Alla ricerca della stabilità: viaggi, confini e solidarietà nella migrazione marocchina in Europa

In recent years, the “secondary movements” of migrants and their mobility within the European Union have been the focus of increasing attention in public, institutional, and academic discourse. At the political level, a process is gaining ground that criminalises the possibility for migrants to autonomously choose their destination, as well as activities to support and facilitate their self-determination, and portrays this possibility through discourses of “abuse” and “asylum shopping”, contributing to the stigmatisation of migrants and their mobility aspirations. This thesis explores the complex and multifaceted realities of unauthorised movements between Italy and France, focusing on the fragmented and precarious transnational mobility experiences of young Moroccan undocumented migrants after their arrival in the European space. The research methodology adopted is based on a mobile ethnographic approach, aimed at following the geographies of the interlocutors over time through a trajectory ethnography. These are mainly young Moroccan men who have recently reached Italy via the Balkan route or have been residing in Europe for some time and are involved in various forms of intra-European mobility. This study represents an attempt to establish connections and lasting relationships with these subjects, adopting a diachronic, longitudinal and biographical approach to follow the evolution of their migratory paths over time. The field research was mainly developed along the Alpine route connecting Italy to France, through a long period of volunteering at three solidarity “refuges” in Oulx, Cesana, and Briançon, spaces of transit and compulsory stopovers to cross the border. At different times, I travelled to different cities and towns on both sides of the Alps to reconnect with Moroccan travellers encountered at the border during successive stages of their migratory trajectories. In addition, I visited the places of origin of some key interlocutors in Morocco to deepen my understanding of their socio-cultural background. Once inside the European space, Moroccan migrants do not adopt a sedentary lifestyle nor are they exclusively attracted to the richer countries of the North. On the contrary, they develop a multiplicity of mobility practices, with journeys undertaken several times in different directions. The solidarity ties built along the migration journey are exploited to facilitate further movement, driven by basic needs such as finding a home, a job, and documents, to evade police checks or as a consequence of the emotional and symbolic ties established with various destinations. The absence of stability is closely intertwined with insecurity in various dimensions of migrants' social lives, which include ways of traveling, housing, and working. Seen through the lens of a “search” conducted within a position of structural disadvantage, migrants' attempts to achieve a sense of stability emerge as an ongoing and inherently incomplete effort. They involve a series of goals aimed at improving migrants' physical and mental well-being, with the trajectory towards these goals remaining fluid and subject to constant adjustment.