Legami tra pianure. Gli intermediari nella migrazione dei panjabi indiani in Italia

Connected plains
\nThe brokers within the panjabi indian migration in Italy
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\n This research contributes to the field of migration studies by investigating the social construction of the brokers in Indian Punjabi migration in Italy. 
\n The thesis analyzes the influence of networks during the migration process and its relationship with the migration policies framework and economic conditions. The purpose of the investigation is to examine in depth the multidimensionality of transnational networks. Attempting to understand the factors that have influenced the constitution of the network, and identifying migrants’ shifting roles within it, the thesis identifies brokerage as the main constitutive moment of migrants’ networks. Moreover, the focus on brokerage also sheds light on how international migrations both affect and are affected by states’ socio-political and economic changes. In this particular instance, Italy, a country characterized by an enduring economic crisis, and India, which is instead experiencing a phase of economic growth. 
\n Through the concept of “Punjab de-centered”, this work adopts a multidisciplinary perspective avoiding the dichotomy country of origin/country of settlement. The notion of Punjab de-centered considers cultural construction and practical and materials terms in both the territory of emigration and the different areas of immigration. The study focuses on the subjectivity constituting the networks and the role of brokers, drawing particular attention on the intersectionality among gender, caste, religion, place of origin, migration period and owned passport. 
\n Methodologically, the work utilizes a multi-sited ethnography, carried out through fieldwork between May 2011 to May 2013, in various locations around Veneto, Lombardia and Emilia Romagna regions and, for 4 and 6 weeks, in Indian Punjab. The material collected are: 52 interviews with Indian Punjabi; 18 ethnographical conversations to shop keepers, migrant spokespersons and place of worship’s leaders; 42 interviews to Italian and migrants from other areas; 200 hours of participant observation during religious events, recreational activities and political demonstrations; the study of 5 transnational networks. 
\n The body of the thesis is divided into two parts of three chapters each. The first section is introductive and includes a methodological chapter, a general introductory framework of Punjabi migration to Italy, described first by country of emigration and then by country of immigration. The second section analyses the role of brokers on three different levels: immigration journey, stabilization and emigration. At the first level of immigration journey, we concentrated on the figures of brokers facilitating the entry in Italy; at the second stage, stabilization, the attention shifts to the recruitment business and the obtaining of an employment contract (which is required to access citizenship rights according to the Italian legal framework). At a third level, the thesis analyses the aspect of Punjabi emigration from Italy to a third country, in particular through an investigation of international marriages’ brokerage and the role that obtaining an Italian citizenship plays in it.
\n Indian Punjabi migration in Italy is a family type migration, which presents a migratory pattern according to which the man migrates first and once he obtains legal status in Italy, is subsequently joined by his wife and, in case, child(ren). Punjabi are mainly farmers downward and the aim of the migration is to start a business as soon as they can, as well as getting Italian citizenship. The possession of an Italian passport covers not so much the claim of the right to stay. Rather it entitles to a higher degree of mobility across borders developed countries. In this way, Punjabi migrants “whiten” their legal identity and hence, their mobility. Starting from the mid-2000s, Punjabi migration patterns have been characterized by a dramatic reduction of family reunifications and an increased focus on the investment on Indian state. At the same time, many Punjabi migrants settled in Italy are waiting to obtain the Italian citizenship as a facilitated route to migrate to English-speaking Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain. 
\n The thesis moves from the idea that the construction of networks is a collective process beyond the containment of state policies. They are relatively independent from policies’ dynamics of expulsion and attraction and, more generally, from Italy’s migration management. The states do not determine migrations process; rather they affect the roles of the people composing it by allocating migrants to different administrative statuses. The pioneers, in this case all men, acquire a privileged position within the network, and some professionalize themselves as brokers in the migration business. The business of migration market is created by the demand for mobility of people and the limitation of regular entries. On the one hand, brokers act following their own individual strategy to reach their goals and upward their status within the network. On the other hand, the role of brokers allows the accumulation of social capital, because it support other people’s migration, forcing and sometimes going beyond the limitations imposed by the management migration by the state. 
\n The accumulation of the collective social capital within the network is achieved by the hierarchization and genderization of networks and is influenced by the legal status that the state assigns to migrants. Such hierarchization and genderization of Punjabi migration is supported both by Punjabi pioneers to Italy and the de-centered Punjab rhetoric. The pioneers maintain a position of power while relegating women to a subordinate role. The different subjectivity who compose the networks does not always promote the same aim within it and the various members that compose them call the structure into question. In that incorporating social and cultural issues and the hierarchies characterizing the country of origin, this structure at times recodifies and at times subverts the existing situation. These changes are particularly visible in transnational brokerage and the influence of the acquisition of Western citizenship. Marriage entails the groom or the bride to the acquisition of a Western passport through naturalization. This allows the emigration of the entire family through family reunification. What emerges is a hierarchical structure within the de-centered Punjab, based on a ranking of nationalities passport which sees the Canadian and U.S.A. citizenship on tops, followed by UK, Australia and New Zealand. After these come European countries and in the last position the Indian one. The hierarchy of such passports is directly proportional to the possibilities of mobility across borders, identifying with the top ones those which have facilitated access to a greater number of states in the world and who have favorable policies of family reunification and sponsorship. From a female perspective, such passport’s hierarchy opens up a space for overturning the traditional roles in case the woman has a "superior citizenship," in the hierarchy. In the opposite scenario, an “inferior citizenship” might lead to more subordination to a traditional role. 
\n The conditions of mobility across the globe are highly marked by the rank of a traveler's passport. The thesis concludes that migration is ultimately never fully governable by the state and, for a part of the world, that dream of mobility has a high price.

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