Piazza Indipendenza in Florence and the local Filipino community: the effects of migration on historic public spaces

Public space may be the place either of integration or conflict between locals and immigrants. The paper is focused on the case study of Piazza Indipendenza in Florence, elected by the Filipino community living inside and around the city as its main meeting and recreational place, where both aspects co-exist. Because of its location in an UNESCO heritage site, as well as its peculiar features, which are analysed in the paper according to different parameters, the case is presented as a significant example of how migration, in the lack of ad-hoc policies, may affect from different points of view the perception and the “publicness” itself of public spaces in consolidated historic contexts.