Mobilità umane. Introduzione alla sociologia delle migrazioni

In this book Palidda summarizes the main results of his thirty years of research in the field of migrations carried out in various European countries. The work deals with some theoretical and methodological issues in the light of various empirical studies. The main theoretical nuclei proposed by the author are the following: 1) Regardless of the underlying cause, any human movement (both individual and mass movements, both permanent and temporary displacements) over short, medium or long distance is one of the three main factors involved in the formation and transformation of all societies (the other two being the belonging to the same species and our very nature as "political and thinking animals"). The migration should therefore be considered as one of the multiple types of mobility we have known since the earliest associated life of human beings. As a consequence we can speak of a "total social fact" (as proposed by A. Sayad with reference to M. Mauss) or even of a "total political fact." 2) The author criticizes the "science of migration" when it claims to explain the phenomenon through a mechanistic view or an almost "hydraulic" interpretation ("flows" among "communicating vessels" etc.) and especially because it does not recognize the feature of "political total fact". The causes and reasons of individual or group migrations are often multiple and unconscious (as Weber underlined, the coexistence of rational and irrational elements is a salient feature of human beings). 3) To understand the different aspects of the phenomenon the migrant is to be thought of as an emigrant-immigrant subject to continuous variations, to often unconscious behaviors, affiliations, as well as cultural and symbolic references. In other words, more than other human beings the migrant is even subject to multiple interactions with different persons in different frames. The success of a migration depends on the outcome of such interactions (see Goffman). The inclusion, the integration, the assimilation or "ghettoization" may occur within the rule of law or even in criminal frames. The failure or success of the migration corresponds to the political representation adopted by the migrant through his/her interactions with the political organization both in the starting society and in the new one. 4) The crucial characteristic of the migrants is their use of the freedom of movement and their aspiration to emancipation. Every element, every aspect and every representation of the economic, social, political, cultural and religious sphere is involved in this human experience. 5) Migration thus takes on a special "mirror function", revealing the characteristics of the societies of origin and of arrival, of their political organization and of their relationships. Like other social facts, migration contributes to political changes (regardless of the assigned value judgment, here it is critical to mirror opposite interpretations, racist or "humanitarian"). 6) The sociology of migration should be placed into the use of the political and social sciences and not reduced to a purely economic and / or demographic analysis. 7) As in his previous researches, the author then proposes a multidisciplinary approach focusing on the social and political history using some tools of the ethnographic investigation without neglecting quantitative studies. This articulation involves diachronic and synchronic perspectives, macro and micro dimensions; the comparative approach is proposed as an effective method of studying migrations. It allows to better understand the similarities between the "old" migrations and the more recent ones in order to detect the differences. As a newcomer to the social scene the immigrant occupies the worst abandoned by those who occupied it before. This applies to the 'deviant' insertion (for example, the pushers or dealers of drugs) as for the one in the shadow economies (as neo-slaves). He then inserted in the reproduction of social hierarchy. 8) It is therefore proposed to study the various aspects of contemporary migration as well as the economic, social, political, cultural and religious issues that affect both them and all sectors of the society at local, national and global level. The author shows the importance of understanding the changes in the interactions of migration along with the changes underway in our societies as a result of the "neo-liberal revolution" after the 70s). The regular and irregular migrations then correspond to the heterogeneity and instability of the structure of contemporary society, often characterized by sudden switches between legal, informal and even criminal dimensions (see shadow economies, corruption, abuse of power and violence). In other words, the criminality and the racial criminalization of migrants are part of a typical aspect of the political organization of the society in the current conjuncture.