Caring for others, managing migrants: Local and institutional hospitality in Lampedusa (Italy)

Abstract

In my chapter I analyze, first, the social elements explaining the hospitable, and not hostile, attitude Lampedusa inhabitants have shown over the years toward migrant people. I argue hospitality cannot be understood as a cultural element or an intrinsic characteristic of the Mediterranean identity. This attitude is mostly linked to historical dynamics and structural factors that characterize this Italian borderland. As the concept of reciprocity suggests, the fact that Lampedusa has historically been a place of emigration to Sicily and other Italian or Northern Africa regions led to a sort of identification with migrant people. At the same time, foreign migrants have always been temporary guests on this island. This situation facilitated, I suggest, the perception of migrants as non-dangerous visitors, unable to change the social landscape. Secondly, I explore the negative effects the transition in the perception of migrants from guests to take care to people the Italian state is entitled to manage has produced on the island. The replacement of a local model of hospitality based on informal practices and spontaneous places with an institutional model characterized by bureaucratic procedures and militarized sites led to a forced separation between local and migrant people.