Fragments of Migration Culture from Bureaucratic Rationality to the Network Paradigm, Suggestions and Food for Thought

Through my contact with migrants at a non-profit organisation in the province of Parma over the last few years I have become familiar with the ways in which they are received and introduced to the realities of their new world. I have been able to interact with many of them and discuss various subjects with some in English or more frequently French (as many come from countries that were at least historically French- speaking), with the help of an interpreter and/or a cultural mediator. The topics addressed range from life in their country of origin to their journey – often lasting years and involving sacrifices and potentially life-threatening dangers –, their attitude towards Italy and the Italians and their plans for the future. Some of these conversations were transcribed in texts, becoming something akin to life stories (Cipriani, 1989, 1996; Guidicini, 1995; Berteaux, Bichi, 2008; Aa.Vv., 2015). This article will cite extracts from these accounts in order to illustrate the ideas expressed. Due for future publication, the material in question is held at the archives of Svoltare, a non-profit organisation in Parma. More specifically, the interviewees whose stories are cited are: Mohamed Agahatti Toutta, born in 1985 in Danga, a small village in Mali; Omogbai Murana Prince, a 21-year-old from Auchi, the second most important city in Nigeria; Bamba Drissa, also in his early twenties, from the city of Abengourou in the south of Ivory Coast; and Zakhil Abdul Baseer, born in 1994, from the Afghan city of Bazarak, the administrative centre of the province of Panjshir. The aim of this study is to pave the way for future analysis and reflection about the life stories of immigrants collected at Svoltare over the last two years. Migration phenomena are often constrained and downsized, reduced to a Procrustean bed by the real or supposed need for rationalisation, which operates at different levels ranging from institutional to political and heuristic. This rationalisation process is mostly functional to or carried out by those in power – the host country in the case of emigration. Rationalisation schematises and standardises the phenomenon of migration, weakening many of its characteristics with significant consequences in the field of everyday life, although it seems to be a necessary prerequisite at times, as we will see, for recognizing the human rights of certain migrant categories. This article will briefly consider three focal points that highlight the rationalisation of migration: the division of migrants into categories, territoriality and economic analysis. We will then examine a range of considerations and concrete cases to introduce the option of a ‘more genuine’ culture of emigration. Special focus will be placed on the reasons for emigration and the conceptual corpus of the network paradigm, seen as the most suitable heuristic tool for reflection on the matter.