Abstract
This chapter focuses on processes of constructing masculinity and adulthood among young Maghrebi migrants. Ethnographic data were collected in Turin, characterized by a significant presence of Moroccan immigrants. From here undocumented minors, the so-called harrâga (burned), and young men have migrated from Khouribga to replace their fathers since 1998. Current transformations of manhood at the intergenerational level depend on migrants’ strategies for coping with legal criteria concerning the status of both undocumented and resident immigrants. The first generation of fathers provided family and social reproduction through hostland-homeland material and symbolic investments. Nowadays, continuous legislative fluctuations between inclusion and exclusion have ambiguous legal effects on young migrants’ status and increase the precariousness of their life conditions. Within this scenario, marriage and couple relationships appear to represent a political arena in which heterogeneous interests are at stake. Maintaining simultaneous relationships with different goals and informal/formal procedures, as in the case of ‘multiple-families’, can ensure biological reproduction in Morocco and the legal conditions for a future reunification with children in Italy. These practices of self-legalization show how youths bypass, adapt to or manipulate the way in which reproduction and starting a family are understood and practiced in both their contexts of origin and the new urban space.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Consolidated Law 286/98 on Immigration and subsequent modifications; legislative decree 113/99, law no. 189/2002.
- 2.
According to the Ministry’s Monitoring report (Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali 2015), 541 unaccompanied foreign minors arrived by sea in the period from January to April of 2015, down 75.6% as compared to the 2216 minors who entered the country in the same period of 2014. In the report, this decrease is partly attributed to the increase in the number of unaccompanied foreign minors who applied for international protection.
- 3.
Osservatorio Intersitituzionale sugli stranieri in provincia di Torino (2014).
- 4.
Under the supervision of the F. Fanon Center of Clinical Ethnopsychiatry in Turin.
- 5.
Doctoral School of Human Sciences, Doctoral Program in the Anthropology of the Contemporary, University of Milan – Bicocca (XXV).
- 6.
A social service activity consisting of disseminating socio-legal information, encouraging young people to use the services available in the city area and at the day center located in Porta Palazzo, and providing first aid, entertainment and outreach education.
- 7.
These structures, established by Law 448/88, are centers built to detain minors, sent there by order of a magistrate when caught in flagrante delicto, while they await a ruling as to whether or not they will be released.
- 8.
The I.S.I. Centers were established in order to create a centralized registry of all the users enrolled in health services for foreigners with short-term residency permits, in keeping with the provisions of paragraph 9 of Article 50 of Law 326/2003.
- 9.
The term hreg indicates bothirregular migration and the act of burning, cutting, leaving. Hârig. (pl. arrâga) is someone who burns, transgresses and, by extension, an irregular migrant who burns his documents on arrival to avoid being identified and repatriated.
- 10.
Medical anthropologists have shown that conventional conceptualizations of human vulnerability and resilience, specifically based on the clinical model of ‘post-traumatic stress’, are insufficient. The literature in this field criticizes the ‘traumatic vision’ of negative events by noting that, for most of human history, people have responded to traumatic events (floods, epidemics and wars) by treating them as social and religious issues.
- 11.
A pseudonym.
- 12.
In relation to this phenomenon, see the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council – Action Plan on Unaccompanied Minors (2010–2014) SEC(2010)534.
Bibliography
Abu-Lughod, L. (1989). Zones of theory in the anthropology of the Arab world. Annual Review of Anthropology, 18, 267–306.
Aympam, S. (2014). Economie de la débrouille à Kinshasa. Informalité, commerce et réseaux sociaux. Paris: Karthala Editions.
Barbagli, M., Colombo, A., & Sciortino, G. (2004). I sommersi e i sanati. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Becker, H. S. (1966). Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. New York: The Free Press.
Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.
Bhabha, J. (2008). Independent children, inconsistent adults: International child migration and the legal framework. Innocenti Discussion Papers. Florence, Italy, UNICEF.
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education (pp. 241–258). Greenwood: New York.
Cassiman, A. (2008). Home and away: Mental geographies of young migrant workers and their belonging to the family house in Northern Ghana. Housing, Theory and Society, 25(1), 14–30 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14036090601151210. Accessed 10 Dec 2013.
Coccia, G. (2005). Unaccompanied foreign immigrant children’s rights in Italy: Between the protection of “the best interests of the child” and the Italian immigration regulation (legal aspects). http://www.law2.byu.edu/isfl/saltlakeconference/papers/isflpdfs/Coccia.pdf. Accessed 3 Feb 2013.
Colombo, A. (1998). Etnografia di un’economia clandestina. Immigrati algerini a Milano. Bologna: Il Mulino.
D’Aoust, A. M. (2013). In the name of love: Marriage migration, governmentality, and technologies of love. International Political Sociology, 7(3), 258–274. http://dx.doi.org.
De Haas, H. (2007). Between courting and controlling: The Moroccan state and ‘it’s’ emigrants, Working Paper No. 54, University of Oxford, Compas. https://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/media/WP-2007-054-deHass_Morrocan_Emigrants.pdf.
Donzelli, A., & Fasulo, A. (2007). Agency e linguaggio. Roma: Meltemi.
European Migration Network. (2010). Synthesis report: Policies on reception, return and integration arrangements for, and numbers of, unaccompanied minors – An EU comparative study. Bruxelles: European Migration Network.
European Migration Network. (2015). Synthesis report: Policies, practices and data on unaccompanied minors in the EU member states and Norway. Bruxelles: European Migration Network.
Fabietti, U. (1995). L’identità etnica. Roma: Carocci.
Faist, T., & Schiller, N. G. (2009). Introduction: Migration, development, and social transformation. Social Analysis, 53(3), 1–13.
Goffman, E. (2003). Stigma. L’identità negata. Verona: Ombre Corte.
Hammoudi, A. (1997). Master and disciple: The cultural foundations of moroccan authoritarianism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Inda, J. X. (2006). Targeting immigrants. Government, technology, and ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Kleinman, A. (1995). Writing at the margin: Discourse between anthropology and medicine. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali (2015). Report nazionale minori stranieri non accompagnati. http://www.lavoro.gov.it/Notizie/Documents/Report%20di%20monitoraggio%2030%20aprile%202015_def.pdf. Accessed 25 Sept 2015.
Ministry of Labor and Social Policy Report. (2015). Direzione Generale dell’Immigrazione e delle Politiche di Integrazione – Div. II, Report di monitoraggio.
Osservatorio interistituzionale Torino. (2014). Città Di Torino Direzione Servizi Sociali e Rapporti con Le Aziende Sanitarie Direzione Servizi Sociali – Servizio Minori, Ufficio Minori Stranieri. http://www.comune.torino.it/statistica/osservatorio/stranieri/2014/pdf/17%20C.diTO-Dir.%20Politiche%20Sociali-Uff.Minori%20Sranieri%202014.pdf
Pittau, F. P. (2013). Dossier Statistico Immigrazione. Roma: Centro Studi e Ricerche IDOS.
Pittau, F. P., Ricci, A., & Timsa, I. L. (2009). Minori non accompagnati: aspetti quantitativi e politiche in materia di accoglienza, rimpatrio e integrazione. Analisi del caso italiano per uno studio comparativo a livello comunitario. IDOS, European Migration Network: Roma.
Rebucini, G. (2013). Masculinités hégémoniques et “sexualités” entre hommes au Maroc. Cahiers d’Études africaines, 53(1–2), 209–210.
Refass, M. A. (1999). Les Transferts des Ressortisants Marocains à l’Etranger. In M. Berriane & H. Popp (Eds.), Migrations Internationales entre le Maghreb et l’Europe (pp. 97–105). Rabat: Université Mohammed V.
Rossi, A. (2012). Moroccan minors and the internal frontiers of undocumented migration (Turin, Northern Italy, 2003-2009). Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 3(8), 43–50.
Rossi, A. (2014). Experiences of applied anthropology among unaccompanied minors and young Moroccan migrants in Turin. DADA Rivista di Antropologia Post-Globale, Special Issue Antropologia Applicata, 2, 249–264. http://www.dadarivista.com/Singoli-articoli/2014-speciale-novembre/14.pdf.
Rozzi, E. (2011). Problematiche aperte sulla protezione dei minori stranieri in Italia. “Che ci faccio qui? Accogliere, tutelare, integrare i minori migranti” Conference, Turin, University of Turin, 15 December 2011.
Sahlins, M. (2013). What kinship is – and is not. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Senovilla, H. (2007). Situación y tratamiento de los menores extranjeros no acompañados en Europa. Observatoire Intérnational de la Justice Juvénile, 7(3), 258–274.
Senovilla, H. (2010). Migrating alone: Unaccompanied and separated children’s migration to Europe. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Sheper- Hughes, N. (2008). A talent for life: Reflections on human vulnerability and resilience Ethnos. Journal of Anthropology, 73(1), 25–56.
Smith, T. (2009). Statement of good practice. Copenhagen, Separated Children in Europe Programme. http://www.separated-children-europe-programme.org. Accessed 25 Sept 2015.
Taussig, M. (1993). Mimesis and alterity. London: Routledge.
UNHCR (2008). Guidelines on determining the best interest of the child. Geneva: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. http://www.unhcr.org/4566b16b2.pdf. Accessed 25 Dec 2015.
United Nations (2005). Convention on the Right of the Child. General Comment No. 6: Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children outside their country of origin, CRC/GC/2005/6. http://www.refworld.org/docid/42dd174b4.html.
Vacchiano, F. (2010). Bash “n”ataq l-walidin (“to save my parents”): Personal and social challenges of Moroccan unaccompanied children in Italy. In H. Senovilla et al. (Eds.), Migrating alone: Unaccompanied and separated children’s migration to Europe (pp. 107–127). Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Vv.Aa. (2000). La politica ingiusta per i minori stranieri, ovvero: scacco matto ai percorsi di accoglienza e integrazione. Minori Giustizia, 3(3), 190–194.
Williams, R. (1975). The country and the city. Science & Society 39(4), 481–484. Oxford University Press.
Young, A. (1996). Harmony of illusions: Inventing post-traumatic stress disorder. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Zincone, G. (2000, December 7). Italia Tra Clandestini e Lavoratori in nero. La Repubblica.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rossi, A. (2017). Male Adulthood and ‘Self’-Legalizing Practices among Young Moroccan Migrants in Turin, Italy. In: Decimo, F., Gribaldo, A. (eds) Boundaries within: Nation, Kinship and Identity among Migrants and Minorities. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53331-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53331-5_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53329-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53331-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)