Minister,
Ambassadors,
Dear Consuls,
I would like to thank Minister Moavero Milanesi for his speech, through which I noticed his great attention and gratitude for your precious work.
It is a complex and delicate activity which is sometimes carried out in unfavourable environmental conditions and with scarce availability of resources.
It is a job that implies permanent professional updating and that requires attentiveness and a sharp understanding of needs and requirements of the Italian and foreign communities you serve.
Through you, I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the collaborators of the Consular offices, who are committed daily in supporting your action.
For such commitment and for your authentic enthusiasm, I wish to thank all of you.
The Conference works that you are about to open and animate – that were timely convened to take stock of how to better meet the growing and changeable demand of consular services – will represent an important occasion for dialogue.
I hope that everyone, according to their experience, will contribute to the debate.
Throughout the centuries, Italy has experienced the necessity of migration in many areas of its territory. It is a phenomenon which is often painful and that marked Italy’s history and development, while enriching at times our society’s openness and our national identity.
The multipliers of our civilization can be identified, first and foremost, in our communities abroad, as they expanded our culture beyond our national boundaries and entrenched it across several countries around the world.
Those migration flows transformed over time, often incorporating the aspect of choosing freely to seize the opportunities provided by other societies, thereby increasing our common human heritage in such fields as research and development.
It is an exceptional human capital, which includes ancient and recent Italian communities, either numerically small or large, and that represents a single reality which promotes our country system in its most diverse forms.
Moreover, several foreign communities that are present in Italy also offer their own contribution and have become significant actors in the network projecting our community’s abilities to their countries of origin.
Your daily commitment allows you to appreciate the value of such experiences which you too may foster: the development of new technologies comes to your aid, together with traditional practices of social connection.
You represent Italian Institutions in communities which are oftentimes distant and remote, yet always careful about their identity and about staying in touch with their country of origin, as they manage to integrate and offer proposals in the various societies where they operate.
We must face the present and the emerging questions arising from the new Italian migration phenomena, which some prefer to refer to as the “new mobility”.
Unlike in previous times, a growing number of our fellow citizens decide to expatriate for fixed periods of time and with precise objectives, moving to more than one country – especially in Europe, where the freedom of movement and to conduct a business are a sound and fruitful reality – and searching for the adequate working environments to make the best of their talents, inclinations and professionalism.
These new realities give further impetus to such strong “demand of Italy”, which has increased because of the growing worldwide attention towards our country, as we witnessed last week during the 3rd edition of the Joint Action for the Italian Language in the World.
These issues are complex and, in many respects, we have never experienced them.
The osmosis between age-old and new mobility is of great value and offers us the chance to spread a more correct and up-to-date image of Italy.
Our reality, without hiding any of its undeniable and sometimes serious problems, is that of an advanced country with significant resources and abilities, so much so that it draws in talents from abroad which contribute to growing our competences and to strengthening our connection networks.
Our country is a state characterised by industry, creativity, culture and solidarity, which are its distinctive and indispensable traits.
In this framework, your initiative must also favour the “circularity” of mobility for our fellow citizens - including those foreign citizens who are interested in Italy – to ensure that the competences developed or perfected abroad always are used to enhance the cultural, economic and social enrichment of our Republic.
Dear Consuls,
I am convinced that you will know how to meet these challenges with that dedication which, I wish to stress, is a distinctive feature of the Farnesina’s action. You will thus turn such challenges into opportunities to enhance the resources of our country and of our communities all over the world.
Thank you for your work and all the best for the conference.
