Drifting Here and There But Going Nowhere: the Case of Migrants from Turkey in Milan in the Era of Global Economic Crisis

Abstract

This paper argues that migration is becoming a protracted situation for the significant part of migrants in parallel to the deepening world economic crisis. Migrants keep drifting from one place to another in the face of future uncertainties. The paper analyses the protracted feature of migration, which is becoming increasingly salient through a new conceptualization, and links it with the world economic crisis and capital accumulation processes. The argument is supported by the data obtained from a field research implemented in Milan, Italy, in 2013 on migrants from Turkey. The Italian economy went into deep recession in 2009 when it was overlapped by a worldwide economic crisis. This situation led migrant workers to lose their jobs. Hence, self-employment of some Turkish migrants was directly related to the deepening economic crisis. Not only comparatively new Turkish migrants but also migrants who spent some years in Milan cannot see a secure future in there and think of migrating yet again.