Migrants as activist citizens in Italy: understanding the new cycle of struggles

Abstract

This article analyses a series of migrant mobilizations which took place in 2010 and 2011 throughout Italy: the unrest in Rosarno, the migrant general strikes on 1 March, the campaign and the strike against undeclared work in Nardò and the occupation of a construction crane in Brescia. Engin Isin's principles of investigating acts of citizenship provide a theoretical background for understanding them as a coherent, new cycle of struggles in the crisis of neoliberalism. As proved by those mobilizations, migrants can significantly contribute to open the boundaries of neoliberal citizenship, when they construct themselves as activist citizens. Moreover, the contestation of an exclusionary, racialized and competitive model of society can become a goal shared by migrants and nationals alike, opening up an alternative social model based on equal entitlements to rights, solidarity and real democracy.

Speaking through the body: detention and bodily resistance in Italy

“…It is in the process of acting that new subjects are created in the sense, crucially, that 'acts produce actors that do not exist before acts' (37). The concept of acts of citizenship is certainly interesting and powerful, and especially interesting are the many analyses that the concept has stimulated, many of which have been specifically elaborated on migrants' ability to create moments of rupture against dominant political order (Nyers 2008b;Walters 2008;Olivieri 2012).…”

Movement or moment? Lessons from the pro-immigrant movement in the United States and contemporary challenges

“…Some mobilising groups might not have clear equivalents elsewhere. There is no American parallel to the radical-left organising that researchers identify in Italy, where dramatic moments of migrant protest can be supported through partnerships with radical-left political groups (Oliveri 2012;Cappiali 2016). Conversely, a unique touchstone for collective action in the United States is the legacy of the civil rights movement.…”

A ‘European Migrant Crisis’? Some Thoughts on Mediterranean Borders

“…While there are informal and official measures that finalize migrants’ exclusion, immigrants are not entirely helpless and can sometimes make their voices heard about this unequal distribution of rights. Attention to these claims has led to a vast body of literature on the protest movements of immigrants (for Europe: Anderson ; Giugni and Passy ; Oliveri ; Ellermann ). In this literature, immigrants, including those without status, often turn to the government of their country of residence and more broadly, to the host society of the country that received them, to discuss the criteria for belonging to that society and to demand an increase in the rights they possess.…”