Bilingual migrant solidarity flyer. Torino, January 10th.

Anti-immigration poster, Zurich rest stop. August, 2011.

For more, see Popular Culture in Switzerland.

Let’s hear it for the ladies. Neukölln public housing installation, early September.

On the street.

On the subway.

On Friday night, Jennifer and I went out for dinner. Our destination was an Arab-run Tex Mex place on the other side of Piazzale Loreto, a block from the Egyptian consulate. In the year that we’ve been living here, it has definitely become one of our favorite restaurants, even though its not exactly orthodox in its take on the cuisine. Nevertheless, its offered us welcome relief from pasta.

On our walk to the restaurant, we noticed a significant amount of police and military vehicles in the square. Large Carabinieri-marked vans with anti-riot mesh attached to the windows, and oversized, camouflage troop transports repeatedly whizzed by us. Their destination: Via Padova, the site of fierce street battles between Latinos and North Africans two weeks before.

Unnerved by all the activity, following dinner, we took a shortcut home through the Loreto tube station, which you can walk from one side of the square to the other. Its normally bustling passages were empty. Gone were the usual south Asian street vendors hawking keffiyehs and Obama-branded beanies. A trail of blood extended down the floor, stopping, suddenly, fifty or so feet later.

A couple of hours later, I took Pixel out for his last walk. Security personnel continued to drive around the square, periodically turning off onto Via Padova, sometimes onto Corso Buenos Aires, where an ambulance stood parked, lights flashing. From what I could see, the police vans were full. It was difficult to see  through the plastic windows of the army vehicles.

The Carabinieri van, above, was positioned at the entrance to Via Padova.

The Italian army assists the police and undocumented foreign workers in rooting out unauthorized Prada imitations from China. Corso Buenos Aires, Milan.

Migrant worker-directed mobile phone advert. Loreto station, 12/09.

In the US, Jews are known to go out for Chinese food on Christmas day. In Milan, I’m not so sure. The only Jews we know are Israelis, who are more likely to go out for Italian food, irrespective of the actual occasion. This evening we decided to get doner kebab piadinas, with several pieces of baklava, and a free side of fries thrown in for good measure.

Pardon me if I seem a bit surprised. Having just gotten used to the sight of Italian army vehicles patrolling our neighborhood in search of illegal immigrants, imagine returning home after two weeks in the US to find the circus camped out instead. Corso Buenos Aires, 11/21.

Albanian, French and Arabic samples of migrant news and money transfer services. Migropolis exhibit, Venice, October 15.