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Background

Since the late 20th century, Palermo, the capital of Sicily and the fifth-largest city in Italy, has become a destination for diverse migrant and diaspora communities from around the world. Substantial communities of people from Bangladesh, the Philippines, Tunisia, and ethnic Tamils from Sri Lanka have lived in the city since the 1980s. In the 2000s, large communities of people from North and West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and smaller groups of people from Latin America and other parts of the world settled in Palermo.

In the 2010s, the Central Mediterranean became the deadliest migration corridor in the world, with Sicily serving as the main point of arrival for people from across Africa and Asia traveling by boat from the coasts of Libya and Tunisia. Palermo, a major point of entry into Europe, became an important center of migrant rights movements, building on its history as a hub of anti-mafia movements that likewise promoted human rights and pathways to legal work and freedom from violence and exploitation. In 2015, the administration of Mayor Leoluca Orlando, the foremost anti-mafia mayor in Italy and a champion of migrant rights, issued the Charter of Palermo.

This project took stock of Palermo’s migrant and diaspora communities’ experiences of human rights a decade after the Charter was issued. What rights are being realized, how and by whom, in different communities? What rights remain denied? What work remains to be done to realize all people’s rights in the city, in Italy and Europe?

Other pages of this website document the results of this research; and in the “action” page also the ongoing work of the project partners in promoting human rights in their communities.

Nationality‍ Number‍ % of non-Italian citizens

Bangladesh     6,397               24.7%

Sri Lanka        2,730               10.5%

Romania         2,502               9.6%

Ghana              2,464               9.5%

Philippines     1,639                6.3%

Tunisia 1,187               4.6%

China              1,000               3.9%

Morocco          977                  3.8%

Nigeria            875                  3.4%

Mauritius        758                  2.9%

Côte d’Ivoire   537                  2.1%

Ukraine           352                  1.4%

Gambia           268                  1.0%

Table: Migrant/diaspora population officially registered in Palermo, January 1, 2025, by nationality [this includes children born in Italy, as the nation does not grant birthright citizenship]. All groups that make up at least 1% of Palermo’s registered foreign population are included in this table. (Source: Tuttitalia)

Mural of Saint Benedict the Moor, one of Palermo’s two patron saints.

The Charter of Palermo elaborated on the various rights that Europe and Italy guarantee to all people in their constitutions, laws, and United Nations conventions to which they are signatories – rights to:

Life
Human mobility
Asylum
Documentation
Political Participation
Dignity
Work
Shelter
Health (care)
Cultural Freedom
Freedom of Religion
Freedom of Thought
Freedom from Torture and Exploitation
Future and Childhood
Path to Citizenship

The Project

  • This 2-year project was designed and organized by members of 8 diaspora-led associations in Palermo with colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania.

    In its first year, facilitators from the city’s North and West African, South and Southeast Asian communities conducted photo/voice discussions with people in their communities. They asked participants to each bring a photograph, object, or brief video that illuminated how particular rights were realized – or not realized – in their community. Each participant shared how the thing they brought represented their community’s experiences of one or more human rights. People of various ages, genders, and parts of the world shared a great diversity of stories, issues, and critical analysis in these group discussions, which typically included four or five people from one community.

    The 105 people who participated in photo/voice discussions reflected the diversity of Palermo’s migrant and diaspora communities, including first and second generation migrants from: Algeria (7 participants); Bangladesh (12); Chad (1); Côte d’Ivoire (12); Egypt (1); Gambia (5); Ghana (15); Libya (1); Iraq (1); Morocco (14); Nigeria (12); Philippines (7); Sri Lanka (12); Tunisia (2); and Venezuela (1). [The only non-European diaspora communities not represented in this project whose population makes up at least 1% of Palermo’s foreign-born population are the Chinese and Mauritian communities.]

    Participants included women and men, ranging from teenagers to elders, people recently arrived in Italy, others who have lived there for up to four decades, as well as people born in Italy to migrant parents. Italy does not grant birthright citizenship, so people in the second generation commonly share many of the experiences of their parents. This and other issues are explored further in the summary findings page and the pages that profile findings, including quotes from participants, related to each human right promised by Italy and the European Union.

    In its second year, building on this research, project partners have designed and implemented outreach, organizing, and other initiatives in their communities to promote the realization of human rights.

  • Co-PIs:

    • Ibrahima Kobena, founder and president, Diasporas for Peace

    • Domenic Vitiello, Professor of City Planning and Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania 

    • Obed Arango, Lecturer in Social Policy, University of Pennsylvania; co-director, CCATE

    Facilitators/Community Organizers: 

    • Shaidul Abdul and Mohammed Tazim Safat, Bangla School

    • Jeffrey Coloma, Filipino community

    • Osas Egbon, Women of Benin City

    • Ashraf Halouan, Islamic Socio-Cultural Center

    • Marie Pierre Natchia, Union of Ivorians in Sicily

    • Jinithira Anthonistan Vimalaselvam, Let’s Give a Hand

    Research assistants: 

    • Lorena Alvarez, Diasporas for Peace

    • Eliana Atienza, University of Pennsylvania Urban Studies 

    • Anna Bellows, University of Pennsylvania Political Science 

    • Glynn Boltman, University of Pennsylvania Political Science 

    • Sadie Daniel, University of Pennsylvania Urban Studies 

    Translator:

    • Carlotta de Bellis, University of Pennsylvania

Facilitators conducting photo-voice interviews at our project kick-off event in June 2025.