Further to Del Pra’ and Tirabassi's publication of La meglio Italia: Le mobilità italiane nel XXI secolo (Turin: Accademia University Press, 2014), Il mondo si allontana? promises to be another key addition to the scholarship on contemporary Italian diasporas. Indeed, it offers a first-hand impression of the state of the new Italian mobilities, including the efforts put in place by individuals, communities, and political entities to adjust to the “new normal.” The first section of the book elaborates on the results of an online questionnaire answered by 1,115 Italians residing in 57 countries, including both “traditional” destinations such as France, Germany and Switzerland and “newer” ones such as China, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. The second section includes contributions by politicians, academics, public servants, and members of associations who reflect on the future of Italian mobilities in the age of the Coronavirus.
This snowball sampling conducted mainly through Facebook (the social media platform that traditionally hosts groups connecting Italians abroad) returned the profile of an older (30–39 years of age), highly educated, stably employed interviewee who emigrated more than three years prior to 2020. Keeping in mind the limits of an online questionnaire circulated in a relatively short time span and mostly through one social media (which somehow excluded younger age groups), the canvassing revealed how this portion of new Italian emigrants weathered the storm with minimal consequences for their professional lives. Many of them kept working; some of them in the traditional way (15%), while several respondents moved to smart working (52%). Access to social security meant for some of the interviewees the possibility of benefiting from paid leave, emergency payments, and furlough programmes (11%). A bleaker picture emerged, however, regarding those employed in the most heavily hit hospitality sector, where several respondents lost their jobs (6%).
One of the most significant findings of the inquiry is that several respondents confirmed how their migratory choice has not been affected by COVID-19. Some of the responses, however, suggest that the rationale for choosing future countries of destination in the post-pandemic era will be defined by new variables such as the quality of national health services and their specific provisions.
The first part of the book points at two markers of modern Italian diasporas, namely the eery resurfacing of a renewed anti-Italian sentiment – especially noticeable when the first deadly wave of the Coronavirus severely affected Northern Italy – and the emergence of a social group hit particularly badly by the pandemic, the so-called “invisibles.” The latter have an insecure employment status and cannot benefit from either social insurance or economic assistance in their host countries. These people often find themselves in the “non-place” of mobility, trapped between an old social situation and a new one that is not yet defined.
The invisibles and their displaced identities are discussed in some of the contributions published in the second part of the volume, such as Gli invisibili in Australia, compiled by the Italian Network of Melbourne (NOMIT) (pp. 137–143). Toni Ricciardi focuses on the Swiss case in order to offer an insight on multiple identities during the pandemic (Identità multiple durante il Coronavirus, pp. 65–73). He suggests that the pandemic represents an acceleration of history able to generate unpredictable effects on the social fabric of nations, international relations, and social interactions. On the latter aspect, Brunella Rallo further notes how families have been marked by the distancing imposed by COVID-19. The pandemic intensified the ties between family members through long-distance caring practices facilitated by both the international distribution chains and the resources deployed by national health systems on a global scale (Affettività, mobilità e logistica delle famiglie transnazionali nell’anno del Covid-19, pp. 151–161).
It would be impossible to sum up in the short space of a review the richness of perspectives and approaches that emerge from each contribution. This inquiry into the 21st-century pandemic and its impact on our lives, however, offers plenty of material to try to find an answer to the initial question: Il mondo si allontana? The virus has physically distanced us – yes – but the crisis might open some unprecedented opportunities, if we consider, for instance, the financial efforts made by the European Union (Recovery Fund). While the pandemic has revealed some of the flaws of the European project, the strong – albeit delayed – reaction of the political institutions eventually did boost the social and political unity of the EU and, overall, strengthen the identity of its members, with the consequent weakening of the ever-menacing populisms.
The inquiry promoted by the Centro Altreitalie reveals one final and overarching issue, namely the necessity to manage politically the new Italian mobilities. Indeed, COVID-19 has somewhat obscured impending political knots – such as Brexit – and shifted the public opinion's attention on the aleatory and distorted concept of “normality” as a condition to be attained back at all costs (Loredana Polezzi, Domenica, 26 aprile 2020, pp. 115–121). However, the pandemic taught us that the “new normal” essentially implies embracing a new system of values. We need these values to define our new mobile identities along the lines of transnational solidarity.
Footnotes
ORCID iD: Matteo Brera https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0040-0701