Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper is intended to illustrate how transnationality through the prism of time and its multiple qualities is experienced by labour migrants, often in a precarious if not irregular status.

Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper is intended to illustrate how transnationality through the prism of time and its multiple qualities is experienced by labour migrants, often in a precarious if not irregular status. More precisely, it seeks to document how legal status and certain work conditions under the framework of a certain migration regime produce specific temporalities and affect migrants' agency/capacity of decision-making. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in an Italian city with a large concentration of Eastern European migrants, this paper will address the time management of those who are not always in the position to "own" time, have a clear vision of what lies ahead and make informed decisions. In particular, this research examines migrants' strategies to cope with uncertainty and potential time pathologies (e.g.: asynchronies, free time deficit, long working hours, boredom, waiting, stasis etc.) resulted from irregularity and work conditions (high dependency on the employer), their practices of resynchronization and maintenance of togetherness with the family back home as well as their negotiation between multiple temporalities.