Paper short abstract:

This paper explores Italy's migrants' desire to leave the country in the belief that quality of life would be superior elsewhere. This ethnographic data contributes to theories of flexible citizenship, transnationalism, and the hierarchical and uneven nature of globalisation.

Paper long abstract:

Examining migrants' creative use of Italian and European permit systems, in this paper I show how migrants, driven by their negative experiences and impressions of Italy, seek to take advantage of the Italian permit system's flexibility in order to improve their and their children's futures. In their minds, leaving Italy is the only way to do this. This highlights two central points. Firstly, it demonstrates non-elite migrants' ability to make laws work to their advantage in their efforts to become mobile, 'flexible citizens' (Ong 1999). And secondly, that destination countries are hierarchically ranked by migrants, which has profound effects on their understandings of themselves and their imaginations of the future. While migrants' journeys to Europe have been much theorized, few studies have focused on how migrants' trajectories continue to be mobile following arrival to the continent. Freedom of movement acts, changing labour markets and diasporic networks of communication add to migrants' mobility as destination countries shift and change. In this paper, I show how migrants and asylum seekers seek to become flexible citizens in their efforts to seek out improved life and working conditions, and to escape racism and xenophobia in Italy. In doing so, I situate their strategic navigation of Italian and European-wide immigration bureaucracy - and their desire for mobility - within broader processes that relate to the global and local inequalities resulting from the flows and flexibilities of late capitalism.