The muslim diaspora in Italy

Currently, Italy possesses the third largest Muslim minority population in the EU, approximately three million. Despite that, there is no legal recognition for the second largest religion in the country behind Catholicism. In comparison with other European countries that have experienced Muslim immigration since the Second World War, migration from Islamic countries into Italy is more recent. This started in the 1980s, characterised by men from several Arab countries (especially Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia) seeking work. A second phase, during the 1990s, involved Muslims from Asia (Bangladesh and Pakistan in the first place) and Eastern Europe (Albania and Bosnia). In this context, for the past 30 years Muslim associations have been founded, and these organisations have tried to find an agreement with the Italian state to obtain for Islam official recognition parallel to that governing non-Catholic Christian confessions, which fall under article 8 of the Italian constitution. However, since 1990 these attempts have had no success. This has tremendous consequences for Muslims’ daily life. Furthermore, Italy has seen an increase in Islamophobia, and the growth of political parties that try to resist what they call the “Islamisation” of society. All these factors mean the Muslims are always struggling to negotiate a presence in the public spaces of Italian society, especially for the young generations, in order to locate and facilitate a compromise to maintain their Muslim identity and be both Muslim and Italian in an existential sense.