“From the (e)migrant to the (im)migrant”: The Italian nation-state and its migration rhetoric and history

Abstract

In this essay I will analyze the migrant figure from the point of view of the Italian history of nation-state building. In particular, I will consider the plurality of meanings that migration acquires in the context of the relatively short existence of the Italian state, officially unified in 1861, and the role played by the state and local administrations in constructing the migrant both as an internal other (the southerner) and as an external other (non-EU immigrants, refugees, eastern European immigrants). The essay will focus on the connections between Italian national discourse since unification and the process of internal and external othering, highlighting in particular how this process translates into exclusionary practices applied on a local level that are strikingly in continuity with those introduced during the fascist era. I will conclude with comments on the meaning of migrant in the present historical conjuncture characterized by crisis, increase in refugee inflows, and an upsurge of emigration from Italy.

Keywords:

• nation
• state
• nationalism
• racism
• identity
• othering
• emigrant
• immigrant
• foreigner
• borders
• internal migration
• immigration policy
• citizenship
• region
• regionalism
• colonialism
• internal colonialism
• north-south dualism
• Europe
• Italy

Notes

1. For a visual representation see Del Boca and Labanca (2002). For a representation of African women in narrative see Flaiano (1966). For a cultural studies perspective of Italian colonialism and gender see the edited collection by P. Palumbo (2003).

2. Between 1999 and 2002 only 30,000 persons were allowed entry through this instrument within the quota system. See Bontempelli (2009); also Einaudi (2007).

3. For a critical analysis of regional restructuring from the perspective of a new spatial capitalist accumulation see Soja (1989).

4. This information comes from my own field work carried out for the organization Defence for Children Italy (DCI) in Sicily, where many of the refugees who live in the north periodically go to the city of Caltanissetta (Sicily) where they are formally resident. See Testaì (2013).

5. According to data from the Registry of Italians Resident Abroad (AIRE) in 2013 there was a 19% increase of emigration rates, most of which (71.5%) were directed to Great Britain, with 12,904 official expatriations registered. Considering that most Italians who expatriate do not immediately register in the AIRE, these data underestimate the actual emigration rates in contemporary Italy. See Licata (2013).

6. In order to simplify the acquisition of Italian citizenship for children of Italian emigrants abroad and allow them to enroll in electoral lists, the Berlusconi government amended the Constitution in 2000 (Constitutional Amendment n. 1/2000). See Garau (2013).