Stories from the Italian-French border: Drawings and writings of migration from/to Oulx.

Journal title RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA
Author/s Silvia Aru, Arianna Locatelli, Luca Ramello
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2026/3
Language Italian Pages 22 P. 7-28 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/rgioa3-2026oa23542
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This article presents an unpublished set of drawings and writings left by people in transit at the Rifugio Fraternità Massi in Oulx, on the Italian-French border, an area crossed by one of the main irregular migration routes within the European Union. The paper proposes an analysis of these materials developed through a teaching lab within a university course in Critical migration studies of the University and Polytechnic of Turin. From a theoretical perspective, the contribution seeks to introduce the notion of ‘migration traces’ into the Italian scholarly debate, a topic that has been widely discussed in the Anglophone literature, highlighting the epistemic potential of these materials for the geography of migration. Through its focus on migration traces and their analysis, the article ultimately offers a bottom-up perspective on migratory routes towards and across Europe.

Keywords: critical migration studies, migration traces, Italian-French border, Oulx.

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Silvia Aru, Arianna Locatelli, Luca Ramello, Racconti dal confine italo-francese: disegni e parole di migrazione (d)a Oulx in "RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA" 3/2026, pp 7-28, DOI: 10.3280/rgioa3-2026oa23542