The mountain space
The Mediterranean Sea
The rural area
The urban area
About the project
MOBS
Mobilities, solidarities and imaginaries across the borders: the mountain, the sea, the urban and the rural as spaces of transit and encounters
Focusing on the Italian context, the project considers the porosity of the national territory, deeply interconnected at a transnational level, in which migrants on the move with different legal status and social positioning give shape to forms of temporary dwelling and mobility, despite the multiplication of borders and boundaries along lines of colour, race, citizenship, gender and class. In the Italian spaces of transit, profoundly transformed by the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, migrants’ mobilities are shaped by mechanisms of containment and multiple filtering, processes of production and reproduction of labour that go often beyond national borders and by the strive for autonomy, fuelled by social representations, imaginaries on the future and narratives of the past which steer choices and biographies. A crucial role in this articulation of mobilities is played by the heterogeneous set of practices of solidarity towards and with migrants: in the urban fabric of the city; around the hotspots, camps and other border apparatuses; in the Mediterranean search and rescue area; within digital platforms and networks; across the alpine passages to northern Europe; in the stratified labour markets in which migrant workforce is employed, as in the agriculture, logistics, delivery and services sector. Therefore, the project aims to investigate the social production of porosity and of new imaginaries along four different spaces of transit – the mountain, the sea, the urban and the rural area – looking at the encounters between migrants on the move and solidarity networks and actions.