Urban cultural policy and immigrants in Rome: multiculturalism or simply “paternalism”?

This chapter examines how the local government in the city of Rome and the related public institutions formulate their policies concerning the cultural integration of immigrants and the promotion of a multicultural agenda. Our focus is on the themes of widening and diversifying access to culture, with particular reference to publics and artists of immigrant origin. It is our intention to look at whether local cultural policies encourage creative inputs among immigrants and contribute to the diffusion of their culture in Rome. The first perspective is the ‘top-down-approach’. Here the institutional framework of the society of settlement is taken as a starting point, and the question is how far that framework is open for participation by immigrants. In this approach the terms of inclusion/exclusion and ‘opportunity structure’ are key concepts in analysing the relative openness or closure of the existing system. The second is the ‘bottom-up-approach’. Here the central focus is on the initiatives taken by immigrants and their organisations to stand up for their social and cultural interests. The basic concept used here is mobilisation. The analytical distinction between topdown and bottom-up and the related processes of inclusion/exclusion and mobilisation are used to examine the possible mismatch and the interaction between the two. The chapter offers (a) an overview of the history of immigration to the city of Rome and the main population flows; (b) an analysis of urban cultural policy and implementation strategies of the public sector used for promoting a multicultural agenda and cultural diversity (top down perspective); (c) an analysis of cultural diversity in urban strategies of the non-public sector (third sector) (bottom up approach); and (d) an overview of the cultural initiatives undertaken by some immigrant communities living in Rome and their organisations, to stand up for their social and cultural interests (bottom up approach). In the concluding section, we assess whether cultural policy towards immigrants in Rome is better understood through the concept of multiculturalism and cultural diversity or whether the notion of paternalism is more relevant in analysing the relationship between public institutions, third section, natives and immigrant artists.