“In Camini, I live in a culturally rich and respectful community, where we treat each other like family,” says Zakaria Jlousi, a 26-year-old Syrian who has been calling the small hilltop town in Calabria home for the past two years. As a multicultural mediator, he helps migrants, asylum seekers and refugees understand and navigate diverse cultural landscapes.  

Situated on southern Italy’s Ionian coast, Camini had been plagued by depopulation as many residents left for better opportunities in northern Italy or abroad over the past decades. Between 1991 and 2011, Camini’s population dropped by 27 per cent, from 630 to 458.