This summer, between the months of July and September, 91 young people participated in ASCS’s “Through” summer proposals. Proposals that created a meeting space for young people between 17 and 30 years old, from various regions of Italy and other countries, to try together to learn more about the nuances of mobility that run through our country.

Knowing territories scratched by border crossings to reach northern European countries (Ventimiglia and Oulx) or from arrivals from the Balkan routes (Trieste), places scratched by agricultural labor exploitation and caporalism (Agro Pontino e Cuneo), territories rich in diversity and people with mixed roots (Cosenza).

Accompanied by Scalabrini’s words describing his feelings arrived at Milan Central Station and reflecting on being in situations of pain through knowing, seeing, listening, immersion, affection and intervention.

Here are the stages of the young people’s journey with their stories.

Attraverso Ventimiglia

We were in Ventimiglia, on the French-Italian border to learn about a reality of passage that sees various rejections and a dramatic situation in which people on the move often get stuck in the streets.

During this experience, we interfaced with various nuances of human mobility. We delved into the legal aspect of asylum claims and human rights violations on the border with Diaconia Valdese and on the other side of the border with Emmaus Roya; listened to the evolution of the reception situation in Ventimiglia, with Valter Muscatello, a Red Cross worker who worked in the various “transitional” camps that have been closed and opened several times and now no longer exist; and met people in transit at Caritas where men, women and entire families go to eat, shower, dress and rest in a safe place run by Save the Children.

We were supportive of Loredana and Philip and, after cooking at their home, we went to the parking lot near a supermarket in which we distributed the meal and played soccer with the transiting people. We tried to understand a little better the dynamics and routes of possible border crossings by talking to Barnabà, a writer, and retracing the path of death all the way to Menton.

Finally, we tried to get to know a border reality with its contrasts and networks of solidarity, talking to entities rooted in the territory and entities, such as No Name Kitchen, that have arrived now.

Attraverso Trieste

Trieste is one of the stops on the Balkan routes, bordering Slovenia. It is yet another border crossed in a migration journey that lasts even years, often involving violence and refoulement. People on the move, who bear the tangible marks of the European Union’s policy of refoulement upon them, find in Trieste a place of both hostility and care, of transit and deportation.

During Through Trieste, we became intimately acquainted with the migratory dynamics affecting this reality, working alongside Linea d’ombra, ICS, San Martino al Campo Community and Caritas in the daily activities of supporting people on the move arriving in Trieste. We were able to listen to the stories of Gianfranco Schiavone (ICS), Lorena Fornasir and Gian Andrea Franchi (Shadow Line), and Ismail Swati (ICS, IRC and Diaconia Valdese), witnesses through their daily actions to a radically alternative vision of what the border is. We attended the screening of the documentary Umar with director Francesco Cibati.

Finally, we walked, under rain clouds, the stretch of border that people on the move cross before arriving in Italy.

Attraverso Agro Pontino

Attraverso Agro Pontino’s experience began at Casa Scalabrini 634, a home for migrant people who have exited the shelter system because they have obtained documents but are not yet autonomous. We were welcomed into the house, cooking with the boys who live there and having dinner together. We met with caregivers Valentina Scala and Fabiola Frroku, who told us about the shelter system and how the facility works.

We then moved to the Agro Pontino, a contrasting territory with, on the one hand, tourist cities, and on the other, agricultural lands worked largely by the Sikh community in the area. Speaking about the phenomenon of caporalato and labor exploitation was Andrea Zampetti, a social pedagogue, who raised various questions about our responsibilities and our role with respect to this system of exploitation. We also heard testimony from Gurpreet and Mandeep, former laborers who are now involved with trade unionism and Caritas.

To “get our hands in the dough,” we went to two Sikh farms in which we experienced firsthand what it means to harvest, albeit under far better conditions than those to which laboring people are subjected. Degrading conditions, which, for the Sikh community, are not only limited to the working environment but also to housing, with cramped spaces in unsafe houses.

We went to the village of Bella Farnia to see the houses and talked to a family man who told us a little about his life. We also got to know some of the agencies working with migrant people in the area starting with the Caritas legal desk in Borgo Hermada with testimonies from volunteer Arturo and worker Serena Cattacin and the ASL of Latina with Drs. Angelo Maietta and Eleonora Mazzucco who provided us with news about the health situation of laborers.

The experience ended with meeting and exchange at the Sikh temple in which we helped cook and then shared lunch.

Attraverso Cuneo

The theme of the border, explored in Trieste and Ventimiglia, was intertwined in Cuneo with the theme of labor exploitation, already encountered during the Agro Pontino camp. Cuneo, in fact, appeared to us as a crossroads, a place still firmly rooted in Piedmont-and just a few kilometers from the region’s most important agricultural areas-and France.

During our days in Cuneo, we moved between the capital city and the small town of Saluzzo, the heart of an intensely cultivated area and a very important center for fruit production nationwide. Both cities experience the arrival of large numbers of seasonal workers each summer, employed in fruit picking. Thanks to the testimonies of the Caritas Cuneo and Caritas Saluzzo workers, many volunteers and some of the operators of the Meet point in Cuneo, we tried to understand what the living and working conditions of these laborers are and what attempts are being made to combat the illegalities and exploitation of which they are victims. Thanks to the two Caritas offices, we had the opportunity to collaborate in providing some services aimed especially at fruit workers: the canteen, a shower service, distribution of clothes, etc.

In Cuneo, with joy, we encountered some beautiful examples of welcome from a lively and caring community: we were particularly struck by the solidarity garden project promoted by the Immaculate Heart of Mary parish, aimed at offering employment opportunities to former farm workers who can no longer find stable employment due to age or seasonal workers who decide to stay in the area even during the winter months. Cuneo’s proximity to France also prompted us to move toward the border, retracing the journey that many of the people arriving in this area try to make. The moments spent at Magdalena Pass allowed us to reflect on the danger of mountain borders and the absurdity of rejections.

Attraverso Cosenza

If other experiences interface with severely marginalized situations on the borders or in agricultural fields in Cosenza, the experience is built in the encounter with the other and with the richness of people with multiple roots.

With the help of Migrantes of Cosenza-Bisignano, a group of young people were able to learn about the services offered in the city of Cosenza, in the heart of Calabria. The first days of the experience took place right in the city, offering services in support of entities in the area: the cafeteria at the Casa San Francesco, in the street furniture project, at SAI in Cerisano run by the Strade di Casa Cooperative and with children at MOCI in Marzi. With the guidance of Sister Valentina Dovico and General Sociology researcher at Unical in Cosenza, Giorgio Marcello, the group learned about various aspects of Old Cosenza. The last few days were spent in Lorica, in the forests of Sila to reflect and share the experience and their own experiences.

Attraverso Oulx

The small village of Oulx, almost on the border with France, has for many years become a key crossing point for migrants aiming to reach French territory from Italian territory. In 2015, following the terrorist attacks, France ordered the suspension of the Schengen Free Movement Treaty, thus making it much more difficult for people of non-European citizenship to cross the border. This was followed by the complete closure of the border at Ventimiglia and the subsequent search for new routes by migrant people. Since 2017, passages of young people on foot from mainly Guinea Conakry have begun to be recorded in the Susa Valley. From then on, the flow never stopped, now involving people from the Balkan route, now from the Mediterranean route. At the same pace, an increasingly structured and effective shelter system has developed until today’s Massi Fraternity Shelter, a facility that has 70 beds and accounts for 15,000 passages a year. Several associations collaborate in the shelter with different roles: Rainbow for Africa and Physicians for Human Rights provide health care, Diaconia Valdese provides a legal worker.

From Sept. 2 to Sept. 7, we experienced a camp of service and knowledge of the reality of migration in Oulx; we served at the shelter, which during this period had an influx of a hundred people a day. In addition, we learned about the parallel French reality of Briançon, which takes in migrants who have crossed the border: we walked the path that connects Claviere and Briançon and then served at the Terrasse Solidaire and the Sainte Catherine church.

In addition, training meetings with the historical volunteer of the Fraternità Massi Shelter in Oulx Silvia Massara, the worker for Diaconia Valdese Martina Cociglio, and the doctor for Medu Federica Tarenghi helped us to have a well-rounded understanding of the migration reality of the place.

Conclusion

Returning from their various summer experiences in the physical and existential confines of our country, the young people gathered in Turin on Sept. 17 and in Milan on Sept. 23. They shared some of their experiences and the process of reframing the experiences, concluding with a reflection on the next steps to be taken individually and collectively to be generators of change in our territories.

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