Future world citizens: the outcome of the encounter of different cultures and their relocation in the world map following today’s migration phenomenon.

The migration crisis is one of the most defying issues facing the world today and the application of the Social Representations Theory to study such group movements in their geo-cultural context provides an opportunity to understand future world citizens, investigating processes of social inclusion/exclusion in relation to contemporary migratory phenomena. A key element connected to migration is the need to have a thorough knowledge of geographic dimensions. In our theoretical and methodological perspective, world geography is not simply a “space-place” but a “geo-cultural context” involving a set of interrelated psycho-social scopes evoking iconic-imaginary representations linked to symbols, social memory, identity, cultural-normative expectations and feelings within a world map landscape. The aim of this contribution, with the principal actors’ direct involvement in the study (migrants, relief agents and receiving communities), is to illustrate an on-going research program which wishes to add to the understanding of some of the psycho-social implications of today’s population movements which will determine the citizens of tomorrow. The articulate relation between research lines involving “media” and “field” studies applying specific instruments and methodologies will be shown together with the potentiality of developing policies aimed at social inclusion.