You, Artan, presented this idea that immigrants can or could reduce tension between Italians and Germans […]. (Helmut Heiss) Yes, it started off as an idea of the high commissar of the government for the province of Bozen Carla Scoz, who had an open vision of the relationships, and had relaunched the idea of a technical committee to work on a project about the territory. She suggested the idea of “using” immigrants, or rather the new citizens, also in the role of shock absorbers, buffers for the territory. It all began with the territorial council on immigration where it was decided to start gradually spreading certain initiatives throughout the territory. I’ve been a member of that council since 2004 and Carla Scoz was really the one with the best point of view out of all of us, a real resource for the territory, before she was unfortunately moved from her role. For this reason, I mentioned before that immigrants had been thought of initially as if they were just passing through and wouldn’t take root in the culture, but then this didn’t happen and it is no longer the case. Today you don’t even notice if a non EU foreigner at school talks to you in dialect […] (Artan Mullaymeri) Do you think that it would be possible for immigrants to take on this role of a buffer and that here something different from what has occurred in the metropolises, where often communities which don’t integrate with the rest of the population, really could happen[…]. (Helmut Heiss) Yes, for me that mechanism would be an inalienable resource. (Artan Mullaymeri)
Helmut Heiss e Artan Mullaymeri, Stammtisch II, 27.10.2010