Divario di cittadinanza

The citizenship gap between the North and South of the country has widened in the years following the 2008 crisis. In the silence of the media and in the absence of a "voice" from the national and local ruling classes, the traditional territorial divide that has characterized Italian unification history, even before and more than economic indicators, is inequality in living conditions. The data tell us that for the first time in republican history, the distances between North and South are reopening in social indicators, starting with education and healthcare. A process that has made us weaker, throughout the country, in facing the pressure of the Covid-19 epidemic and that exposes, especially the southern regions, to enormous social risks in the face of the very strong economic impact of the crisis.

This volume is a travel diary conducted over the past four years to see the life of this part of our country. A long journey that narrates what remains of the industrial dream of the 1950s in forgotten cities like Gela and tells the stories of primary care doctors from Campania who go to the North for treatment with their hearts in their throats but convinced that only there can they have greater hopes of recovery; of commuters dealing with slow trains; of Calabrian and Sicilian mothers who do not study or work because they have to take care of their children in cities where there are no nurseries or childcare services; of young people who have applied for citizenship income because ultimately they cannot aspire to any other form of support; of the mafias that draw labor from poverty and needs to increase their army and do business in the North. A narrative that contradicts the common belief of a South flooded with resources but at the same time highlights the disasters of the recent and past ruling class. The Constitution dictates common principles of citizenship in matters such as education, access to healthcare, social assistance, equal opportunities, and the possibility of doing business. Principles that today are not uniformly respected in the country.