C'IAO:

Italy's Migrants Moving Up to Front Office: Nonnatives are no longer relegated to jobs behind the scenes. But the nation is still getting used to its nascent multicultural identity. (Tracy Wilkinson, November 7, 2004, LA Times)

Her Italian is nearly perfect. Her demeanor is quietly polite. But the sommelier at Il Pagliaccio, a tony restaurant in Rome's historic center, isn't your average Chianti expert.

Diners are often shocked to see Kana Oya, a native of Japan, sniffing their corks and pouring their Pinot Grigios. Oya, 33, is one of an emerging class of immigrant workers in Italy who have moved beyond the anonymity of kitchens and cleaning crews to better, more visible jobs.

Their ascent shows that Italy, well behind the rest of Western Europe, is taking tentative steps toward accepting and accommodating its nascent multicultural identity.

And it reflects the growing importance of immigrant labor in a country with one of the world's oldest populations, lowest birthrates and a stagnant native-born workforce.