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In 1991, Philomena Essed highlighted the importance of studying contemporary racism, focusing on the interplay between the macro‐social dimension and its constant reactivation in everyday interactions. Later, psychologists redefined the pervasive experience of racism in everyday encounters in terms of racial microaggressions. Migrants and asylum seekers today constitute “ideal” candidates for this kind of experience. This is due to the persistent historical processes that harken back to Western colonialism and imperialism, as well as the growing hostility towards people migrating from the Global South. This hostility has been brewing for several decades in Western countries, and it manifests in both everyday informal interactions and institutional contexts, where migrants and asylum seekers constantly face racist attitudes.

In 1991, Philomena Essed highlighted the importance of studying contemporary racism, focusing on the interplay between the macro‐social dimension and its constant reactivation in everyday interactions. Later, psychologists redefined the pervasive experience of racism in everyday encounters in terms of racial microaggressions. Migrants and asylum seekers today constitute “ideal” candidates for this kind of experience. This is due to the persistent historical processes that harken back to Western colonialism and imperialism, as well as the growing hostility towards people migrating from the Global South. This hostility has been brewing for several decades in Western countries, and it manifests in both everyday informal interactions and institutional contexts, where migrants and asylum seekers constantly face racist attitudes.

In our article, we aim to explore the experience of everyday racism of young people with migrant parents in Italy. Drawing on the analysis of 20 interviews, we seek to reconstruct the overall dynamics of racial microaggressions, highlighting how the context in which microaggressions occur and the interplay between ethnic background, gender, and somatic features influences the interpretations and reactions of the victims. We highlight the boundary work and identity negotiation process carried out in everyday encounters. We also show that participants’ experience oscillates between the claim of not-taken‐for‐granted citizenship, the feeling of being confined within ethno‐cultural imaginaries, and the experience of overt manifestations of racism. Finally, we highlight both the process by which victims come to recognise racial microaggressions and the obstacles they face in coping with them.

In our article, we aim to explore the experience of everyday racism of young people with migrant parents in Italy. Drawing on the analysis of 20 interviews, we seek to reconstruct the overall dynamics of racial microaggressions, highlighting how the context in which microaggressions occur and the interplay between ethnic background, gender, and somatic features influences the interpretations and reactions of the victims. We highlight the boundary work and identity negotiation process carried out in everyday encounters. We also show that participants’ experience oscillates between the claim of not-taken‐for‐granted citizenship, the feeling of being confined within ethno‐cultural imaginaries, and the experience of overt manifestations of racism. Finally, we highlight both the process by which victims come to recognise racial microaggressions and the obstacles they face in coping with them.

In 1991, Philomena Essed highlighted the importance of studying contemporary racism, focusing on the interplay between the macro‐social dimension and its constant reactivation in everyday interactions. Later, psychologists redefined the pervasive experience of racism in everyday encounters in terms of racial microaggressions. Migrants and asylum seekers today constitute “ideal” candidates for this kind of experience. This is due to the persistent historical processes that harken back to Western colonialism and imperialism, as well as the growing hostility towards people migrating from the Global South. This hostility has been brewing for several decades in Western countries, and it manifests in both everyday informal interactions and institutional contexts, where migrants and asylum seekers constantly face racist attitudes.

In 1991, Philomena Essed highlighted the importance of studying contemporary racism, focusing on the interplay between the macro‐social dimension and its constant reactivation in everyday interactions. Later, psychologists redefined the pervasive experience of racism in everyday encounters in terms of racial microaggressions. Migrants and asylum seekers today constitute “ideal” candidates for this kind of experience. This is due to the persistent historical processes that harken back to Western colonialism and imperialism, as well as the growing hostility towards people migrating from the Global South. This hostility has been brewing for several decades in Western countries, and it manifests in both everyday informal interactions and institutional contexts, where migrants and asylum seekers constantly face racist attitudes.

In our article, we aim to explore the experience of everyday racism of young people with migrant parents in Italy. Drawing on the analysis of 20 interviews, we seek to reconstruct the overall dynamics of racial microaggressions, highlighting how the context in which microaggressions occur and the interplay between ethnic background, gender, and somatic features influences the interpretations and reactions of the victims. We highlight the boundary work and identity negotiation process carried out in everyday encounters. We also show that participants’ experience oscillates between the claim of not-taken‐for‐granted citizenship, the feeling of being confined within ethno‐cultural imaginaries, and the experience of overt manifestations of racism. Finally, we highlight both the process by which victims come to recognise racial microaggressions and the obstacles they face in coping with them.

In 1991, Philomena Essed highlighted the importance of studying contemporary racism, focusing on the interplay between the macro‐social dimension and its constant reactivation in everyday interactions. Later, psychologists redefined the pervasive experience of racism in everyday encounters in terms of racial microaggressions. Migrants and asylum seekers today constitute “ideal” candidates for this kind of experience. This is due to the persistent historical processes that harken back to Western colonialism and imperialism, as well as the growing hostility towards people migrating from the Global South. This hostility has been brewing for several decades in Western countries, and it manifests in both everyday informal interactions and institutional contexts, where migrants and asylum seekers constantly face racist attitudes.

In 1991, Philomena Essed highlighted the importance of studying contemporary racism, focusing on the interplay between the macro‐social dimension and its constant reactivation in everyday interactions. Later, psychologists redefined the pervasive experience of racism in everyday encounters in terms of racial microaggressions. Migrants and asylum seekers today constitute “ideal” candidates for this kind of experience. This is due to the persistent historical processes that harken back to Western colonialism and imperialism, as well as the growing hostility towards people migrating from the Global South. This hostility has been brewing for several decades in Western countries, and it manifests in both everyday informal interactions and institutional contexts, where migrants and asylum seekers constantly face racist attitudes.

In our article, we aim to explore the experience of everyday racism of young people with migrant parents in Italy. Drawing on the analysis of 20 interviews, we seek to reconstruct the overall dynamics of racial microaggressions, highlighting how the context in which microaggressions occur and the interplay between ethnic background, gender, and somatic features influences the interpretations and reactions of the victims. We highlight the boundary work and identity negotiation process carried out in everyday encounters. We also show that participants’ experience oscillates between the claim of not-taken‐for‐granted citizenship, the feeling of being confined within ethno‐cultural imaginaries, and the experience of overt manifestations of racism. Finally, we highlight both the process by which victims come to recognise racial microaggressions and the obstacles they face in coping with them.

L'obiettivo di questa tesi è seguire le esperienze di vita al tempo dell'emergenza climatica e come, nelle situazioni particolari della città di Milano, si cerca di rispondere ad essa. Per seguire queste risposte in termini empirici abbiamo dato priorità a diversi spazi - tra il 2018 e il 2021 - in cui si sono sperimentate nuove socialità aperte a un'agenzia più che umana: la foresta urbana, l'attivismo climatico e le pratiche di rigenerazione sono state considerate come risposte particolari alle sfide climatiche attuali. La nostra tesi mostra che è necessario osservare le particolarità di queste risposte, senza assumere che ci sia un consenso su come il cambiamento climatico possa essere generato come un problema comune. Le diverse modalità di risposta evidenziano l'esistenza di situazioni problematiche in cui molteplici aspetti della vita collettiva urbana sono messi in discussione e criticati. I conflitti che emergono non possono essere considerati esclusivamente in termini di eccezionalismo umano, in quanto mostrano che esistono modi divergenti di generare questa agenzia più che umana nei progetti e nelle pratiche politiche., The aim of this thesis is to follow the experiences of living at the time of climate emergence and how, in the particular situations of the city of Milan, one seeks to respond to it. To follow these responses in empirical terms we prioritized different spaces - between 2018 and 2021 - where new socialites were experienced that were open to a more-than-human agency: the urban forest, climate activism and regeneration practices were considered as particular responses to current climate challenges . Our thesis shows that it is necessary to observe the particularities of these responses, without assuming that there is a consensus about how climate change can be generated as a common problem. The different modalities of response highlight the existence of problematic situations where multiple aspects of collective urban life are questioned and criticized. The conflicts that emerge cannot be considered exclusively in terms of human exceptionalism as they show that there exists divergent ways of generating this more-than-human agency in political projects and practices.

L'attuale tesi di dottorato esplora alcuni dibattiti attuali sulla precarietà abitativa esaminando la politica dei movimenti degli occupanti abusivi degli immigrati. Questa ricerca è ambientata a Torino, ma esplora una questione urbana più ampia per quanto riguarda la disuguaglianza spaziale, i gruppi sociali emarginati e l'attivismo. Basando il lavoro etnografico sul campo nell'"Occupazione ex-MOI", questa ricerca definisce un quadro per l'analisi della ricerca di immigrati per la casa e altri luoghi di abitazione in esilio. La presente ricerca affronta questo problema considerando come gli immigrati clandestini hanno appropriato spazi emarginati della città per ottenere e sostenere un certo grado di potere politico come produttori di città. In tutti i capitoli basati sugli articoli, questa analisi cerca di fare i conti con il modo in cui l'accovacciamento collettivo negli edifici vacanti l'ha fatto diventare un campo di battaglia sociale da cui può emergere una performativity sovversiva attraverso atti di solidarietà. Questa tesi avanza borsa di studio esaminando le modalità di azione collettiva attraverso i movimenti degli abusivi e invita i lettori a ripensare la condizione della loro dismissione. Offre un'analisi empiricamente fondata del ruolo dei movimenti squatting-autonomi e si schiera per gli immigrati privi di documenti, i rifugiati e le persone che chiedono asilo, e, cosa più importante, produce un resoconto teorico convincente di cui la giustizia e i diritti dovrebbero applicarsi. Le persone in movimento che vivono ai margini e le loro lotte per diventare politiche sono in ultima analisi questioni affascinanti per la politica urbana di oggi. Ci ricordano che i movimenti di base svolgono un ruolo importante nel determinare come la vita urbana è vissuta e negoziata. Inoltre, ci ricordano la centralità della casa, e che abbiamo il diritto di fare affermazioni sul nostro corpo, indipendentemente dall'immigrazione e dallo status di cittadinanza., The present doctoral thesis explores some current debates about housing precarity by looking at the politics of immigrant squatters’ movements. This research is set in Turin but explores a wider urban question regarding spatial inequality, marginalized social groups, and activism. Drawing upon the ethnographic fieldwork in the “Ex-MOI Occupation,” this research sets out a framework for the analyses of immigrants’ search for home and other places of dwelling in exile. The present research addresses this issue considering how illegalized immigrants appropriate marginalized spaces in the city to gain access to and sustain some degree of political power as city makers. Throughout the article-based chapters, this analysis seeks to grapple with how collective squatting in vacant buildings has caused it to become a social battleground from which subversive performativity may emerge through acts of solidarity. This thesis advances scholarship by examining the modes of collective action through squatters’ movements and invites readers to rethink the condition of one’s dispossession. It offers an empirically grounded analysis of the role of squatting-autonomous movements and stands up for undocumented immigrants, refugees, and people seeking asylum, and more importantly, produces a compelling theoretical account of to whom justice and rights should apply. People on the move that live on the margins and their struggles for becoming political are ultimately fascinating matters for today’s urban politics. They remind us that grassroots movements play an important role in determining how urban life is experienced and negotiated. Moreover, they remind us of the centrality of home, and that we are entitled to make claims over our own bodies, regardless of immigration and citizenship status.

The subject of naturalisation among intra-EU migrants has only recently drawn the attention of social science scholars. Empirical evidence from quantitative studies shows an increase in citizenship applications among this new wave of mobile people, indicating a strategic use of naturalisation. However, there is not a great deal of micro-level research, especially as to the subjective meanings attached to citizenship take-up in a new EU member state. Drawing on 68 in-depth interviews conducted with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, we argue that an individual’s understanding of naturalisation within the EU context is based on two aspects: on one hand, a strictly pragmatic evaluation of the pros and cons of the new status; on the other, a new sense of belonging as well as new cultural and territorial identifications that intra-EU migrants are not often willing to experience. Therefore, this article suggests that EU migrants that strongly identify with their country of origin and the EU see national and EU identities as conflicting with naturalisation, thus setting aside instrumental considerations. This constitutes a critique to theoretical approaches claiming the diminishing importance of a nation’s cultural self-understanding. Our paper also sheds light on the possible effect of the UK’s departure from the EU on young Southern European migrants choosing to apply for British citizenship, highlighting that it is mostly the implementation of the formal exit process and the actual abrogation of EU citizenship rights that reconfigure patterns in naturalisation, rather than the uncertainty and fears about the future

The subject of naturalisation among intra-EU migrants has only recently drawn the attention of social science scholars. Empirical evidence from quantitative studies shows an increase in citizenship applications among this new wave of mobile people, indicating a strategic use of naturalisation. However, there is not a great deal of micro-level research, especially as to the subjective meanings attached to citizenship take-up in a new EU member state. Drawing on 68 in-depth interviews conducted with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, we argue that an individual’s understanding of naturalisation within the EU context is based on two aspects: on one hand, a strictly pragmatic evaluation of the pros and cons of the new status; on the other, a new sense of belonging as well as new cultural and territorial identifications that intra-EU migrants are not often willing to experience. Therefore, this article suggests that EU migrants that strongly identify with their country of origin and the EU see national and EU identities as conflicting with naturalisation, thus setting aside instrumental considerations. This constitutes a critique to theoretical approaches claiming the diminishing importance of a nation’s cultural self-understanding. Our paper also sheds light on the possible effect of the UK’s departure from the EU on young Southern European migrants choosing to apply for British citizenship, highlighting that it is mostly the implementation of the formal exit process and the actual abrogation of EU citizenship rights that reconfigure patterns in naturalisation, rather than the uncertainty and fears about the future

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue "The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process," based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the ‘lived’ experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.

The domestic space has a long and crucial place in the creation and the development of the very properties and characters of social behavior and social identity, in its most fundamental sense. Home, to the urban life, is a place of retreat, of protection and privacy, whose dichotomy to the public realm allows an emotional and sensual introspection, in which intimacy and deep relationships can emerge, while providing the most basic and human needs. Along with the urban history, the dichotomy between home and the public space has always been challenged by technological and social trends, but it has never been broken. The Airbnb service, an accommodation solution that offers a social and cultural experience at homes around the globe, can be another such challenge, with new and outstanding outcomes to the image of home. The Airbnb experience is yet another revolutionary expression of the 'sharing economy', or the 'platform economy', which is a result of such technological progression, combined with different developments of the tourism market in general and the urban tourism in particular. In this research, I wished to follow the influence of the Airbnb service, over the lives of hosts who continue living in the home where they host, by focusing on the practical, conceptual, and emotional reaction of the hosts to possible changes that Airbnb leads inside their home. By designing an international project, that created a narrative-based qualitative work, in the urban contexts of Milan, Italy, Lisbon, Portugal, and Jerusalem, Israel, and by using overt and covert ethnographic work, in-depth interviews, and other complementary methods. Following this mix-methods design, 145 mini-cases were collected in the three cities, which enabled the creation of a four-level resolution induction, starting from the hosts themselves, the city, the platform, and finally, the technological meaning over the social order and the balance between home and the urban sphere. As a result, findings, Lo spazio domestico occupa un posto lungo e cruciale nella creazione e nello sviluppo delle proprietà e dei caratteri stessi del comportamento sociale e dell'identità sociale, nel suo senso più fondamentale. La casa, per la vita urbana, è un luogo di ritiro, di protezione e privacy, la cui dicotomia al regno pubblico consente un'introspezione emotiva e sensuale, in cui possono emergere intimità e relazioni profonde, fornendo al contempo i bisogni più elementari e umani. Insieme alla storia urbana, la dicotomia tra casa e spazio pubblico è sempre stata messa alla prova dalle tendenze tecnologiche e sociali, ma non è mai stata rotta. Il servizio Airbnb, una soluzione di alloggio che offre un'esperienza sociale e culturale nelle case di tutto il mondo, può essere un'altra di queste sfide, con risultati nuovi ed eccezionali all'immagine della casa. L'esperienza di Airbnb è un'altra espressione rivoluzionaria della "economia della condivisione", o "economia della piattaforma", che è il risultato di tale progresso tecnologico, combinato con i diversi sviluppi del mercato del turismo in generale e del turismo urbano in particolare. In questa ricerca, ho voluto seguire l'influenza del servizio Airbnb, sulle vite degli host che continuano a vivere nella casa in cui ospitano, concentrandosi sulla reazione pratica, concettuale ed emotiva degli host ai possibili cambiamenti che Airbnb conduce nella loro casa. Progettando un progetto internazionale, che ha creato un lavoro qualitativo basato sulla narrazione, nei contesti urbani di Milano, Italia, Lisbona, Portogallo e Gerusalemme, Israele, e usando il lavoro etnografico palese e nascosto, interviste approfondite e altri complementari metodi. Seguendo questo progetto di metodi di miscelazione, sono state raccolte 145 mini-case nelle tre città, che hanno consentito la creazione di un'induzione di risoluzione a quattro livelli, a partire dagli stessi host, la città, la piattaforma e, infine, il significato tecnologico

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue “The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process,” based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the ‘lived’ experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue “The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process,” based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the ‘lived’ experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue “The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process,” based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the ‘lived’ experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue “The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process,” based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the ‘lived’ experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue “The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process,” based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the ‘lived’ experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.

Questa ricerca studia i meccanismi di formazione e di riproduzione delle classi superiori particolarmente dotati di capitale economico che vivono nella periferia di Parigi. Grazie a un indagine multi-metodo (interviste, osservazioni, archivi, statistiche) mostro come questa frazione sottostudiata lavora per mantenere una comunità omogenea al livello del quartiere. Analizzo anche i meccanismi di ripiegamento sulle case, in particolare per le casalinghe, ad anché i lontani rapporti con il settore pubblico (privatizzazione della scuola e questioni di sicurezza)., This research studies the mechanisms of formation and reproduction of upper classes particularly endowed with economic capital living in the parisian suburbs. In support of a multi-method survey (interviews, observations, archives, statistics) I show how this under-studied fraction works to maintain a homogeneous neighborhood-wide community. I also analyze the withdrawal on one’s house, especially for housewives, as well as the distant relationship to the public sector (privatization of school and security issues).

Il presente lavoro si propone di apportare una prospettiva queer ed intersezionale al dibattito sociologico attorno alla diversità, alle differenze e alle minoranze urbane. Partendo da un approccio interdisciplinare, questo studio esplora il significato dellincontro con la differenza a partire da soggettività lesbiche, un posizionamento subalterno reso dominante allinterno della cornice omonazionalista. Lobbiettivo è quello di esplorare la città a partire dalle esperienze quotidiane di un soggetto minoritario, quello lesbico, raramente oggetto di attenzione nella letteratura non anglosassone. Si tratta di uno studio qualitativo interdisciplinare basato su un ragionamento abduttivo e radicato (grounded theory) e costante comparazione. Ho svolto due anni di osservazione etnografica tra il 2015 e il 2018 a Milano, Italia, e Bruxelles, Belgio. Inoltre ho intervistato 45 persone, 29 partecipanti e 16 informatori ed informatrici privilegiate. Le partecipanti sono state selezionate allorientamento sessuale e rispetto alla loro relazione con la città (essere immigrate in città). I risultati mostrano che le partecipanti si identificano, controidentificano e disidentificano con la categoria di lesbica in maniere diverse e ambivalenti. Infatti, la differenza lesbica produce a sua volta differenze allinterno della stessa categoria. In particolare dallanalisi emerge come genere, classe e razza si intreccino per produrre specifiche negoziazioni con lo spazio urbano, negli spazi lesbici e con la categoria di lesbica stessa. Sono i conflitti per laccesso a certi spazi, fisici ma anche relazionali, che rendendo visibili le linee di privilegio: bianchezza, conformità di genere, classe media, etc. Queste modalità di assimilazione, resistenza e disidentificazione, infatti, si riflettono nelle esperienze spaziali della città tramite mappe che si restringono (shrinking maps), risultato di evitamenti e negoziazioni tra etero- e omo- normatività tra lessere un cliente come chiunq, This work aims at expanding the debate about diversity, difference and urban minorities in Western European cities, looking from a queer and intersectional perspective. This interdisciplinary study explores the meaning of encounter and the spatial dimension of lesbian identifications, a subaltern location in terms of gender and sexuality but dominant from a homonationalist frame. My aim was to explore the everyday relationships with the city from the perspective of lesbians, a largely understudied subject within urban literature outside the U.K. or the U.S.A. The research is based on participant observation that I conducted between 2015 and 2018 in Milan and in Brussels, and 45 interviews: 29 with participants and 16 with key informants. I adopted qualitative methodologies and a grounded approach based on abductive reasoning and constant comparison. The participants were selected on the basis of their sexual orientation and their relationship with the city (being a migrant to the city). I retrace the emergence of lesbian subjectivities in Milan and Brussels as a result of a double exclusion (both within gay and feminist movements). Challenging the majoritarian/minoritarian opposition, the research highlights that differences are reproduced within the definition of the lesbian category itself. In particular, I look at how gender, race, and class weave together and impact the negotiations with the urban space, with lesbian spaces and with the category of lesbian itself. The results show that the participants identify, counteridentify, and disidentify with the category of lesbian in many ambiguous ways. Ultimately, the conflicts for accessing certain spaces of comfort (both physical and relational) render intelligible the other lines of privilege: white, gender-conforming, middle-class. These modalities of assimilation, resistance, and disidentification, in fact, are reflected in their spatial experiences of the city through what I call shrinking maps as a result of av

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants’ social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people’s everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

The country reports highlight the presence of the issue of migration in the public debates in each of the six countries. In the countries which attracts migrants from Europe and beyond such as the UK and Germany the public discourse on immigration often shifts between two narratives: on the one hand, an emphasis of the economic benefits of immigration, on the other hand, an identification of immigration as a threat to the national identity and social security systems, the latter particularly in the UK. Based on assessment of national literature on migration, this overview gives a broad picture of mobility from and to the six countries participating in this part of the GEMM project. The quantitative data from previous surveys demonstrate the significance of the process of mobility within Europe.

This is the second overview of country-specific literature on the theme of migration in the EU covering the six countries taking part in GEMM Workpackage 4 ‘The lived experiences of migration’: UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Romania. The first literature review focused on the individual factors for migration such as gender, ethnicity and age, as well as the formal and informal channels for mobility from the countries of departure to the countries of destination. The second overview concentrates on the institutional and contextual factors facilitating or preventing mobility in the European labour market. The objective is to examine previous research findings about the structures of opportunities and constraints for the successful labour market integration of migrants, common in the research literature from the different countries, and to outline the discrepancies, uncertainties and gaps among different studies. It will serve as a background for writing the subsequent country reports which will be based on the analysis of the rich qualitative data collected in the fieldwork of the GEMM Workpackage 4 study.

In our chapter, we explore how the intersection of governmentality studies with critical discourse analysis (CDA) enables an empirical and analytical examination of the ways in which discursive and non-discursive practices contribute to the rationalities (episteme) and apparatus (techne) of governmentality. To this end, we examine urban security policies and discourses in >Milan over the past decade. Drawing on archival data, official statistics and research reports, we analyse the general policy framework that has emerged and consolidated in the period considered. Special attention is paid to a new frame for urban policies inaugurated in 2005 with the stipulation of “Local pacts for Urban Security”.

Security can be regarded as a set of governmental devices (dispositifs according to Foucault) which in modern states have ensured the management of the population and allowed the ordinary and regular functioning of liberal societies (Foucault, 2008). In this framework, ‘security devices’ are a set of governance techniques that emerged in the eighteenth century in order to act on the population, this being defined as a phenomenon which can be regulated according to a criterion of statistical normality and not according to a norm (Foucault, 2004b/2007). The series including ‘population’ - understood as the object of government in the place of the former unit constituted by the ‘territory’ - and ‘security devices’ - understood as a set of technologies with which to manage the population - is integrated with the notions of threat and risk, which become key elements of governance in liberal societies (Foucault, 2008).1.

This article presents the results of a research - carried out in 2013 in the cities of Milan and Pavia and based on an experimental design - that investigates the relationship between real estate agents and foreign citizens. The analysis of the data – obtained primarily trough a telephone audit - shows how this relationship is characterized by the presence of ethnic-racial prejudices by those who act as rental market gatekeepers and how, in some cases, these prejudices turn in some kind of discrimination, or at least of differential treatment, to the detriment of foreign customers.

Le titre de la thèse renvoie aux deux enjeux principaux qu’elle se propose de traiter. Il s’agit tout d’abord d’approcher empiriquement le processus de socialisation urbaine, peu étudié en tant que tel, en l’abordant par le prisme de l’encadrement parental des pratiques urbaines des enfants. L’étude de ce rôle régulateur des parents permet notamment d’approcher la transmission plus ou moins consciente de compétences d’interaction et de mobilité, mais aussi de normes de jugement et de comportement. Le second enjeu de la thèse est la mise en lumière de la différenciation sociale et spatiale de ce processus, qui conduit à interroger par le biais de pratiques urbaines ordinaires la (re)production d’inégalités entre enfants ainsi que le rapport de leurs parents à l’altérité sociale, dans une perspective complémentaire des travaux disponibles sur la ségrégation résidentielle et scolaire. La première partie de la thèse en précise le cadre théorique et les choix méthodologiques opérés, en particulier l’enquête par entretiens (n=78) auprès de parents d’enfants âgés de 8 à 14 ans, la perspective comparée Paris-Milan et le choix de contextes de mixité sociale. La deuxième partie propose une approche compréhensive des mécanismes de la prise d’autonomie urbaine à partir d’une analyse de ses étapes ainsi que des évolutions perçues par les parents au regard de leur propre expérience enfantine. Enfin, la troisième partie s’attache à informer la différenciation de l’encadrement parental, interrogeant en particulier le rôle tenu dans celle-ci par les propriétés sociales des familles, le sexe des enfants et le contexte national et local.

In Italy there is a prison and probation system based on a rehabilitative model that is aimed at social reintegration of the author of the crime, which is connected with social policies and entrusts relevant tasks to the helping professions. Among these, social work is affected by changes in social policies and a new social order, marked in Europe by the influence of neo-liberal thought (Lorenz, 2005; Dalrymple, Burke, 1995, 2006). In this scenario, changes in social policies, which have occurred with the crisis of the welfare state, are interwoven with those of criminal policies. The central research question, proposed in contemporary sociological literature, with particular reference to the U.S. and Britain, is of the gradual transition from a model mainly focused at ensuring social welfare, to a model in which the dominant interest is to increase effective social control (Garland, 2004). In this “new welfare” there has been an impoverishment of social protection, and resources for the most vulnerable segments of the population. This process has led - in some cases - to discriminatory policies, aimed at segregation and incarceration of the most disadvantaged people. In the research presented in this paper, 43 semi-structured interviews were carried out in three regions of northern Italy, to professionals working in the penitentiary sector (mainly social workers). Through them, we have focused on the representations of the respondents on specific issues, including: the crisis of the welfare state in relation to the penal-welfare system, the culture of control and the changes in the functions and activities of social workers. Results show that social workers reject punitive responses, especially those towards the most disadvantaged social groups. Furthermore, in a long-term assessment, there does not seem to emerge, for social workers, a loss of strength as a group and status. There is, in fact, a certain evolution of social work from the methodological point of vie

In Italy, over the last two decades, «illegal immigrants» have come to the fore as both a strategic resource and an unavoidable point of reference for public debate on foreign immigration. Since the end of the nineties, the category of «clandestine» have been deeply affecting both the immigration laws and the modus operandi of the main institutions aimed at controlling immigration (police and judicial system). Administrative detention centres have been one of the main devices police forces have been using in order to check and deport undocumented immigrants. Drawing from a qualitative research that has been done in Milan two years ago we will compare three interpretations of what administrative detention centres are and which functions they perform. We will show how they can be analysed as foucauldian «heterotopy», as «camps» linked to a sort of «permanent state of exception» and, finally, as a device for controlling human mobility and exploiting immigrant labour force.

The implementation of an open-street CCTV system is usually accompanied by bold claims on the increase in efficiency – faster deployments of patrols – and in efficacy – prevention through normalisation – that it will bring about in day-to-day policing. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two medium-sized Italian cities where such systems have been recently implemented, the research sets out to challenge these assumptions by offering a backstage view of how surveillance is actually carried out on a day-to-day basis. Using the political and legislative changes that have taken place in Italy since the end of the ‘90s as a backdrop, the work supports the conclusion that, rather than for crime control, for which they were almost never used, cameras end up serving other goals, for the benefit of constituencies other than the residents of the two cities. Thus, CCTV needs to be understood as a device for the circulation of resources - monetary, discursive and normative - between different institutions and levels of government, part of a wider discursive regime that is only incidentally related to how crime actually affects a given city.

Starting from the literature on ethnic neighbourhoods as places of leisure and consumption in old immigration countries, the chapter analyzes the case of “Lazzaretto”, a multiethnic neighbourhood of Milan. Despite the presence of some pre-conditions highlighted by both theoretical and empirical studies, the transformation of Lazzaretto into an attractive ethnic neighbourhood is hindered by some political and cultural factors. Thanks to some in-depth interviews to local politicians and entrepreneurs we show the crucial role played by a general anti-immigrant climate, by local government’ lack of commitment towards multiculturalism and by some institutional constraints on the blossoming of immigrant businesses.

Sicurezza, immigrazione, genere. una ricerca sulle donne immigrate

The object of this thesis are local conflicts in Verona and Modena, two northern Italian cities. In particular it analyses two specific cases relating to the management of phone centres, that is to say shops that offer phone and Internet services. These shops are mainly managed by residents of immigrant origins and their customers are mainly of immigrant origins too. The thesis points to a paradox: while, on the one side, the conflicts have contributed to an excessive politicisation of the issue of phone centres, on the other they have opened up spaces for phone centre-owners to speak up their voice. The conflicts under analysis are very specific in nature. Yet, they provide with a relevant example of politics’ dynamics in the context of the wider debate on urban safety and relating conflicts. The Italian sociological literature on local conflicts has been mostly focusing on residents’ narratives and on the causes that lead to the emergence of conflicts themselves. In this context, immigrants have been often identified as the ultimate cause for the emergence and development of conflicts. They have been treated as objects of policies rather than subjects of politics, particularly in the context of urban safety policies. It has been all too often been taken for granted that the politicisation of the securitarian frame goes hand in hand with the abolition of any democratic space for political engagement. Yet, these type of narratives, which have spread both in public opinion and within the academia, are very dangerous. Most importantly, they carry with them the risk of promoting the same power asymmetries they promise to overcome, by adopting a strictly structural reading. In this sense, the scope of this thesis was both academic and political in nature. It has been precisely that of questioning similar narratives. The scope was not that of ‘nobilising’ marginal actors, such as immigrants, but rather that of analysing contentious dynamics. Two were my initial research