Elsa Mescoli

Towards the elsewhere: discourses on migration and mobility practices between Morocco and Italy

The objective of this article is to analyse the preparation process of young Moroccan migrants intended to migrate to Italy. My focus is on the personal and collective formulation of their desire to leave and on concomitant action taken to bring about these aspirations; highlighting the complexity of the imagination, which migration – and expected return – entails. A second point of interest is the agency exerted by such youth, as they prepare for departure; even when they have not yet physically left the country. In addition, my observation is focussed on networks emerging as a result of having to deal with state-imposed, migration restrictions, as well as with the politics of humanitarian agencies and NGOs. I argue that these aspiring migrants project themselves into the future and act in accordance with what they long to become. They shape themselves as mobile subjects through a process of self-making to overcome the above-mentioned constraints.

Creating Undocumented EU Migrants through Welfare: A Conceptualization of Undeserving and Precarious Citizenship

Following the financial and economic crisis, welfare policies across the EU are increasingly becoming instruments for limiting the mobility of certain EU migrants. In this article, we focus on EU citizens who see their freedom of movement in the EU being restricted after they have applied for social assistance or unemployment benefits in their country of residence. Doing so, we conceptualize undocumented EU migration by means of the concepts of ‘non-deportability’, ‘deservingness’ and ‘precariousness’. Overall, this article – based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with Italian migrants in Belgium – expands our understanding of undocumented migration by demonstrating how arbitrary and intimidating bureaucratic processes undermine the exercise of EU citizenship.

Corridor Report on Belgium : the case of Moroccan and Turkish Immigrants.

This report compares two important corridor migrations to Belgium in order to better understand the variation in several dimensions of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants’ integration – in particular, labour market, education and citizenship. It is based on an original methodology combining three different data sources (an analysis of the legal and political frameworks, a quantitative analysis, and a survey). It aims to test the INTERACT project’s main hypothesis which conceives of integration as a three-way process. This report provides insight on integration from the immigration country perspective but also from the countries of origin; it appraises the impact that Turkey and Morocco may have on the integration of their migrants in Belgium. The main findings are the following. Firstly, the countries of origin may have an impact on integration when emigration starts. Secondly, countries of origin may have a positive or negative impact on some integration dimensions (citizenship) but no obvious impact on others (education and labour market). In their efforts to maintain and develop links and to protect migrants’ rights abroad, countries of origin can thus facilitate integration, but indirectly.

Countries of origin as organisers of emigration: Moroccans and Turks in Belgium.

This chapter compares two important migration corridors to Belgium in order to better understand variations across several dimensions of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants’ integration – in particular, the labour market, education, citizenship and residence. It provides insights on integration from the immigration country perspective as well as from the countries of origin, appraising the impact that Turkey and Morocco may have on the integration of their migrants in Belgium. The main findings are as follows. First, the countries of origin may have an impact on integration when emigration starts. Second, countries of origin may have a positive or negative impact on some integration dimensions (citizenship) but no obvious impact on others (education and labour market). In their efforts to develop and maintain links with migrants and to protect migrants’ rights abroad, countries of origin can facilitate integration, but only indirectly.

Being Moroccan abroad. Objects and culinary practices in women subjectivation

Abstract The definition of the self is a complex process which unfolds in everyday life though the use of objects and the performance of practices. Among others, food and culinary objects and practices contribute to the material foundation of subjectivation. Starting from De Certeau’s analysis of everyday life (1984) and adopting Warnier’s praxeological approach to subjectivation, our article aims at studying how two Moroccan women living in Milan’s suburbs make themselves through the materiality of food and related practices in a migration context. They move in peculiar ways among the constraints imposed both by the new local context and the country of origin food cultures. Through everyday food practices, women define a proper Moroccan “style” (Gell, 1998) made of diverse life stories as well as of an embodied collective memory anchored to materiality; they witness of different manners of being Moroccan, and of being it abroad.

Maintaining national culture abroad. Countries of origin, culture and diaspora

INTERACT - Researching Third Country Nationals? Integration as a Three-way Process - Immigrants, Countries of Emigration and Countries of Immigration as Actors of Integration