Laboratory:migrations, Narratives and Rights

The workshop aims to offer students a critical understanding of contemporary migration phenomena, focusing mainly on some dynamics specific to the national context but also taking into account a number of processes and relations between Europe and other parts of the world that will be read through a critical interpretative key as non-Eurocentric as possible. Specifically, the lessons will be devoted to providing an overview of the plurality of forms of contemporary mobility, paying particular attention to the subjective experience of migrant men and women, beyond the emergency paradigm through which migratory phenomena are sometimes narrated in public debate. In particular, it will propose to critically analyse certain linear classifications, such as the distinction between forced and voluntary migration, political migration and economic migration, or the labels of "refugee" or "second-generation immigrant." Through the presentation of a few of case studies, the workshop thus aims to examine, on the one hand, a number of processes of the construction of otherness, which have strong socio-historical roots and often result in a limitation of the rights of men and women who intend to make or have made a migration experience, and on the other hand, experiences of research, activism and counter-narrative practices oriented toward a claim to these rights.

Students will be required to acquire some key concepts within the sociological interpretation of contemporary migration phenomena, with reference to their narrative in national public debate and the dimension of the subjective experiences of the protagonists of these phenomena. In particular, critical understanding of theories, methods and case studies covered in individual lectures will be appreciated, including the issue of Eurocentrism, the ambivalent use of designations such as "refugee" and "second generation," racism and anti-racism. The ability to connect the different topics covered and the acquisition of appropriate vocabulary will be particularly valued.