Help with a Firm Hand

The good news traveled fast. As a leftist, Bologna’s incoming mayor Sergio Cofferati was sure to be a friend to the city’s most marginalized. And so an illegal encampment of Roma refugees on the city’s outskirts began attracting new residents. “Word was spreading,” recalls Bologna immigration chief Fausto Amelii, “that the new administration was going to take care of them.”

But if Cofferati was indeed a friend, he turned out to be the kind who tells you what you don’t want to hear — in this case, “Camp closed!” In 2005, nine months after his election, the mayor ordered the swift dismantling of the encampment, plus checks on the legal status of its 120 occupants and an inspection of all unofficial housing in Bologna. The city of 373,000 helped families find temporary accommodation, but made legalità a top priority.

The tough stance shocked longtime allies of Cofferati, 59, a rising star of the Italian left after 12 years leading the country’s biggest labor syndicate, CGIL. But he says demanding that immigrants obey the law is simply part of his job. “Some people seem to think that legality and security are only issues for the right,” Cofferati tells TIME. “But, in today’s society, governing means helping create the best conditions for different people from different backgrounds to live together without conflict.”

The locals seem to agree, with a recent poll putting the mayor’s approval rating at 56%. That’s because Cofferati’s get-tough approach is coupled with a progressive policy toward legal immigrants. For its foreign residents, the city provides housing assistance, Italian-language courses, psychological counseling and walk-in help desks in native languages for bureaucratic questions. But the greatest boon to new arrivals is plentiful work — Bologna’s 2.6% unemployment rate is among Italy’s lowest.

Moroccan immigrant Omar, 39, has worked steadily since arriving in Bologna three years ago. He’s happy about that and relieved to have a place in a city-run hostel for single immigrant males, even though he’ll have to find other quarters within a year. “This resolved a crisis for me,” Omar says. “Life isn’t easy for immigrants, but the city does help.”

Raymond Dassi, a Cameroonian who has lived in Bologna since 1996 and now heads its immigrant association, supports the mayor’s tough line — but thinks his respect for law-abiding immigrants should go further, especially since Bologna needs foreign-born workers. “We are helping [Italians]. They can’t see that,” says Dassi, 35. “They need to democratize immigrants. They need to say, ‘Let’s see your ideas.'” Bologna’s old and new residents are learning how to live together; next comes governing together.