Narratives of Resistance and Re-Existence of Young Migrant Women Welcomed into Humanitarian Corridor Communities in Italy: An Intersectional Research

This intersectional research focuses on young migrant women between 18 and 35 years old who arrived in Italy through humanitarian corridors and are hosted by solidarity networks. This program was introduced in 2016: the State allows civil society to transfer people, selected on the basis of vulnerability criterion, and to welcome them in Italy at the expense of civil society. This admission pathway is based on the “widespread reception”, a micro-reception which aim is to create an adequate environment for an effective insertion of each person received, daily accompanied not only by a team of professionals but also by a network of volunteers, in order to facilitate the integration process. This form of hosting focuses more on the quality rather than on the quantity of the welcoming. This project has a double-faced potentiality: on the one hand, it can accompany women in facing and overcoming what they lived during their journey before being involved in the project, a local community of reference and a new intercultural start in a new context; on the other hand, being a bottom-up initiative it can represent an important opportunity for the local communities involved for broadening their horizons and for interweaving their own narratives with those of the people received, and creating a new one together.

The methodology employed a qualitative analysis drawing from semi-structured interviews and life stories collected in Italy in 2023.

From the initial evidence, in an equal relationship, re-generative dynamics seem to be created both for the women and the territory itself. Lights and shadows emerge from the research with respect to the reception project, highlighting some strategies for navigating intercultural spaces as well as elements that hinder an exchange. At the same time, elements for creating as symmetrical a relationship as possible between the two parties are outlined.