Ghanaians in Italy - Looking back 2008

After a series of activities in 2007 which hit the high points, among them the Ghana@50 in Italy - with its pageantry and splendour - the Miss Ghana in Italy, the success story of Ghanacoop and some Ghanaian individuals who showed their head above water under very difficult conditions for immigrants and set up their own businesses, the stage was set for what looks like a good year for Ghanaians in Italy 2008.

Arguable, the Ghanaian community in Italy has come far within the past few years and under their local Associations, organisations and programs they appear to have made more progress than any of the immigrants’ communities in Italy. I will tell you why.

The Ghana@50 catapulted their community in Italy and it raised their country’s image in a spectacular and extraordinary fashion, there were some local TV stations which showed those glamorous activities for several hours.

Event of such magnitude was not seen in 2008 but the year also brought its positive developments, there were some down trends and very sad moments which I will also address here. Meanwhile, let’s take it one after the other.

The Council of Ghana Nationals Associations in Italy (COGNAI) - the mouth piece of Ghanaians’ communities in Italy - took off late with a major event in the year after the Ghana@51 event in March celebrated on a low key in Vicenza. COGNAI in conjunction with the Ghana Nationals Association in Turin deserves a pat on the back for hosting the first ever Ghanaians’ Conference in Turin. The meeting was to open the doors for investments to Ghana from Italy and it was a great success. I have always maintained the Ghanaian community in Italy exhibits a great deal of unity and gel up so well, they may come from different tribes, religion or don’t share the same political stand but that doesn’t seem to matter, they behave as one family here.

The Turin Conference brought such level of co-operation and friendship and it was a great atmosphere sitting in there. One Italian business executive at the Conference couldn’t hide his sentiments and rightly said, “nothing of this nature has ever taken place within the Africans communities in Italy,” and I can add, I have not seen such a Conference with its level of organisation and presentations within the entire immigrants’ communities in the country. The 5-man delegation invited from Ghana by COGNAI to the meeting led by Ghana Deputy Minister of Trade and Industries, Hon. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, left trails of why investors should invest in Ghana and the man who was so convincing with his presentation was Robert Ahomka Lindsay (Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Investment Promotion Council – G.I.P.C). His comprehensive presentation gave all the A-Z about investing in Ghana and the participants including representatives of the 13 companies, a delegation from the Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Turin City Council were all impressed. I believe such innovative idea by COGNAI should be taken by all Ghanaians Associations in the diaspora to bring Ghana to the door steps of foreign investors.

The Ghana Embassy in Rome which was also represented deserves some praise. The tide has changed, really, and to a large extent compared to the years of the previous administration when it didn’t want to see eye to eye with COGNAI over passport fees increase, a situation which resulted in accusation against counter accusation finally leading to replacement of top officials at the Embassy.

Talking about passports brings to mind the issue of cost involved to renew or have a new Ghanaian passport in Italy. For Ghanaians residing outside Rome (most of them lives in the north of the country far away from the Italian capital where the Ghana Embassy is based) it means making the long journey to the Embassy and before they are through, applying and having the passport, they have been set back by €350 (cost of the passport fee and transportation included).

In the current wave of economic situations where people are gasping for ‘economic oxygen’ it’s no laughing matter where one has to spend that amount just to renew a passport – renewing an Italian passport costs less than €50. Not only that Ghanaians in Italy have to travel this long distance just to go and translate or authenticate a document for a €30 fee. A more flexible system is needed to have these documents processed.

Whilst we are still at it on documents, Ghanaians in Italy face the full might of Italy’s rigid and ambiguous laws on immigrants and at their Embassy in Accra the story is not a palatable one for those who want to process their documents through the Consular Office. I admit the Embassy now faces a bigger task in view of the number of Ghanaians coming to Italy. No country will extend a welcome flag to anyone at all who wants to enter its territory, however, it calls for a much more straight forward approach in processing documents than what we are seeing happening to Ghanaian immigrants in Italy and their families in Ghana. The stories emanating concerning the Consular Office in Accra in the course of family reunification, authentication of documents among others are sometimes very sad.

In one of such stories, a Ghanaian couple legally resident in Italy, decided to bring their two children in Ghana to join them in Italy. They requested and sent in all the requisite documents soliciting the help of two family members in Ghana in the course of the process. After the two family members, who were living in Sekondi (some 250 km from Accra ) have submitted all the necessary documents it became the usual go and come, bring this, submit that. They made repeated calls at the Embassy, each time making a round trip from Sekondi to Accra. On one of such trips when returning to Sekondi they were involved in a motor accident and all four perished in the tragedy. You may say what has that got to do with the Embassy but the system and the laws killed them and who made the laws? – the Italians. There has been allegations of greasing of palms at this office yet no one have been able to point a finger at any staff being involved but if you believe the authorities are not aware of all that is happening on their corridors you believe pigs can fly.

Ghana and Italy have enjoyed a cordial relationship and the latter has assisted in many development projects in Ghana with its Embassy in Accra contributing immensely towards these developments. It cannot allow some few individuals to drag its name in the mud and the mess needs to be cleaned up.

In the second part of this article, I will be looking among other developments the progress made by Ghanacoop (a Ghanaian business entity formed through a Ghanaians Association in Italy), COGNAI’s event under the Miss Ghana in Italy beauty pageant, the establishment of two Ghanaian-owned Radio stations, the Ghanaians’ churches in Italy and the sad moments of the Ghanaian community in Italy in 2008.