True stories
of
Wolfgang WOESS
"Stayig permit" (Permesso di soggiorno), Italy
In 1988, I had moved from Leoben University (Austria) to the University
of Milan (Italy), where I remained until coming back to Austria in 1999.
In '88, Austria was not yet member of the European Union. For living in Italy,
I needed a staying permit (permesso di soggiorno), to be obtained from
the division for foreigners (ufficio stranieri) of the police (questura di Milano).
Already at that time, foreign non EU immigration had become considered as a "problem"
in Italy, and the politically correct word had become "extracomunitario" (person
from outside EU), replacing the politically incorrect "marocchino" - a tag
resulting from the fact that many of those immigrants were illegal and coming from North
Africa.
So together with those "marocchini", I became an "extracomunitatrio" in Italy.
For these human beings, entering the "ufficio stranieri" was similar to entering
one of the antechambers of Dante's Inferno.
There was an Italian law saying that foreigners could apply and be nominated
for professor positions in Italy under certain reciprocity conditions (an Italian
citizen should have the analogous possibility in the foreigner's country), which
had been certified to hold in my case. So, as a professor, I became a
regular functionary in Italy, while at the same time being "extracomunitario".
Of course, the officers ("marescialli", usually wearing fancy uniforms)
of the Questura di Milano had never heard of that law, and neither had
the head of of the "ufficio stranieri"). In fact, they only knew one procedure
how a non-EU foreigner could obtain a working and staying permit in Italy, namely
that before that person could enter the country, the employer ought to have
settled all the issues via some complicated burocratic procedure. However,
that procedure could at no point be applied to the other procedure
for the selection and nomination of a university professor as a functionary
of the Italian state. Indeed, I just had received a formal letter saying that
I had to start my work at the university on a certain day, while otherwise
I would loose my nomination ("pena scadenza dalla nomina").
The people at Questura di Milano were extremely puzzled that my employer
(the university, i.e., the state himself !) had already employed me without going
through that procedure. So they just gave me a staying permit for three
months as a university visitor - a type of figure they were acquainted with.
The main point is that the law regulating the admission of foreigners for professor
positions had come from
the ministry of education, while the rules which the people at the foreign
division were used to obey came from the ministry of Interior: it is of course
absurd to believe that in Italy, a subject subordinated to one ministry would
know, or accept, laws that were elaborated at another ministry.
So I was forced to return to the antechamber of the Inferno for repeated renewals
of my staying permit,
which caused me anxious heartbeat and similar distress.
Well, it is true that one could always find some solution - this is Italy !
At a later state,
a puzzled maresciallo had sent me to the secretary of the head ("capo") of the
ufficio stranieri. I told this guy (in Italian, at which I'm fluent) that I was a
functionary of the Italian state like he was one ("Sono un funzionario dello
Stato Italiano come Lei !"), at which point he looked at me like wanting to send me
to a mental clinic immediately. Then I even spoke with the "capo" in person,
who also was unable to believe that I was right. But my institute's director
(Italian citizen, whence recognizable as a functionary of the state) phoned
the "capo", after which I got a staying permit for a whole year (wow !) for
my permanent position. It was still under the title of a temporary visitor.
I had to go on like this until Austria joined the European Union in 1995,
after which things got significantly simpler for me.
Given these very absurd experiences, I started a small enquiry among other
foreign mathematics professors in Italy about their different experiences
(not just "permesso di soggiorno"), whose results I even published
in the newletter of the Italian Mathematical Union (mid-1990s).
I found that all of the other "professori extracomunitari" in different
Italian cities had had to face similar problems, and at no stage had
it been possible to obtain a clarification from the involved ministries
(Interior, Education, and also Foreign affairs). One of the funniest
examples was that of a Polish colleague at University dell'Aquila,
where even the Rector of the University had tried to explain those things
to the Questura, without success. As a tenured full professor, the Polish guy
had permanently had to
go on with three months' staying permits as a University visitor (like myself
at the beginning, before the upgrading to a year's duration), and nobody at
the "ufficio stranieri" had the courage to sign a regular long term staying
permit. This went on until the day when the colleague met a young employee
(of lower rank) at the office, whose boyfriend happend to be a student of that
professor. Only because of this, she took the (utmost) personal responsability
to issue a long term staying permit. Apparently she was not fired, and probably
nobody in the Questura even became aware of her extremely courageous act.
Linked with this story, there would be further absurd ones, relating to the
abovementioned reciprocity, needed at that time for foreigners to become
professors in Italy...
The "ambassador dispute" (Botschafter-Streit), Austria
In 1999, university professors in Austria formally were still functionaries
in the higher administration of the republic. All nominations of higher
functionaries had to be approved by the council of ministers and signed by
the president - including my nomination as a full professor at TU Graz.
One knew that the official nomination decree would usually arrive only
shortly before the scheduled commencement of duties, and all necessary steps
had to be completed before that, anyway. Thus, in late spring
1999, I already had comunicated to University of Milano-Bicocca that I'd quit
by September, I had signed a pre-contract for selling our house near Milano,
and a contract for buying a new house in Graz. At this point, by chance, I came
to know of the "ambassador dispute".
For this, you must know that Austria is being governed since decades
(with an unhappy period of a right-wing governement at the beginning of this
millennium) by a "big coalition" of the social democrats and the people's party, who
profoundly hate each other but can hardly avoid governing together and
(simultanesously) against each other. In 1999, the position of the Austrian
ambassador at the European Commission had become vacant. Typically, any such
position is owned by one of the two parties. The EU ambassador had been from
the people's party, who claimed the new ambassador for their party again.
On the other hand, the Austrian member of the EU commission, Franz Fischler
(one of the very few competent Austrian politicians), also was a member of the
people's party.
So the social democrats said: "now we should get the ambassador, you already
got the commissioner".
Reply of the people's party: "not even dreaming, that ambassador belongs to us",
then social democrats: "NO", then people's party:
"OK - then we block the nomination of the EU
ambassador in the council of Ministers", then social democrats:
"well - then we block all ambassador nominations in the council of Ministers",
and finally people's party: "in response, we block all nominations of
functionaries in the higher administration".
So, at that point (late June 1999), with one house being sold, another
being bought, subject to valid contracts, and already having resigned from
my position in Milano, I learned that it was completely unclear if
I would be able to receive my nomination decree in due time, or at any time.
Well, I got really angry, and without any hesitation I phoned
the offices of the minister of science, Caspar Einem (one of the last
social democrat intellectuals in the government; usually
the social democrats in the government carefully avoid any suspicion of being
intellectuals) and the vice chancellor, Wolfgang Schüssel (popular
party, soon later leader, with some Machiavelli-Fouche'-type aspirations,
of the unpleasant right wing coalition with the "freedom party"). Of course,
my intervention had no effect at all.
At this point, I remembered that the Austrian EU commissioner Fischler
had been a distant study colleague of my sister, who also knew his wife
quite well. So I phoned my sister in Innsbruck, who phoned Fischler's wife,
and it turned out that Fischler was a true gentleman. Coming home from
Brussels only for a short weekend, with hardly any time for his family,
he had political obligations to attend events such as maybe a
parade of a Tyrolean
Schützen company, a fire brigade feast or a performance by the brass
music band of some village. Nevertheless, I could speak with him personally
on the telephone, and he explained the situation quite clearly: namely,
that for solving my case, Einem should approach Schüssel asking
for an exception to the blockade, but that Einem would be too proud to do this,
while Schüssel would say no anyway. Fischler promised me that he would
speak with one of his friends in the government (the minister of agriculture
Molterer, at this time still a bearer of hope for his party), and that
I could phone him again on the next day at a certain hour. Not only did Fischler
keep that promise, but he phoned me back by his own initiative ! Result: maybe there
would be a general solution of the ambassador dispute in the next council of
ministers. Otherwise, he might suggest to Molterer to undertake some step.
Well, luckily, in the next council of ministers, they solved the dispute
(the social democrats gave in, as so often), and in the end I did receive
my nomination decree still in time. But anyway:
ISN'T IT RIDICULOUS HOW POLITICAL PARTIES ARE WILLING TO PUT AT
RISK THE FATE OF CITIZENS WHO HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR
CHILDISH QUARRELS !?
More true stories will follow. The next one should regard real history,
of CAF, Tangentopoli, Mani pulite and Berlusconi - nowadays I realize
that even young Italian friends and colleagues do not know too well
this part of recent history.
W. W.
Back to my homepage
http://www.math.tugraz.at/~woess/
Last modified on November 16, 2011.