Paper short abstract:

The paper presents some elements of Italian contemporary migration towards Morocco, and focuses on how "being in motion" is part of the lives of women and families in a specific moment of their cycle of life, to apply their agency and to carry on their aspirations of a good life in future.

Paper long abstract:

The contribution presents some elements of my PhD research. Ethnographic case studies will follow a brief overview of the italian migration towards Morocco in order to highlight the experiences of Italian families in Morocco and their ways of "making family" (Grilli, Zanotelli, 2010) on the move.

Considering the family as an imagined community (Bryceson, Vuorela, 2002), and giving the importance of imaginaries and aspirations in shaping ideas of the good life and future (Appadurai, 1996, 2004, 2013), it will be pointed out how being on the move and migrating is not only a process that (re)shapes the family but is also a means of attaining an imagined model of family.

The choice to leave Italy takes origin from a personal and social crisis that changes intimates relationships both within the family and in relation to the place of birth (town or country). Morocco isn't perceived as a place where to root the family, it is rather one of the many moorings (Choen, Duncan, Thulemark, 2015) where the family passes through in a specific moment of its cycle of life, usually connected with parenting practices or educational opportunities for the children.

For the families interviewed migration is not a process in spite of which the family restructures itself, nor a specific transnational articulation of intimacy and care practices (Baldassar, 2008) but rather the means by which they can build themselves as families according to an imagined model, for culturally aspiring to a future good life for themselves and their children.