Negotiating Development: Variegated Migrations and Socio-Economic Transformations in Southern Piedmont Vineyards (Italy)
In this agricultural sector, since the 1990s, foreign workers from Eastern Europe have progressively replaced the previous domestic labor force. In particular, migrants from the Republic of North Macedonia have assumed a crucial role: they have entered into the viticulture labor market becoming indispensable for the development of local economy; at the same time, they have here created a large and articulated community. Being mostly permanent migrants, they have shown not only a differentiation in profiles and individual trajectories over time, but they have also played a role of mediation, informally regulating the flows of temporary migrants arriving each year as seasonal workers.
Recently, the same rural context, also thanks to local public strategies promoting tourism in the area, has become a destination for other migrations, fascinated by the landscape aesthetic and by the promise of an authentic, idyllic, rural lifestyle. In particular, people from Northern European countries (Norway, Sweden, Netherlands) have started to show their presence in the area, combining elements of amenity migration and multi-local dwelling.
By relying on the empirical documentation collected by the authors (in collaboration with Magda Bolzoni) through participant observation, discursive in-depth interviews and document analysis over the last 10 years, this proposal intends to explore the interactions between these different migratory phenomena as well as with the local society. In particular, it addresses the place-making processes carried out by different types of migrants, on the one hand, and how cultural difference may become a key factor in elaborating/negotiating development perspectives for this rural and agricultural destination community, on the other.