by Stefano Vaccara
NEW YORK (UNITED STATES) (ITALPRESS) – GEI – Gruppo Esponenti Italiani – greeted the Italian Consul General Fabrizio Di Michele in New York with a meeting of comrades who, more than a ceremony, has become a reflection on the whole field of consoling work, on the reform of citizenship and on the challenges of the Italian community in the United States. Michele, in service from 2021, answered the questions of Mario Calvo Platero, president of the GEI, retracing some crucial moments of his mandate, recalling also humanly difficult episodes. Among these, the case of the Italian student found suicide in a private college: the parents had already started from Italy to attend the graduation of the son. Only upon arrival at the airport were tragedy. “With that family I still feel today,” explained the Consul, underlining how much consular work often means facing the hardest and most invisible side of Italian mobility abroad. On the front of the new law on citizenship, Di Michele reiterated that the 1992 rule “was no longer sustainable”, because it would produce “one and a half million new citizens in ten years” without real ties with Italy. The Italian Americans – he explained – were penalized by the abuses recorded especially in South America, where the demands reached “centinaia of thousands” of questions. But the reform will not solve the demographic crisis: “It’s not a few million more citizens abroad who change the picture,” he said.
On the relationship with the city authorities, the Consul recalled the “personal and very good contacts” with Mayor Eric Adams, although “less than I would have liked”, while with Bill de Blasio the reports were “costant”. More prudent the judgement on the new mayor Zohran Mandani: “It has an ambitious agenda, now it will have to find the resources to achieve it.” A part of the meeting was dedicated to the structural difficulties of the “Italy system” in the United States. Michele stressed that the Consulate should do everything – services, culture, business – with much more limited resources than Asian colleagues and other major countries. “If you are there, you network and create value, but you need investments,” he explained. Finally, an expected passage: the new General Consul. Michele announced the arrival, in January, of Giuseppe Pastorelli, today deputy director for the Farnesina Country System. “It’s one of the best profiles you could imagine,” he said. “Give him the welcome you gave to me: he will arrive on a train that runs”.
– photo xo9/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
