Narrating Migration

This book reflects on the myriad ways in which forms of exclusion and inclusion play out in narratives of migration, focusing on the case of Northern Italian narratives in today's superdiverse Italy. Drawing on over a decade of the author's fieldwork in the region, the volume examines the emergence of racialized language in conversations about migrants or migration issues in light of increasing recent migratory flows in the European Union, couched in the broader context of changing socio-political forces such as anti-immigration policies and nativist discourse in political communication in Italy. The book highlights case studies from everyday discourse in both villages and cities and at different levels of society to explore these "intimacies of exclusion," the varying degrees to which inclusion and exclusion manifest themselves in conversation on migration. The book also employs a narrative practice-based approach which considers storytelling as a more dynamic form of discourse, thus allowing for equally new ways of analyzing their content and impact. Offering a valuable contribution to the growing literature on narratives of migration, this volume is key reading for graduate students and scholars in linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, sociocultural anthropology, language and politics, and migration studies.

Sabina Perrino is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Linguistics at Binghamton University. She has conducted research in Senegal and Northern Italy on topics such as racialized language; offline/online narratives; intimacy; migration; language revitalization; transnationalism; ethnomedicine; political discourse. She co-edited seven Special Issues for journals including Language in Society, Language & Communication, and Applied Linguistics.

Table of Contents Acknowledgments Transcription Conventions Introduction Geographical Location: Northern Italy Collecting Data in Northern Italy: Methodology Co-Constructing Transcripts: Orthographic Conventions and Bivalency Book Structure - Outline of Chapters Chapter 1 Migration and Politics in Northern Italy - Introduction - Mediterranean Migrations in and through Italy - Multiculturalism and Superdiversity in Italy - Inclusion-Resistant Superdiversity and Communities of Practice in Northern Italy - Intimacy and Intimate Identities - Intimacies of Exclusion in and through DNA - DNA and Brand Identities in Narratives about Italian Fashion - DNA and Language Use in Veneto, Northern Italy - Concluding Remarks Chapter 2 The Lega Nord ('Northern League'): Language Revitalization and Anti-Immigration Politics 2.1 Introduction 2.2 The Lega Nord ('Northern League') and its Anti-Immigrant Politics 2.3 Beyond the Lega: New Political Movements in Italy 2.4 Poeticizing and Politicizing Language Revitalization 2.5 Local Languages and Standardized Italian: A Brief Historical Background 2.6 Revitalizing Language, Culture and History in Veneto and Beyond 2.6.1 the Liga Veneta Repubblica's Flag 2.6.2 Terre dei Dogi in Festa in Portogruaro, Veneto 2.6.3 Revitalization of Venetan and the "Veneto State" 2.7 Concluding Remarks Chapter 3 Racializing Narratives: Stance, Scale, and Chronotope 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Narratives as Discursive Practices 3.3 Narrative Practices through Spatiotemporal Scales: The Bakhtinian Chronotope 3.4 Chronotopes Through Scalar Intimacy 3.5 Racialized Storytelling: Stance and Stancetaking 3.6 Narrating Extracomunitari in Veneto's Health Care Facilities 3.7 Concluding Remarks Chapter 4 Intimacies of Exclusion in and through Storytelling 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Racialized Narratives in Research Qualitative Interviews 4.3 Intimacies of Exclusion in Political Rallies 4.4 Narrating Authenticity and Migration in Northern Italian Historical Cafés 4.5 Concluding Remarks Chapter 5 Performing Extracomunitari in Barzellette 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Racialized Jokes as "Keyed" Performances 5.3 Barzellette and Italian Joke-Tellers 5.4 Racialized Barzellette in Formal Political Addresses 5.5 Enacting Extracomunitari in barzellette in Veneto 5.5.1 "In Padua There are So Many Extracomunitari!" 5.5.2 "Starting Today, You are Giovanni!": Assigning Italian Names to Migrant Students 5.6 Concluding Remarks Conclusion Intimacies of Exclusion in and through Storytelling Practices Racialized Barzellette in Northern Italy Intimacies of Exclusion: Future Research References Index