Round the frontier: containment policies and mobility practices on the Ventimiglia border

Journal title MONDI MIGRANTI
Author/s Marta Menghi
Publishing Year 2018 Issue 2018/2
Language Italian Pages 22 P. 39-60 File size 487 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2018-002003
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On July 16, 2016 at Ventimiglia border the "Campo Roja" has been set up, a so-called "transit container camp" managed by the Italian Red Cross. The structure, located at 5 km away from the informal camp built by migrants on the bank of the river Roja, does not undergo beneath any clear legal regulation, although it seems to play a key role in the government of the spatial and temporal economy of mobility. The present contribution, advanced from an ethnographic perspective, focuses the attention on the type of relationship between the two spaces. In particular, I will address a more general economy of containment beyond de-tention as a specific form of governance of the mobility of migrants and asylum seekers, adopted by the European Union since the long "crisis" started in 2015. The observation of the every-day practices adopted by the migrants crossing the border area and by those who administering it intends to show how the two camps are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary, the one will be seen reaffirming its legitimacy and casting its shadows on the other.

Keywords: Camp; circularity; containement; transit; Ventimiglia.

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Marta Menghi, Intorno alla frontiera: politiche di contenimento e pratiche di mobilità sul confine di Ventimiglia in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 2/2018, pp 39-60, DOI: 10.3280/MM2018-002003