Kata Szabo
Everywhere, but nowhere | The social mobility of Calabrian Millennials
The aim of the current research is to look at the Millennials’ perception of the effects of their mobility after several years living outside of Calabria. What kind of gap has been created in Calabria due to their migration, what have they brought with themselves when they left? Are they planning to stay far or have they found what they were looking for and what they were told they will find in the new environment? If they decide to return, will they find what they have left behind? Can they be re-integrated into Calabrian culture? In order to better understand the effects of globalization and mobility on the lives of these individuals and thus on Calabria itself, we propose to look at the narratives of this generation to see why they have left Calabria, and if they wish or try to come back to their roots. In order to follow and contribute to the previous works on the ‘Mezzogiorno’ (the South of Italy) a fieldwork of five months has been conducted with the central base in a village called Platania and an Erasmus traineeship at a primary school in Lamezia Terme, which is one of the largest cities, and infrastructural centers of Calabria. Lamezia is where most Calabrian banks, companies are located, the international airport, and one of the main railway stations can be found here. For this reason, it is considered a significant location in Calabria and a provider of a workplace for the nearby villages. The participation and observation in the local activities, festivities, conversations, interviews helped the research analyze and understand how people construct their identity, what it means to them to be Calabrian, how they describe the present-day situation of Calabria and Italy and if there are any attempts to induce change or what the future of Calabria is from their perspective. With the help of terminologies used by the locals the aim is to describe their traditions and the overall culture–which includes among other things the everyday life, habits, consumption patterns, traditions, religion, language use, political and economic systems.
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