Romanian immigrants to Italy proud of their nationality

Most Romanian immigrants to Italy are proud of their origin, reveals a sociological survey conducted in the Peninsula at the end of 2007 and given to publicity on Thursday, by the president of the Agency for Government Strategies (ASG) Alfred Bulai.

Thus, 35 percent of the respondents said they are very proud of their nationality, 43 percent are very proud, 13 percent declared themselves ’somewhat proud’ and 8 percent ‘not so proud’ of their nationality.

As far as the Romanians’ opinion about Italians is concerned, 10 percent of the Romanian respondents voiced a very good opinion, 42 percent expressed a favourable opinion, 36 percent are neutral, 3 percent have a poor and 2 percent – a very poor opinion about the host country nation.

Just 9 percent of the Romanians at work in Italy have a very good opinion about their co-nationals at home, whereas 7 percent think high about the Romanians who live in the Peninsula; 41 percent expressed a positive opinion about the Romanians in Italy, 42 percent think neither good nor bad about their immigrant co-nationals, 6 percent voiced a poor opinion and 2 percent – a very opinion about the same category. Conversely, 51 percent of the Romanian immigrants to Italy have a good about their co-nationals at home, 32 percent think neither good nor bad about them, 3 percent have a poor opinion and 2 percent – a very poor opinion about the same category.

The survey revealed a poor image of Gypsies living in both Italy and Romania, with just 0.4 percent of the Romanians in Italy expressing a very good opinion on the Gypsies who live in either Italy or Romania; as far as the Gypsy community in Italy is concerned, 45 percent of the respondents have a very bad opinion about its members, 19 percent expressed neither appreciation nor non-appreciation of the same. In the case of Gypsies living in Romania, the poll found no opinion differences, as 38 percent of Romanian immigrants have a very low opinion about the Gypsies in Romania, 31 percent of the respondents said they have a bad and 23 percent – a neutral opinion of this category.

The cited sociological survey also revealed that to their majority – specifically 93 percent – Romanian immigrants in Italy get along well and very with their Romanian neighbours, followed by Italians – 92 percent, Africans – 79 percent, Gypsies – 75 percent and Arabs – 74 percent.

The sociological research was conducted by Metro Media Transylvania, at the initiative of ASG, on a sample of 1,066 adults between November 20 – December 15, 2007.

Targeted were the regions with important Romanian communities, six thereof being however shut out of the poll.

The maximum theoretical margin of error admitted for the sample is +/- 3 percent, yet this could be wider because of the method used, required by the lack of valid data on the entire population of Romanian immigrants in Italy. ROMPRES