Sandro Dragone

Sandro Dragone is a member of the Integration Council of the City of Bocholt. Bruno Wansing, the city's integration officer, spoke to the Italian citizen, whom we would like to introduce to you here.

The son of an Italian father and a German mother, Sandro Dragone was born in Bocholt in 1990. He has Italian citizenship. "I could get naturalised, but I'm attached to it," says Sandro Dragone, who is an insurance agent for Gothaer and runs an online shop for Italian delicatessen on the side.

He is married to Damaris and has two children, Melina is three years old and little Maurizio is just two months old.

I am Italian and from Bocholt

With a big YES with an exclamation mark, Sandro Dragone answered the question whether he feels integrated. "And that's because in my whole life so far I've never had the feeling that being an Italian is negative," Dragone emphasises. But perhaps that is also due to the fact that for Germans Italy is THE holiday destination par excellence and Germans love Italian cuisine and the Italian way of life. "I am Italian and from Bocholt," says Dragone and adds: "Bocholt is open to everyone and everything. He has contact with many - even completely different - people through his work. He has never experienced any rejection or discrimination. "On the contrary, people are always very open to me here, but maybe that is also due to my positive attitude," Dragone assumes.

Openness, acceptance, language

For good integration, he says, openness, acceptance of people who think differently and, above all, language are particularly important. He would prefer it if the Integration Council had nothing more to do. "Then integration would have been successful in all areas and would no longer be a task. But that is the ideal situation," says Dragone. Every citizen must feel addressed and everyone must be allowed to talk to everyone.

You do it!

He came to the Integration Council through former chair Emanuele Mascolo. "When he was no longer able to take on the tasks in the Integration Council due to his health, he told me, 'You do it,'" Dragone reports. Mascolo, he says, realised that he had a good rapport with the people. "In my short time I have already seen how important the issue is and I enjoy it when I can help". Emanuele Mascolo had always really stepped on the gas during his time and had many good and important contacts up to the highest political offices.

Living out culture, teaching the language of origin

With the Integration Council, he wants to make it possible for people with interantional family histories to live out their culture.

A very important concern is the issue of teaching the language of origin for people with an international family history. "I would have liked to have had Italian as HSU," Dragone looks back a little wistfully. Then he would certainly not have the problems today - especially in writing. "If the demand for HSU is not so great, then the children with German backgrounds should be taken along. Why shouldn't the boyfriend or girlfriend who play together anyway also learn or learn another language together in this way?" asks Sandro Dragone.

Another wish is that the ideas that are collected, developed and set up in the Integration Council will also bear fruit.

Involve the Integration Council at an early stage

On the subject of acceptance of the Integration Council by the Council, the administration and the population, Dragone was reticent: "I haven't been on the council that long, it's my first term. My feeling is yes, even if there have been negative decisions that I could not necessarily understand," said Dragone. The Integration Council is not so much in the focus either in the administration or in the city council, but the "forgetting" is probably not malicious.

In this context, he would like to see more focus on the intentions of the integration council and for the integration council to be involved at an early stage before decisions are made.