Migration manifestos in the 2010s: performing border dissent between social action and utopia

ABSTRACT

Over the last decade, the restrictions on human movement have inspired the drafting of numerous ‘migrant manifestos' in advocacy of people on the move. This article engages with this underexplored corpus investigating its role in reconfiguring solidarity and calling for social action by use of a performative language. Considering the ‘Migrant Manifesto' by Immigrant Movement International, the ‘Charter of Lampedusa' and ‘La Déclaration des Poètes’ by Patrick Chamoiseau under the lens of performative studies and postcolonial theory, I will examine their implications and limits in relation to the debate on cosmopolitanism, agency and advocacy in the globalised present.

Nell'ultimo decennio, le restrizioni imposte al movimento di persone hanno ispirato la creazione di numerosi ‘manifesti per i migranti' a sostegno di individui in movimento. Questo articolo si occupa di questo corpus poco esplorato, analizzando il suo ruolo nel riconfigurare la solidarietà e nel richiamare ad azione sociale attraverso un linguaggio performativo. Considerando il ‘Migrant Manifesto' di Immigrant Movement International, la ‘Carta di Lampedusa' e la ‘Déclaration des Poètes’ di Patrick Chamoiseau da una prospettiva performativa e postcoloniale, esaminerò le loro implicazioni e limiti in rapporto al dibattito su cosmopolitismo, agency e advocacy nel presente globalizzato.

KEYWORDS:

• Activism
• borders
• cosmopolitanism
• manifesto
• migrants
• performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Caterina Scarabicchi holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and Culture from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research area is located at the intersection between cultural studies and migration studies, with a focus on the ambiguities of social commitment in contemporary texts produced from a European perspective in support of migrants’ rights in literature, cinema and institutional narratives. She has written on solidarity and activism across different media, ranging from migration festivals in Europe to participatory theatre involving asylum seekers in Italy.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In this article the term ‘migrant’ follows the definition provided by the International Organization for Migration which states that a migrant is:

any person who is moving or has moved across an international border or within a State away from his/her habitual place of residence, regardless of the person’s legal status; whether the movement is voluntary or involuntary; what the causes for the movement are; or what the length of the stay is. (IOM, 2016)

2 For this and the following quotations from Frères Migrants, I have referred to the English translation: English Translation: Amoz M. & Rönnbäck F. (2018). Migrant Brothers: A Poet’s Declaration of Human Dignity. New Haven: Yale University Press.