An essay that goes beyond the usual clichés and tells true and dramatic stories of immigration, showing us its many faces.

There is only one rule among departing immigrants: “You never start a journey with a relative.” Too risky for two brothers, for a brother and sister, unthinkable for a husband and wife. For this reason, relatives separate before departure, making an appointment only upon arrival, telling each other lies that they pretend to believe, even though they know that they will probably never see each other again.
In Italy, only 16% of immigrants are saved by NGO ships. Among them, there are women who have been raped for eighth time in two years of travel, some violently caress their bellies that have grown unwillingly, but there are also very young children who are the only baggage their mothers need to carry and save, in the middle of the sea. In addition to migrants who face ruthless and dangerous journeys, there are also second and third generations. Girls and boys who arrived in Italy at a very young age, without knowing the countries where they were born except through their families’ stories, or simply born on our soil. Boys and girls without citizenship, without a past, too black to be considered Italian, or too Italian to be considered Nigerian, Ethiopian or Afghan. Girls and boys who go to school with our children, do sports, music, theater with them: they play and dream with them, sometimes they take part in their birthday parties. At school they learn Italian history, literature, civic education, but they do not have the same rights as their Italian classmates.
Immigration has many faces and they are all people. Breaking down clichés, as he always does in his work as a journalist, and without ever losing tenderness or lucidity, Saverio Tommasi tells some of these true stories, dramatic but also full of life and hope, together with the photojournalist Francesco Malavolta, who accompanies these narrations with his intense photographs, the result of many years of work traveling the world.