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  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker sews fabrics for an arm chair caddy at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5434.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker irons fabrics for an arm chair caddy before being sewed at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5271.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A teady bear and the suitcases belonging to a departing Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker are here in her room at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women, with a stuffed given  in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015. The Ursuline Sisters of Casa Rut give the young abused women a teady bear upong their arrival at the shelter.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5866.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant and ex-sex worker poses for a portrait in the chappel of Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women where she is hosted in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5841.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant and ex-sex worker poses for a portrait in the chappel of Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women where she is hosted in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5823.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Holy Mary medallion and a cross are worn by a Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker that is now working at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5472.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker sews fabrics for an arm chair caddy, as Sister Giaretta checks a handmade scarf at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5463.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker sews fabrics for an arm chair caddy at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5359.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker sews fabrics for an arm chair caddy at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5073.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker sews fabrics for an arm chair caddy at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5033.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant and ex-sex worker poses for a portrait in the chappel of Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women where she is hosted in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5832.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Holy Mary medallion and a cross are worn by a Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker that is now working at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5488.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian immigrant woman and ex-sex worker irons fabrics for an arm chair caddy before being sewed at the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5188.jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: A worker is seen here at Basso, an olive oil bottling company in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: A worker is seen here at Basso, an olive oil bottling company in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: A worker stores olive oil bottles in the warehouse of Basso, an oil bottling company in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: A worker check the olive oil tanks at Basso, an oil bottling company in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: A worker check the labelling of olive oil bottles at Basso, an oil bottling company in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese worker assembles a new Chinese business sign in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their cre
    CIPG_20191126_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2914.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A Nigerian woman makes braids for her fellow countrywoman at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015. Both women are ex-sex workers staying at Casa Rut.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5697.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: (L-R) Two Nigerian ex-sex workers and an Ursuline sister pray before lunch at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5603.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: the storefront of the New Hope ethnic tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, where ex-sex workers helped by nuns make make products with mainly African fabrics, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5565.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Handmade products are displayed inside the Bottega Fantasia (Fantasy store), next to the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, where ex-sex workers helped by nuns make make products with mainly  African fabrics, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5558.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Handmade products are displayed inside the Bottega Fantasia (Fantasy store), next to the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, where ex-sex workers helped by nuns make make products with mainly  African fabrics, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5555.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Handmade products are displayed inside the Bottega Fantasia (Fantasy store), next to the New Hope tailor's shop in Caserta, Italy, where ex-sex workers helped by nuns make make products with mainly  African fabrics, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5508.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sewing workspaces at the New Hope tailor's shop, where ex-sex workers work in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5441.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta, founder of Casa Rut and of the New Hope ethnic tailor's shop, is here at the Bottega Fantasia (Fantasy Store), where handmade products made by ex-sex workers are sold in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5045.jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Sabino Basso, owner of the olive oil bottling company Basso, poses for a portrait in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Sabino Basso, owner of the olive oil bottling company Basso, poses for a portrait in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Sabino Basso, owner of the olive oil bottling company Basso, poses for a portrait in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Olive oil bottles and labels are seen here at Basso, an oil bottling company in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • AVELLINO, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Olive oil bottles are seen here at Basso, an oil bottling company in Avellino, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Sabino Basso, the owner of the plant, has halted plans to hire 30 more people at the olive oil bottling plant started more than a century ago by his great-grandfather.<br />
Mr. Basso’s company buys olive oil from growers in Italy, Spain and Greece, exporting 80 percent of its wares to countries around the globe — especially the United States, where Wal-Mart is a major customer. He had wanted to hire to boost marketing and online sales.<br />
But then Five Star tightened legal requirements for companies that hire workers on temporary contracts, effectively limiting stints to one year. The change was aimed at forcing businesses to hire permanent workers.<br />
Mr. Basso was aghast. All but five of his 100 workers are permanent, he says. The others are apprentices.<br />
“In order to understand if I want to keep people their whole lives, I have to test them,” he says. The new rules did not allow him sufficient time. “I just stopped hiring.”<br />
His sales in Italy have dipped four percent this year, a trend he blames on the noisy reality show that is Italian politics.<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • OTTAVIANO, ITALY - 25 JULY 2019: Workers are seen here processing flexible polyurethan foaminge and producing rear seat paddings for Fiat Panda, at Adler Group in Ottaviano, Italy, on July 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Adler-Pelzer Group is an Italian manufacturing Group, and a worldwide leader in the design, development and manufacturing of components and systems for the transportation industry. Founded in 1956 in Ottaviano (Naples), today is the largest producer in Italy and the second in the world of systems for acoustic, thermal comfort and interior design for vehicles in the automotive, aerospace and railway industries. <br />
<br />
Italian manufacturer Adler-Pelzer Group had secured an order worth 2.6 million euros to make parts for military aircraft.That spelled 250 new jobs at its factory outside Naples, the heart of perpetually struggling southern Italy.<br />
“It was a great opportunity,” says Adler-Pelzer Group chairman Paolo Scudieri.<br />
But early this year, alarmed by the intensifying political chaos gripping Italy, Mr. Scudieri’s company shifted the order to a factory in Poland. He was disturbed by what he portrays as the anti-business proclivities of the populists suddenly running the country. He was concerned by the government’s collision with the European Union over its spending plans.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190725_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • OTTAVIANO, ITALY - 25 JULY 2019: A workers is seen here  processing flexible polyurethan foaminge and producing rear seat paddings for Fiat Panda, at Adler Group in Ottaviano, Italy, on July 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Adler-Pelzer Group is an Italian manufacturing Group, and a worldwide leader in the design, development and manufacturing of components and systems for the transportation industry. Founded in 1956 in Ottaviano (Naples), today is the largest producer in Italy and the second in the world of systems for acoustic, thermal comfort and interior design for vehicles in the automotive, aerospace and railway industries. <br />
<br />
Italian manufacturer Adler-Pelzer Group had secured an order worth 2.6 million euros to make parts for military aircraft.That spelled 250 new jobs at its factory outside Naples, the heart of perpetually struggling southern Italy.<br />
“It was a great opportunity,” says Adler-Pelzer Group chairman Paolo Scudieri.<br />
But early this year, alarmed by the intensifying political chaos gripping Italy, Mr. Scudieri’s company shifted the order to a factory in Poland. He was disturbed by what he portrays as the anti-business proclivities of the populists suddenly running the country. He was concerned by the government’s collision with the European Union over its spending plans.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190725_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • OTTAVIANO, ITALY - 25 JULY 2019: Workers are seen here at a machine processing polyurethan with skill foaming and that produces anti rattle pads for Jeep Renegade, at Adler Group in Ottaviano, Italy, on July 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Adler-Pelzer Group is an Italian manufacturing Group, and a worldwide leader in the design, development and manufacturing of components and systems for the transportation industry. Founded in 1956 in Ottaviano (Naples), today is the largest producer in Italy and the second in the world of systems for acoustic, thermal comfort and interior design for vehicles in the automotive, aerospace and railway industries. <br />
<br />
Italian manufacturer Adler-Pelzer Group had secured an order worth 2.6 million euros to make parts for military aircraft.That spelled 250 new jobs at its factory outside Naples, the heart of perpetually struggling southern Italy.<br />
“It was a great opportunity,” says Adler-Pelzer Group chairman Paolo Scudieri.<br />
But early this year, alarmed by the intensifying political chaos gripping Italy, Mr. Scudieri’s company shifted the order to a factory in Poland. He was disturbed by what he portrays as the anti-business proclivities of the populists suddenly running the country. He was concerned by the government’s collision with the European Union over its spending plans.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190725_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Antonio Pastore (45, center, unemployed) gather with other unemployed workers  at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Antonio Pastore lost the job he had held for two decades, restoring marble statues. He had earned about 1,200 euros per month ($1,349). As orders disappeared, his employer pressured him to agree to work off the books, he says, enabling the company to avoid paying taxes. He refused, and was summarily fired. That was the last time he has held a real job.<br />
<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Antonio Pastore (45, center, unemployed) gather with other unemployed workers  at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Antonio Pastore lost the job he had held for two decades, restoring marble statues. He had earned about 1,200 euros per month ($1,349). As orders disappeared, his employer pressured him to agree to work off the books, he says, enabling the company to avoid paying taxes. He refused, and was summarily fired. That was the last time he has held a real job.<br />
<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Elders and unemployed workers gather at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A woman walks up the stairs of the apartment building leading to Casa Ruta, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5882.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A bible lays on a djembe in the makeshift altar of the chappel at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5804.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta, founder of Casa Rut, poses for a portrait by the makeshift altar at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5789.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta, founder of Casa Rut, poses for a portrait by the makeshift altar at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5786.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A makeshift altar is here in the chappel of Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5765.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Miniatures of the African continent and of the Holy Mary are here in Sister Rita Giaretta's office at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5674.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta (center) is here during an interview at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5630.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta (center), founder of Casa Rut and of the New Hope tailor's shop, listens to a young immigrant woman at the tailoring studio in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5084.jpg
  • OTTAVIANO, ITALY - 25 JULY 2019: A workers is seen here at a machine processing flexible polyurethan with film foaming and that produces fenders for Jeep Renegade, at Adler Group in Ottaviano, Italy, on July 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Adler-Pelzer Group is an Italian manufacturing Group, and a worldwide leader in the design, development and manufacturing of components and systems for the transportation industry. Founded in 1956 in Ottaviano (Naples), today is the largest producer in Italy and the second in the world of systems for acoustic, thermal comfort and interior design for vehicles in the automotive, aerospace and railway industries. <br />
<br />
Italian manufacturer Adler-Pelzer Group had secured an order worth 2.6 million euros to make parts for military aircraft.That spelled 250 new jobs at its factory outside Naples, the heart of perpetually struggling southern Italy.<br />
“It was a great opportunity,” says Adler-Pelzer Group chairman Paolo Scudieri.<br />
But early this year, alarmed by the intensifying political chaos gripping Italy, Mr. Scudieri’s company shifted the order to a factory in Poland. He was disturbed by what he portrays as the anti-business proclivities of the populists suddenly running the country. He was concerned by the government’s collision with the European Union over its spending plans.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190725_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Unemployed workers gather at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Unemployed workers gather at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Antonio Pastore (45, unemployed) poses for a portait in front of the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Antonio Pastore lost the job he had held for two decades, restoring marble statues. He had earned about 1,200 euros per month ($1,349). As orders disappeared, his employer pressured him to agree to work off the books, he says, enabling the company to avoid paying taxes. He refused, and was summarily fired. That was the last time he has held a real job.<br />
<br />
At the Sgarrupato unemployed workers share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Antonio Pastore (45, unemployed) poses for a portait in front of the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Antonio Pastore lost the job he had held for two decades, restoring marble statues. He had earned about 1,200 euros per month ($1,349). As orders disappeared, his employer pressured him to agree to work off the books, he says, enabling the company to avoid paying taxes. He refused, and was summarily fired. That was the last time he has held a real job.<br />
<br />
At the Sgarrupato unemployed workers share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Antonio Pastore (45, unemployed) poses for a portait in front of the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Antonio Pastore lost the job he had held for two decades, restoring marble statues. He had earned about 1,200 euros per month ($1,349). As orders disappeared, his employer pressured him to agree to work off the books, he says, enabling the company to avoid paying taxes. He refused, and was summarily fired. That was the last time he has held a real job.<br />
<br />
At the Sgarrupato unemployed workers share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Antonio Pastore (45, unemployed) poses for a portait in front of the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Ten years ago, in the midst of the global financial crisis, Antonio Pastore lost the job he had held for two decades, restoring marble statues. He had earned about 1,200 euros per month ($1,349). As orders disappeared, his employer pressured him to agree to work off the books, he says, enabling the company to avoid paying taxes. He refused, and was summarily fired. That was the last time he has held a real job.<br />
<br />
At the Sgarrupato unemployed workers share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Unemployed workers gather at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Unemployed workers gather at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Luigi Prodomo (54, unemployed) is seen here at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization where unemployed workers gather, in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Maria Cinque, a resident of Montesanto - a working class neighborhood of Naples - opens the door of the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization where she volunteers and where unemployed workers gather, in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • NAPLES, ITALY - 22 JULY 2019: Unemployed workers gather at the "Sgarrupato", an abandoned church seized by the "Movimento 7 Novembre" community organization in Montesanto, a working class neighborhood in Naples, Italy, on July 22nd 2019.<br />
<br />
Here they share strategies for how to find work, and how to navigate the bewildering government benefits system.<br />
In Italy, the unemployment rate sits near 10 percent — lower than a year ago, but roughly the same level as in 2012, in the aftermath of a brutal crisis. But many in Naples say the crisis never ended.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italian companies are deferring expansions and limiting investment rather than risking cash in a time of uncertainty. The public debt remains monumental, running at more than 2 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion), or more than 130 percent of annual economic output. Banks are still stuffed with bad loans — albeit fewer than before — making them reluctant to lend. An economy that has not expanded over the past decade is this year widely expected to again produce no growth.
    CIPG_20190722_NYT_ItalyEconNaples_M3...jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta, founder of Casa Rut, poses for a portrait by the makeshift altar at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5801.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta, founder of Casa Rut, poses for a portrait by the makeshift altar at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5798.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A visual diary of Casa Rut from 1996, the year of its foundation to 2000, hangs on a living room furniture at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5641.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A photograph of Pope Francis greeting Monsignor Raffaele Nogaro, promoter of Casa Rut, during his visit in Caserta in July 2014, is here on shelf  at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5635.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta (center) is here during an interview at Casa Rut, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5629.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: A table set for lunch is here in one of the rooms of Casa Ruta, a shelter for abused young immigrant women in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
Casa Rut was founded in 1995 and it is promoted and managed by the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary of Breganze (Vicenza, Italy).  Casa Rut's goal is to provide young immigrant women a familiar environment where  they are helped to protect and free themselves, and to undertake a common path aiming to the integration in Italy's society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5575.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta (center), founder of Casa Rut and of the New Hope tailor's shop, listens to a young immigrant woman at the tailoring studio in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5537.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta, founder of Casa Rut and of the New Hope tailor's shop, listens to a young immigrant woman at the tailoring studio in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5518.jpg
  • CASERTA, ITALY - 25 FEBRUARY 2015: Sister Rita Giaretta (center), founder of Casa Rut and of the New Hope tailor's shop, talks to volunteers at the tailoring studio in Caserta, Italy, on February 25th 2015.<br />
<br />
New Hope is an ethnic tailor's shop that makes a variety of colourful products working mainly african fabrics. The New Hope social cooperative, founded in 2014, promotes a training workshop for your immigrant women, many of which have children, that want to integrate in Italian society.
    CIPG_20150225_INYT_CasaRut__M3_5150.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese cafe and restaurant is seen here in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their creations: “M
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1906.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese immigrant is seen here by a food market in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their creation
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1620.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Roberta Travaglini (61), who has lost her job at a textile mille four years ago, poses for a portrait nearby her apartment in Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.  For the past four years, Roberta Travaglini has been unable to find a job, forcing her to live off support from her retired parents. She says she will not look for work in the Chinese-owned clothing businesses, because she feels uncomfortable there. But she shops for clothes in the Chinese clothing store across the street from her apartment because she can no longer afford the boutiques downtown. Since losing her job, she has survived by fixing clothes for people in her neighbourhood, using the workshop on the ground floor of her parent’s apartment.“When I was young, it was the Communist party that was protecting the workers, that was protecting our social class. Now, it’s the League that is protecting the people, that goes toward the people’s problems. I see a similarity between the Communist Party and the League.”<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostl
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1553.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: Chinese immigrants are seen here in a public park by an abandoned wool mill, closed in 2002, in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. The
    SMAS_20191126_NYT_Italy-Crisis_DSCF7...jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese truck drivers pulls out of the parking lot of a Chinese supermarket after delivering goods, in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion br
    CIPG_20191126_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_3123.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: Chinese immigrants gathered as the local police confiscated the vegetables sold illegally by a Chinese immigrant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian
    CIPG_20191126_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_3097.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: Chinese immigrants gathered as the local police confiscated the vegetables sold illegally by a Chinese immigrant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian
    CIPG_20191126_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_3090.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: A local policewoman confiscates the vegetables sold illegally by a Chinese immigrant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixe
    CIPG_20191126_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_3084.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: The walled entrance and closed fate of an abandoned wool mill, that went out of business in 2002, in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands
    CIPG_20191126_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_3067.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: Teenagers, including first generation Italian Chinese, are seen here walking back from school in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. The
    CIPG_20191126_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2949.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 26 NOVEMBER 2019: A 1926 photograph of the owners and workers in the Nesi textile factory is seen here in the house of Edoardo Nesi, who inherited the business that went out of business because of globalization and Chinese competition, in Prato, Italy, on November 26th 2019.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their creations: “Made In Italy”.
    CIPG_20191126_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2346.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Chinese furs are seen here outside a showroom of a Chinese Pronto Moda (Fast Fashion) retailer  in the textile industrial area of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fas
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2103.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Chinese clothes are shown here in a showroom of a Chinese Pronto Moda (Fast Fashion) retailer  in the textile industrial area of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fash
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2086.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese Pronto Moda (Fast Fashion) retailer is seen here in the textile industrial area of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2066.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese immigrants walk by a grocery store in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their creations: �
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2056.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese immigrant walks by a grocery store in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their creations: �
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2048.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A view of a general items store in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their creations: “Made In Ital
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2039.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A hardware store sign with the Italianised named of its Chinese owner is seen here in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_2027.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese immigrant is seen here walking out of a garage in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their c
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1985.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese immigrant is seen here in a garage in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their creations: �
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1975.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese immigrant walks towards a bus stop in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to their creations: �
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1921.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Marco Weng (20), a first-generation Italian-Chinese and son of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Italy 30 years ago, poses for a portrait at his partner's fried chicken take-away restaurant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019. “There was no clothing industry here. Italians only made textiles. Chinese people didn’t take jobs. We have created jobs”, Mr Weng says.  Marco Weng is about to launch a chain of Korean fried chicken restaurants with a partner.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s facto
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1894.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Marco Weng (20), a first-generation Italian-Chinese and son of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Italy 30 years ago, poses for a portrait at his partner's fried chicken take-away restaurant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019. “There was no clothing industry here. Italians only made textiles. Chinese people didn’t take jobs. We have created jobs”, Mr Weng says.  Marco Weng is about to launch a chain of Korean fried chicken restaurants with a partner.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s facto
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1890.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Marco Weng (20), a first-generation Italian-Chinese and son of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Italy 30 years ago, poses for a portrait at his partner's fried chicken take-away restaurant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019. “There was no clothing industry here. Italians only made textiles. Chinese people didn’t take jobs. We have created jobs”, Mr Weng says.  Marco Weng is about to launch a chain of Korean fried chicken restaurants with a partner.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s facto
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1841.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Marco Weng (20), a first-generation Italian-Chinese and son of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Italy 30 years ago, poses for a portrait at his partner's fried chicken take-away restaurant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019. “There was no clothing industry here. Italians only made textiles. Chinese people didn’t take jobs. We have created jobs”, Mr Weng says.  Marco Weng is about to launch a chain of Korean fried chicken restaurants with a partner.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s facto
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1829.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Marco Weng (20), a first-generation Italian-Chinese and son of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Italy 30 years ago, poses for a portrait at his partner's fried chicken take-away restaurant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019. “There was no clothing industry here. Italians only made textiles. Chinese people didn’t take jobs. We have created jobs”, Mr Weng says.  Marco Weng is about to launch a chain of Korean fried chicken restaurants with a partner.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s facto
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1765.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Marco Weng (20), a first-generation Italian-Chinese and son of Chinese immigrants who arrived in Italy 30 years ago, poses for a portrait at his partner's fried chicken take-away restaurant in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019. “There was no clothing industry here. Italians only made textiles. Chinese people didn’t take jobs. We have created jobs”, Mr Weng says.  Marco Weng is about to launch a chain of Korean fried chicken restaurants with a partner.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s facto
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1752.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Chinese immigrants are seen here walking by a general items store in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label t
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1624.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: A Chinese immigrant is seen here by a gambling machines facility in the Chinatown of Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.<br />
<br />
Today, roughly one-tenth of the city’s 200,000 inhabitants are Chinese immigrants who have arrived legally, while many estimates put the total number at 45,000 after accounting for those without proper documents. <br />
Chinese grocery stores and restaurants have emerged to serve the local population. On the outskirts of the city, Chinese entrepreneurs oversee warehouses teeming with racks of clothing destined for markets across the continent. Estimates have it that 80 percent of clothing sold in street markets within the European Union is made by Chinese workers in Prato.<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostly from the coastal city of Wenzhou, famed for its industriousness - to exploit an opportunity.<br />
They set up sewing machines across the concrete floors and imported fabric from factories in China. They sewed clothes, cannily imitating the styles of Italian fashion brands. They affixed a valuable label to
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1588.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Roberta Travaglini (61), who has lost her job at a textile mille four years ago, poses for a portrait nearby her apartment in Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.  For the past four years, Roberta Travaglini has been unable to find a job, forcing her to live off support from her retired parents. She says she will not look for work in the Chinese-owned clothing businesses, because she feels uncomfortable there. But she shops for clothes in the Chinese clothing store across the street from her apartment because she can no longer afford the boutiques downtown. Since losing her job, she has survived by fixing clothes for people in her neighbourhood, using the workshop on the ground floor of her parent’s apartment.“When I was young, it was the Communist party that was protecting the workers, that was protecting our social class. Now, it’s the League that is protecting the people, that goes toward the people’s problems. I see a similarity between the Communist Party and the League.”<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from China - mostl
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1491.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Roberta Travaglini (61), who has lost her job at a textile mille four years ago, is seen here walking back from a Chinese clothig store in Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.  For the past four years, Roberta Travaglini has been unable to find a job, forcing her to live off support from her retired parents. She says she will not look for work in the Chinese-owned clothing businesses, because she feels uncomfortable there. But she shops for clothes in the Chinese clothing store across the street from her apartment because she can no longer afford the boutiques downtown. Since losing her job, she has survived by fixing clothes for people in her neighbourhood, using the workshop on the ground floor of her parent’s apartment.“When I was young, it was the Communist party that was protecting the workers, that was protecting our social class. Now, it’s the League that is protecting the people, that goes toward the people’s problems. I see a similarity between the Communist Party and the League.”<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arriving from
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1422.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Roberta Travaglini (61), who has lost her job at a textile mille four years ago, ise seen here looking at a shop window of a Chinese clothig store in Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.  For the past four years, Roberta Travaglini has been unable to find a job, forcing her to live off support from her retired parents. She says she will not look for work in the Chinese-owned clothing businesses, because she feels uncomfortable there. But she shops for clothes in the Chinese clothing store across the street from her apartment because she can no longer afford the boutiques downtown. Since losing her job, she has survived by fixing clothes for people in her neighbourhood, using the workshop on the ground floor of her parent’s apartment.“When I was young, it was the Communist party that was protecting the workers, that was protecting our social class. Now, it’s the League that is protecting the people, that goes toward the people’s problems. I see a similarity between the Communist Party and the League.”<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arr
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1393.jpg
  • PRATO, ITALY - 25 NOVEMBER 2019: Roberta Travaglini (61), who has lost her job at a textile mille four years ago, ise seen here looking at a shop window of a Chinese clothig store in Prato, Italy, on November 25th 2019.  For the past four years, Roberta Travaglini has been unable to find a job, forcing her to live off support from her retired parents. She says she will not look for work in the Chinese-owned clothing businesses, because she feels uncomfortable there. But she shops for clothes in the Chinese clothing store across the street from her apartment because she can no longer afford the boutiques downtown. Since losing her job, she has survived by fixing clothes for people in her neighbourhood, using the workshop on the ground floor of her parent’s apartment.“When I was young, it was the Communist party that was protecting the workers, that was protecting our social class. Now, it’s the League that is protecting the people, that goes toward the people’s problems. I see a similarity between the Communist Party and the League.”<br />
<br />
Italy has proved especially vulnerable to China’s emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut, given that many of its artisanal trades -- textiles, leather, shoe-making -- have long been dominated by small, family-run businesses that lacked the scale to compete on price with factories in a nation of 1.4 billion people. <br />
In recent years, four Italian regions that were as late as the 1980s electing Communists and then reliably supported center-left candidates -- Tuscany, Umbria, Marche and Emilia-Romagna  -- have swung dramatically to the extreme right. Many working class people say that delineation has it backwards: The left abandoned them, not the other way around. <br />
<br />
Between 2001 and 2011, Prato’s 6,000 textile companies shrunk to 3,000, and those employed by the plants plunged from 40,000 to 19,000, according to Confindustria, the leading Italian industrial trade association. As Prato’s factories went dark, people began arr
    CIPG_20191125_NYT_Italy-Cris_M3_1341.jpg
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