Mixité (heterogeneity) at school can increase instead of diminishing the problem of segregation. This is, in short, the out come of a research that I have been carrying out by comparing in Belgium two schools with different organizational models: the first one with a multicultural population and the other with [...]

Fortunately, the hope accompanying the article published on January 17 on this newspaper turned into reality. The Luxembourgian government, indeed, has officially explained the changes made to the article of the Penal Code concerning indecent behaviour towards children. After the bitter controversies generated by the declaration of the President of [...]

According to the EU Commission, European public administrations are in possession of an actual gold mine, issued in an economic return for EU members of about 40 billion euro per year. The Commission refers to the huge amount of data produced or collected by public services and authorities which, if [...]

Through this article, West makes a plea for the committee promoting the creation of the Ethical Bank, JAK in Italy (http://www.jakitalia.it/). Jord, Abete and Kapital. Labour, Land and Capital: these three elements lying behind any economic system constitute the Swedish acronym JAK. Jak is a bank which, based on a [...]

Laity is a very complex issue in every European country and the relaunch of the debate on the relations between State and Church reveals old and unsolved controversies. While in Italy in these days the Vatican’s exemption from the ICI (or IMU) property tax has generated a lot of discussion, [...]

The first European congress of French speaking countries held on November 20 leaded to a sharp controversy between France and Luxembourg. The two-day Congress was held in Nancy (France) and gathered a number of experts coming from France, Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg. During the meeting, a bitter debate ensued between [...]

In Poland has blown up the milk bar mania. A phenomenon that confirms how it is possible to transform the communist inheritance’ relics in real cult places. These are little state-owned restaurants, born in 1960 to offer low-coast meals to workers, whose name comes from the fact that meals served [...]

The national Congress of Luxembourgian Pirates was held two weeks ago in Wasserbilling. On this occasion, the party's future programming guidelines were defined. Building on the success achieved by their German fellows in Berlin State election, (as documented in this newspaper by the article Modern Pirates, 21 October 2011) the President [...]

Tourists who decide to venture in Eastern Europe better not booze too much. Especially for those who are taking off direction Poland, the Czech Republic or Russia, the real danger is the so-called "sobering-up chamber". To get yourself into this all but pleasant environment is quite easy. In fact, in [...]

Spurred by the possible expulsion of the 18-year-old Angolan asylum seeker Mauro Manuel, the debate concerning resident permits for immigrants has once again taken central stage in the Netherlands. Based on the current immigration laws, Mauro should be sent back to Angola after 10 years of living in the Netherlands. [...]

There is an initiative that needs our attention. It is the campaign conducted by Italy, together with a number of Third Sector associations, aiming at guaranteeing the survival of the European food aid programme for the most deprived. Since 1987 such a programme, indeed, has supported charitable trusts in twenty [...]

In France, the so-called “portfolio of competences” has finally come into being. It is a new instrument able to describe better one person’s experiences and qualifications, especially in the social and voluntary sectors. Such a portfolio is the result of the work of a group attached to the French Ministry [...]

Go for ethnic statistics. For the first time in the whole France history, a report presented today in Paris by the National Observatory gives an extremely detailed picture of the French banlieues. A news available thanks to all data given by an unedited survey on sensible urban areas started in [...]

In France the problem of how to deal with unaccompanied minor immigrants is arousing bitter controversies. As a form of protest against the Ministry of Justice, which is accused of not doing enough for solving the problem, since the beginning of September the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, located to the north [...]

« Je ne suis pas féministe mais... » En général, celles qui commencent ainsi démontrent le contraire dans la phrase qui suit. Mais depuis peu, le féminisme se renvendique à tort et à travers... Souvent pour défendre des causes qui n'ont rien à voir avec les droits des femmes. Ou [...]

Nothing new in the figures: France has one of the highest youth unemployment rates among developed countries, with more than 23% of those aged 15 to 24 unable to find work, according to 2010 second semester figures from France’s National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee). And nothing new [...]

Women are not the only victims of stalking and violence. A truth confirmed by the fact that also in Italy  the percentage of men victims of harassment and persecution is increasing. It seems difficult for this phenomenon to find a space and it happens that, in the first national plan [...]

Is it legitimate to revoke citizenship to French people of foreign origin pleaded guilty of crimes against public servants? This is one of the most controversial aspects of Nicolas Sarkozy’s recipy to guarantee more security in French cities. Given the fact that oppositions on the issue are foreseeable, it must [...]

After the halal issue, it is time to discuss about the burqa. The business world seems to be inevitably attracted by the Muslim one. The proof of that is the approval by French Chamber of Deputies of  a law that bans  burqa and niqab in all public spaces. However, this measure [...]

In France, a fine provoked a political clash on immigration. Let us focus on the facts. A young French citizen of foreign origins has been fined because caught wearing a niqab while driving. The young lady must pay 22 euros in accordance with article 412-6 of the highway code that forbids [...]

More money for recruits. Angela Merkel's government wants to give a new charm to the voluntary military service entered into force on July 1, 2011 - when Germany definitely abolished compulsory military service. In order to achieve such a goal, the government plans to add to soldiers' salaries the "Kindersgeld", [...]

Transparency in politics, larger direct democracy, people-based welfare system, with no conditions or expiries for national benefits. These are the main points of the Piratenpartei election programme, which we have known in detail in the austere rooms of the Berlin Parliament, where the group’s forth assembly – the forth one [...]

Pirates are boarding Berlin. In the recent Berlin State election, the rise of the Pirate Party, whose campaign initially focused on file sharing, was a real surprise. It attracted 8.9% of the vote, gathering the transversal preferences of the deceived supporters of the left, the liberals and the Greens and [...]

Their name is Wohnprojekt. These are apartments built with the specific purpose of enabling people with disabilities to be completely autonomous. The last one has been inaugurated in Plauen, in Saxony. The first tenant is a 26 year-old boy affected by Lesch–Nyhan syndrome, a serious inherited [...]

The European most colourful Whit Sunday. That is the Karneval der Kulturen whose 16th edition took place in Berlin from June 10th to 13th. Four days – and three nights – of celebration aiming at underlining the value of the ethnic and cultural diversity of Berlin. On Sunday afternoon, more [...]

As Europe has been struggling through a debt crisis and the world through a recession, Germany has been taking a lot of criticism from its neighbors and friends further afield. Berlin has been too reluctant in coming to the euro’s aid, is too indecisive and tightfisted in spending terms, and [...]

More Germans are opting to study abroad with Germany ranked number four by international comparison of mobile students.For many German students a year abroad is part of their academic career. Whether to learn another language, to meet different cultures or simply to exchange the lecture hall at home with a [...]

The approach to build a multicultural society has failed, and we don’t need immigrates who weigh down on our social system Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday. Deciding, maybe recklessly, to join the overheated match which set supporters and [...]

In the light of the twentieth anniversary of German unification, successes and failures of the process of convergence between the East and the West have been thoroughly analysed and broadly discussed in Germany recently. Compared to the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), eastern Germany’s GDP has doubled nominally in the last [...]

Thanks to the controversial book author, Thilo Sarrazin, a discussion on failed integration policies and fear of foreign infiltration has taken-off in Germany. Despite losing his job as Chairman of the German Federal Bank, Sarrazin’s thesis on the integration willingness of Muslims and on alleged Jewish genes, found a wide [...]

In its last report, OECD asks most of its members to support more intensively employment policies, without leaving out public expenditure. According to OECD economists, indeed, a rapid recovery is possible only if public debt decreases and employment rate rises. In order to obtain these results, governments are asked not [...]

A large number of economists recognise in Keynes public expenditure policy an effective tool for development widely used among western countries. This reason might surely explain the uniqueness represented by the Irish situation. The Celtic tiger experienced in 90s an economic boom which can be compared to the boom [...]

Once Ireland was regarded as an admirable tiger. Today its image has been reduced to a disgruntled PIG. Back in September 2008, Ireland became the first EU country to officially enter a recession in a public declaration and two years later there are still no signs of light at the [...]

What do big companies such as Enel and Luxottica have in common with other firms, such as Idealstandard and Elettromeccanica Tironi? They are the protagonists of an increasingly important part of that Italian subsidiarity that is trying to act as a system and not only as an ensemble of good [...]

Saying definitively no, for precautionary reasons, to the idea of granting Italian citizenship to immigrants’ children, born in Italy, is like trying to stop the inevitable. It is a difficult, and useless, "no", especially if it is pronounced by the most tenacious and obstinate defenders of the constitutional reform which, [...]

Italian Banking system winks at non-profit world. As someone may think, this is not a dangearous union of conflicting subjects with different origins and purposes. It is, rather, a return to origins for a banking system that seemed to have lost its initial aim. Mario Draghi, the former Governor of [...]

Crisis! This is what is written on the doormat of the International Year of Cooperatives, officially started by the UN last month. During the International Day of Cooperatives, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon ideally inaugurated the Year. He invited young people to consider the benefits deriving from [...]

The Associazione Avvocato di Strada Onlus was created in 2001 in Bologna, but today it has 20 offices throughout Italy. With no need to arrange an appointment and without the involvement of social services, the volunteers working for the association, who are all professional lawyers, receive in these offices those [...]

Disability and work seem to be two words that cannot stay together. This is proved by the discouraging data published periodically by institutional bodies and organisations supporting disabled people. According to ISTAT, the Italian National Institute of Statistics, despite the fiscal and organisational advantages companies can benefit from, [...]

When it is necessary to "generate cash", and for the European Governments severely hit by the economic crisis this is now extremely important, welfare services become the perfect victims to be sacrificed. In Italy, however, the situation is particularly complicated because, in spite of a public expenditure in line with [...]

The problem of the exemption from the ICI property tax for buildings used by catholic institutions for commercial purposes is not something I would define “futile”. I totally agree with Gabriele Di Bella when he says that the fact that there exists on Facebook a campaign with hundreds of members [...]

The bitter controversy aroused in Italy because of the tax privileges enjoyed by the Vatican (recognised as a foreign country) and the Catholic Church (represented by its different religious institutions) shows, one more time, how easy it is to manipulate an uninformed public opinion, already frustrated by an economic crisis [...]

Thanks to the disposal of public investments in the social sector, boosted by the current economic crisis, banking foundations have become the primary protagonists of local welfare systems, they are the main actors of the Italian Big Society. In Italy there exist 88[1] banking foundations with assets of 54 billion euro. [...]

Does demography, behind economic and social conditions, have a role to play in predicting where and when will uprisings, revolutions and even war happen? Yes, says the Romanian sociologist Sebastian Lazaroiu, who explains the fine connection between the number of young men and of young women at the age of marriage [...]

Mabel Escuer is not Mabel Escuer. She is 59 years old and two years ago she found out she was adopted. She brought her case before the court on July 29, 2011 and, only two weeks later, the Judge decided to dismiss it. The name “Escuer” is part of a [...]

Starting from this week, the number of clerks working in the Courts of Madrid dealing with gender violence crimes will be reduced. The cuts announced by the Gobierno de la Comunidad will involve 50% of clerks, who will no longer work in the afternoon. The executive did not specify whether [...]

More than 300,000 Spaniards are not entitled to health care, according to estimates made by the Social Security. A figure that represents an increase of almost the double compared to recent figures from the Ministry of Health for 2010, which spoke of a number of excluded between 90,000 and 180,000 [...]

In Madrid Plaza de la Opera is completely invaded by people arriving from every corner of the square. It is easy to recognize them because of the green T-shirts they wear. Madrilenian teachers do not give up. Each of them has a chair and a notepad. As a form of [...]

Walking around the streets of Madrid or Barcelona, one can’t help but wonder “How will Spain’s government – a socialist government no less — cope with near-Great Depression levels of unemployment?” Spain has been much in the news lately due to its unwanted membership in the notorious [...]

Both Italy and Spain have a long wine tradition. In these areas wine is a very common drink because of cultural and anthropological reasons. Wine is, indeed, one of the alcoholic beverages that Italians prefer drinking and it is part of their meals in 84% of cases. Together with this [...]

The Spanish Council of Ministers has recently approved a document about the participation of disabled people in political life through the election processes. The key points of this “regulation” are three: accessibility to election sites and polling stations, free-of-charge sign language interpreting services and, at the same time, a guarantee [...]

“A country in decline, unable to cope with the economic crisis and to look to the future”. This is how Italy is described in the 2010 Social Watch report, the network of civil society organizations that every year carries out a monitoring of the commitments undertaken at international level to [...]

The Roma issue is complex but it is not unsolvable. As the examples of two gypsy communities show, one in Macedonia, the other in Andalusia. It seems like another world compared to the rest of Europe where persecutions, ghettoisations, poverty and discriminations are the norm. Let us start with Macedonia. [...]

In Great Britain, youth unemployment rate is 20.4%. From a European point of view, such a datum is in line with that registered in the EU, which is nearly 21%. It is much higher than the German one (9%) but, certainly, this result is much more reassuring than the rates [...]

According to a report published by the renowned Institute for Fiscal Studies (Ifs), 600 thousand English children will live in extreme poverty by 2013. The datum is worrisome since it concerns over 3 million children. Looking at the Ifs data, it is clear that Great Britain will not be able to [...]

The idea of Big Society does not convince the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. In an article written for the Labour newspaper New Statesman ), indeed, the Archbishop simply “excommunicates” the economic policy adopted by Prime Minister David Cameron. According to Williams, behind Cameron’s fascinating slogans (such as “power to [...]

Unemployment rate in Great Britain has registered a considerable, and unexpected, decrease in the first few months of 2011. According to the Office for National Statistics, the total number of unemployed people has reduced by 17,000 falling to 2.48 million. It is enough to hope that, despite the drastic measures [...]

Is the United Kingdom also affected by brain drain? Or worse, is it even encouraged by some eminent figures of the national intelligentsia? This is the impression at first sight that can be drawn by recent declarations of the dean of Hockerill Anglo-European College, one of the most prestigious universities [...]

The European Right, both moderate and extremist, has taken up the hatchet on multiculturalism. Merkel, Cameron, Le Penn(daughter), along with the Left, divided, that grinds its teeth or shrugs its shoulders. A scenario which does not look very promising, considering the actual complexity of the issue. But, especially, because a [...]

For the first time in 62 years, the National Health System (NHS) will see hospitals, private healthcare provides and GPs competing for patients who will now be able to choose treatment and care. Under the new plans, that are still very controversial, more than 24,000 management staff could be cut. With a [...]

According to the report carried out by the London-based research centre Resolution Foundation, 2011 will be a bleak year for the British middle class. Indeed, owing to the estimated cuts to public services, with the reduction of welfare benefits and the VAT increase, those households that live on the margins [...]

Britons accept the heavy cuts passed by the Cameron government through the well-known Spending Review. Although it is a truth hard to swallow, the results of the recent survey conducted by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) point out that a considerable majority of the British subjects thinks that [...]

English students continue to invade the streets of London, violently protesting against the increase in University tuition fees proposed by the Cameron-Clegg government. Is there something true in students’ protests? And to what extent can they be considered reasonable? According to the Cameron-Clegg government’s plan, each English university student could [...]

Republican primary election is now taking place in the US; it will lead to the choice of the candidate to run against Barack Obama in next presidential election. The fight against welfare State has always been a strong point for the Grand Old Party. Its voters think welfare State is [...]

The debate on the role played by social protection systems in countries’ economic development has always been very controversial and the economic crisis we are now experiencing make it a topical issue. Since huge public expenditure cuts are expected, it is better to distinguish between a “good” expenditure and a [...]

The Dream Act signed last Saturday by Jerry Brown, the governor of California, allows irregular foreign but deserving students to benefit from public grants. Through this Act, California takes a stand in the power play concerning immigration, which has paralyzed and divided the US over the last years. As for [...]

“Stop Coddling the Super-Rich”, that is the title of an article published last month in the New York Times.[1] The author is not an anti-globalisation activist back from any G-8 summit. W. E. Buffet is one of the richest men in the world. Buffet criticises the American tax system where [...]

Among the many revolutions that have taken place in 2011, one was almost ignored: for the first time in the last sixty years the illegal migration flow towards the U.S. of Mexicans came to a halt. We discuss it with Douglas Massey, Professor of Sociology at the Priceton University and [...]

“If Jerry Ford can't control his own wife, how can he run the country?”. The fellow party members of the 38th President of the US were not so wrong. Elisabeth Ann Bloomer, who is better known as Betty Ford, passed away last Friday at the age of 93. In her [...]

An extraordinary revolution is changing the face and nature of immigration in the US. The great wave of migration from Mexico that for decades has broken any sort of barrier and prohibition, increasing the percentage of workforce in the wealthy and ravenous North American economy, suddenly [...]

Since World War II, it is plain to see that a high degree of convergence has occurred all over the world around the institutions and practices of political democracy and economy. Country after country has followed the American model based on the rise of the middle class. The attractive idea that [...]

“Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed. Even the most violent video games are not worse than the fairy tales we were used to listen to before the invention of computers and video games”. With these words, Antonin Scalia, one of the Judges of the American Supreme Court, comments [...]

The Prohibition as a strategy to fight drug addiction turns 40. The famous conference where President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs dates back, indeed, to June 17th, 1971. At that time Nixon announced to the world his decision to attack America's public enemy number one, drug abuse. It was [...]