A15 Internal migration and contemporary migration

Two themes are covered in this area, capable of transformation, thanks to lighting effects and the movement of screens: internal emigration within the Bel Paese and migration abroad in the new millennium.

On one hand, internal mobility, from South to North, from the countryside to the cities, from the mountains to the plains, when and why did we move and do we move within national borders? Well beyond the years of the economic boom, the major routes of movement continue to be the routes along which people, skills and ideas move. The section offers a selection of biographical and autobiographical stories researched in collaboration with the Archivio Diaristico Nazionale, accompanied by the intense reportage on internal emigration by Uliano Lucas and images by the video maker Gino Brignolo.

On the other, Italian international migration, with its changes that have led Italy to be a country of departure once again. Since 2000, we have been witnessing a passage of ages in which human mobility has become a global “sign of the times”, an openness to a world that knows no borders except those that have been artificially constructed, but which are continually being surpassed by man's innate desire for knowledge, the instinct for survival and the search for a happy existence.

In this framework of human complexity in movement, is Italy really just a land of immigration? If so, why are people leaving “again”? Who leaves today? The section asks questions and suggests answers through the direct video and audio testimonies of young and not-so-young migrants, compiled thanks to the research work of the scientific staff of the Mei, through the collaboration with the associations of Italian citizens around the world, with the radio programme Expat on Radio Tre, and with the project “Italians of Europe” undertaken with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.