Livio Amigoni – författare

This contributed volume analyzes in depth how a border area is constantly reshaped as migration policies harden, and what kind of social, political and economic impacts are produced at local and international level. The study is focused on Ventimiglia, an Italian town located 6 km away from the French-Italian border on the gulf of Genoa with a long story of commerce, custom and smuggling activities related to its proximity to the frontier. While several projects have analyzed other symbolic places of the EU migration crisis such as Lampedusa, Calais and Lesvos, there is a severe empirical gap regarding Ventimiglia, a border town at the very geographic core of the Schengen area. This case study may provide emblematic insights into what European migratory movements are currently revealing in terms of the lack of shared responsibility between EU Member States, the EU common asylum system and respect for human rights, with increasing claims for national sovereignty by some Member States.

This book uses an ethnography of the migratory route from Sudan to the EU to understand how undocumented migration experiences take place and breed underground forms of mobilities and survival strategies. It pays particular attention to the production, circulation and resilience of migratory knowledge in transnational networks and how those produce and sustain specific mobility practices. The related research questions focus on: how and which narratives and popular imaginations circulate and foster high-risk journeys towards Europe, referred to as sombok; understanding how these kind of journeys are interpreted and framed according to gender, religion and family traditions; discerning how border regimes produce specific migration careers, decision making processes and forms of resistance and cooperation with other actors; how the figure of the smuggler is framed by people on the move and how one group of smugglers interpret their activities at the Ventimiglia border; and how the practices of homing on the move and solidarity housing experiences take place and prop underground routes. This book will be of interest to scholars of migration.