Paper short abstract:

The lives of African immigrants in Italy are shaped by legal constraints, economic realities, and the active construction of public perceptions. Each of these act as frontiers turning migrants into aliens while offering shards of participation thereby fulfilling the needs of global markets through this disposable labor force.

Paper long abstract:

Undocumented workers play and have played a central role in the restructuring of work and profit that received a forward jolt after the 1973 recession. Such restructuring has produced much of the immiseration encountered by anthropologists in the field as well as has opened the door for "major shifts in systems of representation, cultural forms, and philosophical sentiment," in David Harvey's words. In this paper I will look at the construction of identity for African immigrants in Italy as window onto these processes. Two different strands in Italian law, defining boundaries of citizenship ever more restrictively and universalizing health care, have created a paradoxical situation for undocumented migrant workers in Italy: They are excluded from official belonging so thoroughly that their very presence is criminalized, yet their right to health care services is formally recognized and protected from judicial intrusion. This gives rise to a double bind of absence and presence for many migrants, and to a wide area of social ambiguity within which they flounder with deteriorating health and uncertain prospects. It also confronts Italians with a quandary regarding the relative value of ethnic identity and democracy; values whose mutual validity is challenged by such exclusionary and inclusionary moves. Finally, it veils reality in favor of ideology, as concerns with identity obscure the political and economic forces that give rise to its manipulations in the first place.