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By Quintus Colombage,Colombo | Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's Alex Van Arkadie is providing a lifeline to migrant workers in Italy by helping them smash the language barrier courtesy of free Italian lessons.
Since 2009 he has been teaching the language in both English and Sinhala for workers from Sri Lanka and other countries who are based around the Casal Palocco area in Rome.
Arkadie has been living in Italy for 40 years. He also launched the first Italian-Sinhala language book to help his compatriots succeed as expats in Italy, where an estimated 50,000 Sri Lankans have moved in search of jobs.
He volunteers through Caritas Italy in San Timoteo of Casal Palocco, about 2 kilometers from the coastal belt just south of Rome.
Caritas, the Catholic Church's social arm, has been giving Sri Lankan migrant workers in the Middle East a helping hand for years.
Arkadie's primary aim is to help jobseekers communicate with their employers in the local language.
Italy has served as a preferred destination for migrants smuggled in by boat for the last two decades but the country has recently adopted a tougher stance on admitting them.
The voyage there can be a perilous one, usually entailing 20 days at sea on overcrowded boats, for which they are charged US$4,000 a head.
Others arrive as tourists but overstay their visas and work illegally in black market jobs. For most, their biggest hurdle is getting to grips with the language.
Arkadie, who coordinates welfare services for migrants by overseeing a daily feeding program at his parish church of San Timoteo, recommends the best of his wards to prospective employers.
He also finds used clothing and second-hand furniture to help keep them afloat in a distant land, and said many migrants struggle to land jobs, as they have no contacts to help them settle.
"Many find temporary work as housemaids, au pairs, assistants to the aged and disabled, gardeners or handymen," he told ucanews.com.
"The advantages [if they can converse in Italian] include having ready access to money-in-hand so that they can pay for their daily expenses, a higher daily wage, not being compelled to live in, and thereby not having to work the whole day with almost no breaks," said Arkadie.
His Italian-Sinhala language book Viva I'Italia! (Long live Italy!) was recently published by the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement. University academics, retired Archbishop Oswald Gomis, Christian priests and laymen attended the book launch on Jan. 31 in Negombo.
Archbishop Gomis praised his service to his countrymen. "We would like to see Viva I'Italia! sent to local newspapers to drum up publicity so that more people can benefit from it," he said.
Divorce rates among migrant workers in Italy are relatively high, partly because some resort to marriages of convenience to try and get a green card for the United States, pundits say.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan priests who arrive in Rome for advanced study are assigned to various missions and take turns in visiting Sri Lankan expats and migrant workers.
"They celebrate Sunday Mass, administer the sacraments and attend to the spiritual care of the migrant families," Arkadie said.
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