I’m a Japanese doctor currently living in Spain for a one-year research stay. Recently I’ve become quite interested in Italy and have been traveling there almost every month.
While living in Spain, I can honestly say that I have almost never felt anything that I would interpret as racial discrimination. However, in Italy I feel like I’ve experienced something that resembles anti-Asian bias for the first time in my life.
The most common situation is in restaurants, especially with seating and service. When I enter a restaurant, I’m almost always seated near the restroom, the entrance, or close to the kitchen. This happens even when I have a reservation. What’s more, Asian customers often end up grouped together in those same areas. Meanwhile, white customers who sometimes don’t even appear to have reservations are seated in the nicer central parts of the dining room.
If it happened once or twice I wouldn’t think much of it, but I’ve experienced this in several different restaurants. I’ve also noticed that the attitude of the staff can feel noticeably different depending on the customer.
Because I know how much it means when foreign visitors to Japan try to speak Japanese, I always try to do the same when I travel. I enter restaurants in the local language, order in that language, and thank them for the meal. Even making that effort, I still sometimes feel this difference in treatment.
I’m not trying to generalize this as “Italy is discriminatory.” I’ve spent about a year in Europe now, so I feel somewhat familiar with the culture here, and this is simply what I’ve personally experienced.
For context, I live in Barcelona and have visited most major cities in Spain. I have never once felt something like this there. Yet in Italy, I have felt it on multiple occasions.
So I’m curious about other people’s experiences.
Is this something that tourists in general might feel in Italy, regardless of race?
Or could it be related specifically to being Asian (or non-white)?
I’d be interested to hear what others think.