Convenors
Enrico Fravega, University of Genoa
115366@unige.it
Sebastiano Benasso, University of Genoa
sebastiano.benasso@unige.it
In social contexts characterised by a widespread condition of violence, poverty and oppression, there is an overlooked nexus between the possibilities of migration and the «capacity to aspire» (Appadurai, 2004). Migration questions both the symbolic and material possibility of grasping a better future in an alternative space (Kalir, 2005; Cole, 2014). Thus, this «elsewhere» – being it a neighbouring country, Europe, America, or a place yet to be discovered – transcends the mere geographical plane, becoming an essential search for personal autonomy and self-sufficiency (Tı̂mera, 2001) in the broader frame of biographical work (Fischer-Rosenthal, 2002). Migration can also be interpreted through the lens of the transition to adulthood/autonomy of generations of young people from the Global South (Kaplan, 1982; Monsutti, 2007; Della Puppa, 2014; Vacchiano, 2014; Altin, 2021), providing a complementary take on migratory issues. When they are focused on youth, migration studies tend to borrow a perspective that puts at the fore juridical profiles (e.g., unaccompanied foreign minors). In contrast, youth migration has much to do with wishes, lifestyles, opportunities, and the negotiation of status change in the transition toward adulthood. In a nutshell, it has much more to do with «agency».
Under this perspective, migration is deeply intertwined with the global restructuring of imaginaries of the future (Pellegrino, 2019; Leccardi et al., 2023) and related inequalities, as well as the material possibilities of finding a place to achieve one’s life goals. Accordingly, the complex and often recursive social, spatial and temporal trajectories that shape migrations can be read as winding paths of biographical transition. Whatever the contingent factors orienting it (economic, political, family, personal, etc.), they can be interpreted as an exit strategy (Hirschman, 1982), a test of the ability to support oneself and one’s family, and/or a collective attempt to restructure the Global South’s youth opportunity structure, accessing material and symbolic resources available in more developed countries (Lucht, 2011).
The panel aims to collect papers that discuss research carried out through ethnographical and biographical methods.
Open questions
- How is the migratory project integrated, negotiated, and shaped within the biographical trajectory of young people moving from the Global South?
- How the cultural framing of social ages such as adulthood and youth is subjectively negotiated and expressed (through styles, attitudes, languages, styles of consumption…)
- How do the possibilities of migration configure a generational imaginary for the youth of the Global South?
- How does the perspective of migration configure communal and transnational social practices and generational forms of solidarity?
- Migration is a process happening in space and in time; often, it starts a long time before the arrival in Europe (or in another Global North country), and it involves passages and settlements in many different countries, according to unpredictable patterns and plans. How does the time spent along the migration routes influence transitions to adulthood?
- How do migrant reception systems in different countries foster or counteract, give shape or ignore, the aspirations to adulthood and agency of young migrants?
Keywords
migration; youth; adulthood; transitions; rites of passage.
Sub-disciplines or cross-disciplinary areas of concern
sociology; anthropology; migration studies; youth studies; biographical transitions.
References
Altin, R.
2021 «The Floating Karst Flow of Migrants as a Rite of Passage Through the Eastern European Border», in Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 26, 5, pp. 589–607.
Appadurai, A.
2004 «The Capacity to Aspire: Culture and the Terms of Recognition», in Rao, V., Walton, M. (Eds.), Culture and Public Action. The World Bank.
Cole, J.
2014 «Producing Value Among Malagasy Marriage Migrants in France: Managing Horizons of Expectation», in Current Anthropology, 55, S9, pp. S85-S94.
Della Puppa, F.
2014, Uomini in movimento. Il lavoro della maschilità tra Bangladesh e Italia, Rosenberg & Sellier.
Fischer-Rosenthal, W.
2002 «Biographical Work and Biographical Structuring in Present-Day Societies», in J. Chamberlayne, J., Wengraf, T., Bornat J. (Eds.), The Turn to Biographical Methods in Social Science, pp. 127-143, Routledge.
Hirschman, A. O.
1982 Lealtà, defezione, protesta. Rimedi alla crisi delle imprese dei partiti dello stato. Bompiani.
Kalir, B.
2005 «The Development of a Migratory Disposition: Explaining a “New Emigration”». in International Migration, 43, 4, pp. 167-196.
Kaplan, B. A.
1982 «Migration as a Rite of Passage», in Estudios de Antropología Biológica, 1, 1, pp. 495-502.
Leccardi, C., Jedlowski, P., Cavalli, A.
2023 Exploring New Temporal Horizons: A Conversation Between Memories and Futures, Bristol University Press.
Lucht, H.
2016 Darkness Before Daybreak, University of California Press.
Monsutti, A.
2007 «Migration as a Rite of Passage: Young Afghans Building Masculinity and Adulthood in Iran», in Iranian Studies, 40, 2, pp. 167–185.
Pellegrino, V.
2019 Futuri possibili. Il domani per le scienze sociali di oggi, Ombre Corte.
Timera, M.
2001 «Les migrations des jeunes Sahéliens: affirmation de soi et émancipation», in Autrepart, 18, 2, pp. 37–49.
Vacchiano, F.
2014 «Para além das fronteiras e dos limites: adolescentes migrantes marroquinos entre desejo, vulnerabilidade e risco», in Saúde e Sociedade, 23, 1, pp. 17–29.
Convenors’ bio
Enrico Fravega, PhD, is Assistant Professor (RTD-A) at the University of Genoa. In his research work, he explored the nexus between migration, housing conditions and temporalities. His methodological approach mainly relies on ethnographic and participative methods, as well as on biographical techniques. He is also the Coordinator of the MOBS research group (www.mobsprin2020.org). He is a member of the Visual Sociology Research Group of the University of Genoa (Laboratorio di Sociologia Visuale).
Sebastiano Benasso, PhD, is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Genoa, Italy. His main research interests include Youth Studies, youth cultures, life course transitions and lifestyles. He is the coordinator of the Visual Sociology Laboratory at the University of Genoa.