Immigration

The dabate about immigration is an issue which affects all those countries that are economically adavantged; representing opportunities for work and welfare to those people living in less developed countries.
What about Italy? As far as my personal experience is concerned regards this issue, it happend to me to get in contact with some immigrant families dealing with a number of difficulties. I remember that a few years ago, a friend of mine which was working for an association helping immigrates, asked me if could help him as a translator, because he had to talk to a woman, who had moved from Morocco, and she couldn't speak Italian. She had underwent a series of 'unpleasant discussions' with her husband and nobody could help her, since all her relatives lived far from her. What I learnt from that meeting was that although she had come and live in Italy - and therefore that should have represented an improvement, taking one step forward a better economical perspective, she had taken two steps back as far as her social condition is concerned. She was alone, she couldn't talk to nobody and nonbody could as a matter of fact help her.

My impression is that most of the immigrants, who not only live in Italy, but even in other countries, live in a sort of perpetual status of undefined situation: they'll never feel completely assimilated in the community and on the other hand they don't even belong any more to their culture and country of origin.
The question is, how could be these people helped in order that they won't live always in the borderline? What could we do for them? What are our social policies doing for these people?

Alice