Italia – la terra promessa?Lampedusa and the immigrant crisis of the European Union

Abstract

Using the award-winning film Terraferma as a cultural and political text in comparison with the media coverage of the nonfictional immigration crisis in the Mediterranean, the author of this research project exercises ideological criticism toward the European Union (EU). This essay examines how and why Italian state institutions and policies are unable to tackle the unfolding immigration crisis. It also addresses particularities and possibilities of communication dynamics between the local population on the island of Lampedusa and the incoming immigrant population from North Africa. Ultimately, this research project comparatively studies factual and fictional media representations of the African Other and their methodological and epistemological impact on the multicultural dynamics in the EU.

Citizenship Islands: The Ongoing Emergency in the Mediterranean Sea

“…The migrants who talked to us were open to share their stories. As Khrebtan-Hörhager (2015) argues in her analysis of the Lampedusa-based film Terraferma: "The immigrants are either still or quiet, they are longing, instead: longing to belong to the world, profoundly marked by diminishing humanity as the meta-cause of institutionalized Othering in all its manifestations" ( Khrebtan-Hörhager, 2015, p. 94). The invisibility of their presence was far from neutral.…”