Dwelling in Subaltern Spaces: Contemporary Representations of Italian New Mobilities

The present essay presents a reflection on the spaces of recent Italian outgoing migrations (generally referred to as “new mobilities” in the national debate) and on how the ontological condition of recent “expats” is defined by the way in which they dwell in these new spaces of mobility. An analysis of the terminology of impermanence deployed to refer to recent outgoing mobilities reveals how such terminology is intended to create a discontinuity with historical Italian emigration and with the subaltern positions that Italian emigrants have come to occupy both in their country of origin and in their countries of destination. Through the analysis of three case studies – a blog that has also become a book, Donne che emigrano all’estero. Storie di italiane nel mondo (2016), the documentary La Deutsche Vita (2013), and the web series Italianers (2015- 2016) – the essay examines how the anxiety associated with a possible inherited subalternity resurfaces in recent narratives of relocation.