Paper short abstract:

I will compare different strategies of entry within Italian public space. Beside ethnic and hometown associations, one counts “second generations” associations. These show to be rich of initiatives, which carry political weight. If the former tended to struggle for recognition within Italian associational structures, the latter address the issue of citizenship.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to compare different strategies of entry within Italian public space. One witnesses to a tremendous diversification of migrant associations in Italy during the last 15 years. Beside religious, national, ethnic and hometown associations, thanks to settlement and family reunification other kinds of associations are emerging from both the interplay with the receiving contexts' institutions and the transnational stretching of connections and projects. We count foreign families' and mixed associations together with what is normally called "second generations" ' associations. These show to be very dynamic and rich of initiatives, which carry important political weight. If the former slot tended to struggle for recognition through the engagement in social activities based on Italian associational structures and networking with the social actors of the economic and institutional system within specific localities, the latter tend to fully address the issue of citizenship and tend to cross local and national boundaries. This kind of strategy proves to be crucial for youth that was schooled and socialized in Italian society, but encounter difficult prospects of social mobility and of seeing citizenship rights been granted. These new Italians, as often they define themselves, try to seek to empower their social position. In their struggle for recognition, often they focus on the double meaning of representation. They contest and critique the common sense representation, which targets them as forever migrants to enhance their access to social resources and political representation. The paper will discuss what this path is telling us about the Italian experience of immigration.

Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I shall try to understand the lack of collective action among the African communities in Belgium. Therefore, I shall analyze the Belgian political context on the one hand, and the roles and the statuses of the « African associations » leaders on the other hand.

Paper long abstract:

During the 90's, a great number of « African associations » began to flourish in Belgium. Many of them were short-lived, while others came into being. An analysis of the political context of this period shows that the emergence of those associations is linked thereto. I shall thus first explain how public policies have encouraged the birth of so-called immigrants' associations. Secondly, I shall analyze the reasons of this favourable political context : was the creation of « accomodation leaders » at stake ? Indeed, the growing number of associations never gave rise to a large-scale and long-term collective mobilisation to improve the social, economic and political being of the African-rooted people in Belgium. Trying to understand that, I shall use my ethnographic datas to show the roles and the statuses of the ethnic associations leaders within the African-rooted communities and in Belgian society at large. In this case, the nuance between ethnic communities and ethnic categories and a larger reflection about the notions of power and powerlessness among ethnic minority groups might be helpful.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explicates diverse concepts of Germanness held by the Kazakhstani Germans and explores how they are affected by institutionalized identities which also link them to the state level.

Paper long abstract:

The German minority as all minorities of the former Soviet Union are mostly simply assumed to be there and to have some kind of importance. I argue that the relevance of ethnic belonging varies and it is exactly that what makes it interesting. When and how are boundaries drawn by means of ethnic affiliations and which significance do minority organizations have in this process?

Germans in Kazakhstan hold quite different perspectives on the importance of Germanness. I elaborate how first different life stories may help understand these differing concepts of ethnicity. Furthermore, I look at the role the minority organization Wiedergeburt (German for 'rebirth') plays in strengthening ethnic belonging. First of all, the organization provides different kinds of benefits for the Kazakhstani Germans. Moreover, Wiedergeburt gives its members the opportunity to stage their 'ethnicity' on different kinds of occasions, like the first of May. The paper explores the impact of those official ethnic performances on the process of the making and remaking of ethnic identities, by viewing institutionalized concepts of ethnicity affected both by the state with its rhetoric and policies and last but not least by the people themselves who, in very different ways, make use of the offered ethnic affiliations.

Paper short abstract:

The article describes the festivals organized by the “Peruvian Association of Siena” in order to highlight the processes of negotiation between different cultural representations and practices which are used as means to redefine Peruvian migrant identity and as resources to achieve public visibility and recognition within the territory of residence

Paper long abstract:

The associations created by Peruvian migrants in Italy to promote socio-cultural, religious and sporting activities partly reflect the clubs created by rural migrants in Lima. The article describes the process of creation and the following developments of the "Peruvian Association of Siena" in order to interpret the cultural dimension expressed by the association and to reveal its role at a local level. The activities of the association mainly aim at spreading the knowledge of Peruvian culture and at facilitating Peruvian migrants' settlement in receiving society. The ethnographic description of the festival organized every year to celebrate the anniversary of Peruvian independence and the analysis of interviews of association members show the processes of negotiation and hybridization occurring between different cultural representations and practices. Most Peruvian migrants in Italy have an Andean cultural background either because they have experienced both internal and international migrations, or because they are the descendants of internal immigrants. On the other hand, a wider Latino identity has taken shape in the process of redefinition of migrants' identity between translocal and transnational social fields. Members of the association use both Andean and Latino cultures as means to declare their identity as unitary and as socio-political resources to achieve public visibility as well as recognition within the territory of residence. Finally, the association plays a vital role in the formation of social networks which, increasing the opportunities of incorporation in the receiving context, could lead to concrete experiences of citizenship

Paper short abstract:

In this paper I analyze the relationship between a local administration and the migrants from Morocco for enlightening the influence of the institutional power on the associative dynamics. I also pay attention to the power's asymmetries that have become resources to enlarge the female citizenship.

Paper long abstract:

Usually local administrations encourage associative experiences. On the other hand, such experiences tend to be instrumental to the realization of the policy of inclusion and to the strategies of control operated by institutional power. This may increase inner tensions in the groups, cause the risk that the ties that characterize them break off, and may invalidate the same migrants' representation.

The policy of the studied area strongly tends to consider anyone belonging to a national group as representative of the entire group. At the beginning of the migrant flows from Morocco, the administration chooses a person among the group and he becomes the main informer for the institution (local administration) and he forms a direct communication channel with the administrators and the politicians.

This determines the orientation of the inclusion policy, which leads to the culturalisation of migrant groups and to the development of inner competition for citizenship. In fact, when the national group enlarges, the new comers consider the role of interlocutor as an opportunity (i.e. for work). On the other hand the administration takes advantage of this representative to control and rule the whole group: the administration has to face an increasing hostility of the public opinion towards migrants, so it needs a continuous control on the migrants. The association has been emptied of its functions: the inner competitions and the groups in the community compromise the cohesion and the sharing of objectives.

In this context (i.e. Moroccans), women are excluded from the association, so they look for their own channel of communication with the administration. This happens through a Moroccan woman who is already employed in the local administration as a cultural - linguistic intermediary. The citizenship among the women is promoted through the intermediary that is part of the administration and that works outside the association.

Paper short abstract:

The article analyses different every day strategies of illegal Bolivian female migrants in Barcelona to get access to citizenship rights. I argue that the NGOs play here an ambivalent role: They empower the migrants, but also help reproducing ethnic and gender segmented precarious labour markets.

Paper long abstract:

In the last years the number of 'illegally' immigrated Bolivian women in Barcelona has increased. Most of them work caring for elderly people, children or as housemaids. 'Illegal' female migrants mostly have only access to jobs in the domestic sector, which is characterized by precarious working conditions, linked to irregular status. In the last years the Spanish government organized several regularization processes, where irregular migrants could get temporal residence and working permits. There are also continuous informal regularization mechanisms, made possible by specific Spanish labour market policies linked to the demand of cheap labour force. In my paper I focus on the every day practices of migrants to be incorporated into the host society by subverting, but also adapting to political frameworks. I also highlight the role of NGOs and churches in Barcelona, who have informal employment agencies, provide basic and advanced trainings and offer legal consulting services concerning citizenship rights. These organizations and their practices, I argue, are ambivalent: On the one hand they empower irregular migrants to subvert legal power (giving them jobs although they haven't working permits/ showing them the legal niches to get residence permits), but on the other hand they reproduce precarious, ethnic and gender segmented informal labour markets (offering jobs only in the informal/domestic sector) and the neoliberal power relations they are based on.

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Paper short abstract:

Migrant associations focusing on women generally are reserved lesser attention in public debates and their impact on the overall political discourse on migration policies is often downplayed. The aim of this paper is to direct research on associative forms which involve women’s participation by following their process of formation, transformation or disappearance; by challenging the common interpretation that looks at women as scarcely relevant in public arenas; by considering the interplay between the gender and the political variable.

Paper long abstract:

Migrant associations focusing on women generally are reserved lesser attention in public debates and their impact on the overall political discourse on migration policies is often downplayed. The aim of this paper is to direct research on associative forms which involve women's participation by following their process of formation, transformation or disappearance; by challenging the common interpretation that looks at women as scarcely relevant in public arenas; by considering the interplay between the gender and the political variable. Field data come from a north eastern Italian town seen as a privileged stage where policies of migrants' inclusion and participation -in anticipation, in contrast or in line with national directives - are experienced and reshaped. Particular attention is paid to the narrative rhetoric used by the subjects involved interpreted as a reflexive form of new practices of citizenship.

Paper short abstract:

Exploring the case of a co-development project born within the Ghanaian Migrant Association of Modena (Italy), I will argue that migrants' associations, involved in co-development, reveal themselves as new crucial actors within the public sphere of both sending and receiving countries.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on a PhD research currently in progress. Presenting the case of Ghanacoop, which is a co-operative enterprise recently born within the Modena Ghanaian Migrant Association, I will attempt to demonstrate how co-development initiatives depend on the practices with which the migrants' associations are actively incorporated in the local contexts, rather than on presumed and characterised trends of migration. Furthermore, assuming that the concept of scale allows us to take into consideration locality and its interaction with power hierarchies I suggest that scale's theorisation can be an analytical tool to describe migrant'associations engagement in development.

The ghanaian migrant association, initially established to fulfil specific member needs during their first period of settlement, has become a political laboratory for reflections on migration, diasporic actors and development. Ghanacoop has been the concrete opportunity to gain access to the public sphere in Italy and in Ghana. In addition, this opportunity has enhanced the status of its leaders in both sending and receiving countries.

Migrants' associations, incorporated in local contexts, move as a new actor on the transnational political space that they contribute to define. Ghanacoop is characterised by economic, social and political criteria on the transnational landscape through development and diasporic discourses, and acts as development broker directing political negotiation, capital flows and social remittances towards communities and individuals. Thus this new actor needs to be observed investigating the power relations it holds and is embedded in within the local contexts in Ghana and Italy, within the 'diasporic communities' and in relation to ghanaian and foreign migrants' associations.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to illustrate the different ways in which Ghanaian migrant associations in London engage with dominant discourses on multiculturalism and citizenship in Britain’s public sphere. The paper will show how these different strategies reflect emerging cleavages and differences within the Ghanaian community as well as highly bureaucratised and exclusionary practices that regulate access to the public sphere.

Paper long abstract:

By placing community building and active citizenship at the centre of its policies on migration, New Labour's has set its vision for multicultural Britain and redefined the meaning of citizenship through participation in the public sphere and associational life. Within this context London has seen a dramatic increase in its migrant associational life with thousands of migrants associations. Yet although some associations engage with the government initiatives at local level, many others remain concerned exclusively with the welfare of its members and with assisting in a charitable way various development projects in the home country rather than promoting active citizenship. In this paper I explore the different ways in which Ghanaian migrants associations in London respond to the great drive towards migrant associational life in the capital. I here focus in comparative terms on two associations. These associations provide an important contrast as they engage in different ways with the local authority's initiatives and in building London public sphere. I here want to argue how this contrast reflects the emergence of generational, gender and class cleavages, often related to the migrant status, within the Ghanaian migrant community as well as cultural and social practices originating in the home country, but also the often exclusionary, discriminatory and highly bureaucratised practices and policies that regulate access to resources and funding from the local authorities in London. Ultimately in fact both associations suffer in different ways from the dominant discourse that enforce the associational experience of migrants to the idea of an active citizenship and of multicultural Britain