Despite the social problems affecting Lampedusa, the message portrayed by Crialese is clear. People should work towards helping those that reach Italy, even if the Italian government says that they should not, and call the Carabinieri to turn them away from Italy. He does this by stirring empathy from characters, and gets characters to feel compassion for these African migrants, even if they had different feelings at first. This compassion is first shown by the sailors who declare that as law of the sea, they must not leave people to drown, no matter what the Italian Government says. They have strong a strong moral obligation to do what is right morally, not necessarily legally. The mother, Giulietta is shown to be selfish at first and
