needs to be some give and from both the Chinese and Italian communities in Prato and that social integration will take time. We only have to look at the experiences of Melbourne and Australia more generally. Historically, Melbourne and Australia confronted many of the issues surrounding social integration facing Prato today, beginning with the Gold Rush of the nineteenth century and continuing through the White Australia Policy of the first half of the twentieth century. However, over time the Chinese community has become an important contributor to the cultural, economic and social life of Melbourne and Australia in general. The same will occur, and is already occurring, in Prato and other Italian cities such as Milan and Rome . It is also important to bear in mind that with these challenges there are also enormous opportunities for cultural and economic exchange. The Commune of Prato has already established strong business and cultural ties with the City of Wenzhou in China . As the Chinese community in Prato becomes further integrated, these ties can be expected to grow stronger. Looking to the Future The Monash research program on the Chinese community in Prato has made significant progress in little over a year since it was launched. And there are plenty of plans to extend the research program over the next twelve months and beyond. On July 11 the Asian Business and Economics Research Unit in the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Centre for Community Networking Research in the Faculty of Information and Technology will co-host a one day workshop at the Monash Collins Street premises titled ‘Building Bridges: The Chinese in Melbourne and Prato’. On October 27 there will be a conference in Prato titled ‘Social Inclusion: The Chinese and Italian Communities in Prato ’. This conference will immediately follow the Monash Institute for the Study of Global Movements conference on Social Inclusion and represent a detailed case study of the sorts of broader issues that will be discussed at that conference. The objective of ‘Social Inclusion: The Chinese and Italian Communities in Prato ’ is to build on the success of last year’s ‘Building Communities’ workshop. While the ‘Building Communities’ workshop entailed presenting preliminary results and getting feedback on the directions that research should take, the aim of this year’s conference in Prato will be to present a fuller set of results from extant research projects and map out the future for the research program. Both the July 11 workshop and the October 27 conference are open to the public. Another major project for 2008 will be an edited volume on economic and social aspects the Chinese community in Prato as well as the economic links between Prato and Wenzhou . The volume will bring together the work of Monash researchers as well as the work of colleagues in Wenzhou and across Europe on the Chinese community in Prato . Some of the papers written by Monash authors that will form part of the edited volume will be presented at the ‘Building Bridges’ workshop in July. The expected launch date for the volume will be towards the end of 2008. An exciting new project which will be launched in 2008 is a comparative study of the role of social networks and Information and Communications Technologies in social cohesion among migrants in Australia and Italy . Specifically the project, which is being headed up by Graham Johanson and spanning the Faculties of Business and Economics and Information Technology, will examine the nature of the social networks maintained by these groups, the role of Information and Communications Technologies in shaping those networks, and evidence of any positive or negative consequences derived from those networks. The Chinese and Italian communities in Victoria have been chosen as a counterpoint to the Chinese in Italy because in Victoria they are largely stable and well-established, and, despite a strong association with place of origin, have integrated into the host mainstream society. Monash as an institution can contribute much to Building Communities in Prato . Monash’s physical presence in Prato, that Monash is based in Melbourne which has a rich multicultural heritage and that Monash has strong links into China make it well suited to sponsor a research program around the Chinese community in Prato . Andrea Frattani has expressed concern about the Chinese being a closed community in Prato . The best response to this perception is for the Commune of Prato to work with the local leaders of the Chinese community in Prato to embrace the culture of the Chinese living there. The problems of social integration will not be solved overnight, but the Melbourne experience suggests it is possible and that both can be culturally enriched. As impartial outside observers, Monash researchers together with colleagues from Wenzhou and universities in Europe can play an important role inthisprocess. [1] The Daily Telegraph ( London ), November 2, 2007,p.20. [2] Transcript of Italian television interview with Marco Fedi, Australian member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Channel 10 Toscana http://video.google.it/videoplay?docid=-636961579781361375&q= prato |
