Le città portuali del Mediterraneo: centri di approdo dell’immigrazione tra attenzione mediatica e dibattito pubblico.

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to focus on the development of the global phenomenon of Free Ports linked to the phenomenon of migration in the Early Modern Age and in the present. Firstly, this work focuses on the historical context: it deals with the birth, the structure and the expansion of this new institution which spread in Italy, secondly in the Mediterranean and then worldwide, Significant examples of this phenomenon are the free ports of Livorno (1591) and Trieste (1719) which met not only an economic success, but also a cultural one. Secondly, this work will analyse the differences of the foreign communities in the free ports by making a significant comparison between the past and the current situation. Moreover, it will discuss the reasons why foreign merchants were positively accepted in foreign countries in the past and why, instead, nowadays there is a shared sense of refusal in the European citizens ’minds. Furthermore, it will explain why migrants try to land to Europe at all costs even risking to lose their lives and what the linking causes of mass migration are, due to the fact that this phenomenon has dramatically increased in recent years. However, the presence of refugees in Europe has positive effects, because migrants contribute to the increase of GDP (economic development) and they also avoid a rapid ageing of the population (demographic development). What is more, European countries have introduced many restrictive migration policies and created new systems of security to respond to this terrifying scenario, for example reinforcing or constructing new metal barriers. The third part deals with a journalistic and linguistic analysis of websites’ articles of the most important Italian newspapers and TV reports which provide a list of contradictory and opposite images and expressions against migrants. This study clearly reflects that these persuasive techniques diffuse dangerous conceptions and distortions of reality. In conclusion, many solutions and projects will be revealed to solve the problems of mass migration in the European ports. To this end, this work shows that it is essential that all the Euro-Mediterranean countries (not only Spain and Italy) should work together in order to find common integration policies and to improve the migrants’ quality level of life in Europe.