After voting for the right and its leader Silvio Berlusconi last April, partly due to promises to put an end to illegal immigration to Italy, the Italians have now got to fear that they may be left without the hundred thousands of domestic employees who make their lives easier. So now they are asking that housekeepers, baby-sitters and nurses should not be subject to the norms included in the anti-migration measures adopted by the government. But such a claim may get the cold shoulder. "Why would a housekeeper have rights different from those of a mason?" asked Roberto Maroni, Italy's interior minister, author of some anti-immigration law projects to reach the Parliament soon, projects that have already stirred concern in Europe. (...) It is to be noticed that in a report released last Wednesday, the Italian branch of Amnesty International is acussing the politicians in Rome of making the social stage worse and "legitimizing a racist language". The number of foreigners Italians employ for domestic work is impossible to check on, for many such foreigners work there illagally. Still this number is estimated to 1,7 million, with only 745,000 of them playing taxes. Many in this category haven't even got a residence permit. Most of them are women from Peru, Ecuador, the Phillippines and Romania. Some lead a poor life: they sleep in the kitchen and they must be available for their masters nonstop in order to earn some 600-800 Euro a month, according to Rompres. Politicians representing the left in the opposition are accusing that the Italian interior minister is pushing an "improvised" legislation, taking advantage of the Italians' public security fears, but a legislation that could harm ordinary family made of two parents who have got jobs and need someone to take care of some older or cripple family member. But minister Maroni has mentioned that the new regulation is going to be applied on the new comers only. "We don't intend to send 500,000 people to prison,", he has pointed. For the time being officials haven't decided on whether such domestic employees are subject to the new legislation against immigrants or not. Gianfranco Rotondi, a minister supposed to see that the law is applied, has promised that these laws will be "polished" in the Parliament. He comments: "There is no reason to fear about the domestic staff. This government is fighting to improve citizens' safety, not to leave grandmothers without their servants."

Adrian ENCULESCU