Organising practices in the Ukrainian community of the Metropolitan city of Naples

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Master Thesis in Human Geography

Organising practices in the Ukrainian community of the

Metropolitan city of Naples

Edoardo Lorenzo Cumitini

12003255

Supervisor : Dr. D. L. Arnorld

Date : 12 / 08 / 2019

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Introduction: a community during warfare

Recent debates on the topic of labour migration have seen a predominance of meso-level theories (Faist, 2010), which aim to “fill the gap” between macro-social dynamics and individual agency, the two levels of analysis that characterize classic theories on labour migration (Ambrosini, 2013; Arnold, 2016). Such approaches stress the role of migrants as social actors, in what is a stark change in tone compared to the traditional theories on Labour Migration, that would more often than not portray them as “passive subjects” (Arnold, 2016; Sayad, 2016). Among the numerous theories developed, the approach dubbed Migrant Network Theory has proved to be particularly successful, and has been widely employed within the field. (Castles et al., 2014)

Furthermore, the Transnational turn (Faist, 2004) that has characterised the recent developments in Migration Studies has provided researchers with a new perspective on migration, that surpasses the previous dichotomy between immigration and emigration (Sayad, 2016). Numerous studies have widely explored phenomena connected with the existence of Transnational Migrant Networks (Portes et al., 2002), such as ethnic entrepreneurship, or the effects that remittances have on both the home country and the country of destination (Boccagni & Decimo, 2013).

However, such analyses were often criticised for a number of reasons. The more common criticisms moved against the aforementioned theory is its “haziness” when it comes to actually describing the way a network is structured (Ambrosini, 2013), and a general underrepresentation of political and cultural factors in studying migratory phenomena (Ambrosini, 2013).

As a consequence of that, numerous researches conducted employing a Transnational perspective end up reproducing the traditional Western bias that analyses migration as a predominantly economic

phenomenon (Sayad, 2016).

A different meso-level theory, based on radically different assumptions, is the autonomy of migration approach (Papadopoulos & Tsianos, 2013). Defined more like a gaze that a coherent body of work (Mezzadra, 2010), the autonomy of migration approach focuses on the spontaneous practices of self-organisation of migrant groups. Such practices are not to be interpreted in light of the traditional categories that characterise the Western political thought, but as an autonomous creative force in its own right. While such an approach has been criticized for overly romanticising migration (Scheel, 2013), its major focus on the political aspects connected to migration makes it apt for the current era, in which for the first time migration is not interpreted as an economic problem but as a political question (Ambrosini, 2013). The following paper is an analysis of some of the organising practices that can be observed within the Ukrainian community in the Metropolitan city of Naples. The Ukrainian presence in Italy is largely

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associated to the demand for cheap labour in the domestic care sector that characterises the Peninsula (Bonifazi et al., 2009; Vianello, 2013). Because of that, the Ukrainian population in Italy is

overwhelmingly comprised of women, that often are part of a pre-existing household in Ukraine. Motivated by the goal of accumulating wealth and with little interest towards the acquisition of political rights connected to citizenship, most Ukrainian women envision their stay in Italy to be temporary, and to one day return to Ukraine. As the Ukrainian migration towards Italy creates a system of remittances, most researches focus on the economic dynamics that characterise this migration pattern (Bonifazi et al., 2009). However, in her series of studies, Cinzia Solari (2016) has inferred that, far from having no political dimension, the Ukrainian-Italian migration pattern is actually a structural part of the nation-building process in Ukraine, in a relation that she dubbed of constitutive circularity.

The Ukrainian community of Naples has already been subjected to a variety of studies, and is generally characterized as a Transnational Migrant Network (Vianello, 2013). DeMaria (2012) has conducted a study that specifically looks at the role that organisational practices play in the lives of Ukrainian migrants in the area. However, the research entirely focuses on informal forms of self-organisations, which in Italy are usually lacking in resources, poorly organised and characterised by a short lifespan (Ambrosini, 2013). Different forms or organisational practices, such as informal groups of friends or more structured institutions like the ADUI (Associations of Ukrainian Women in Italy) are hard to distinguish between each other, as they all serve similar purposes : namely, favour the access into the labour market, and provide different types of relief . Furthermore, the political factors that may influence such institutions are systematically overlooked, and there is also little interest towards potential problematic aspects that may arise (such as power struggles between different actors, or access problems for marginalised members of the community).

The research will primarily focus on four institutions observed in the area: an exclusively Ukrainian cultural association in Nola, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the USB (Unione Sindacale di Base), a nation-wide union that has a considerable share of migrant workforce among its activists and employees (Vianello, 2016) . The role of the Ukrainian state in the community, testified by the presence of a consulate in Naples, will also be briefly discussed.

Some of the institutions observed differ greatly from the ones previously analysed in the territory: Both the UGCC and ROC not only predate the current migration trajectory to Italy, but also predate the Ukrainian independent State altogether (Plokhy, 2015). While one is exclusively geared towards Ukrainians, and has numerous Ukrainian migrants collaborating, neither of these associations can be reduced to “informal” transnational actors. Likewise, even though the USB union leader interviewed is ethnically, and culturally, Ukrainian, the role and structure of a national union cannot be reduced to the organisational practices observed in similar analyses.

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The role of religious institutions in migrant communities has recently been the subject of several studies, that stress the poly-functional role that churches have in the lives of the members of the community. Analyses of religious institutions often highlight their role as institutions that favour social assimilation, by assisting migrants in settlement practices. Donatella Greco (2019) compares the role of a religious institution to that of a nested market, a site-specific network of ties that can’t be reduced to market-base logic, and that fulfil numerous functions for the community, from the integration of newcomers to help accessing the labour market.

A peculiarity that characterises the religious landscape of the Ukrainian minority in Naples is the power shift that has occurred within the community: the UGCC, traditionally minoritarian, has now become a predominant institution in the Neapolitan area, as most Ukrainians, even if belonging to an Orthodox denomination, attend catholic masses organised by the UGCC. While the UGCC receives symbolic recognition and material support from the Catholic Church (Ambrosini, 2019; Solari, 2006), the ROC sees little participation from Ukrainians, and orthodox masses are mostly attended by other Eastern Slavic communities. It should be noted that both churches are associated with radically different political narratives: while the UGCC is characterised as nationalistic, self-exclusionary and Filo-European, the ROC is perceived as Slavophile, and looks favourably at the concept of a “Russosphere” that includes all countries with a shared, eastern Slavic heritage (Foster, 2018; Solari, 2006). As argued by Solari (2006), the role of the UGCC in Italy, far from being limited to settlement practices, actually contributes to the spread of their particular, exclusionary narrative concerning both Ukrainian nationality and Ukrainian identity, in a process of transnational nation-building.

The political conflict that exist between the different narratives of Ukrainian national identity, usually reduced to a dichotomy between Russia and Europe (Plokhy, 2015), has been the object of numerous debates in the country, but rarely studied in the context of a Ukrainian community abroad, with the exception of Solari (2006, 2016). The existing tensions have escalated in 2014, with the so-called Donbass Crisis, which has seen Ukraine and Russia enter an armed conflict for the control of the Crimean

peninsula, and the instauration of filo-Russian People’s Republics in Eastern Ukraine (Plokhy, 2015). The events connected to the Donbass Crisis have had an international resonance, and while the possible effects on the Ukrainian community of Naples have not been the subject of any scholarly work, news articles have been published on the matter. As mentioned by Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno (2014), the Russo-Ukrainian conflict has led to an escalation of tension, not only between the Ukrainian and Russian communities that are located on the area, but also within the Ukrainian community itself, as denounced by Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Episodes of violence and harassment directly connected to the Ukrainian crisis have been also reported by local news.

The aim of the paper is to analyse the behaviour of some of the institutions that are currently active in the Ukrainian community of Naples, in light of the recent events. The paper will be structured in three parts, organised as it follows:

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 The first part will look at the development of Labour Migration as an autonomous field of research in Western social sciences, from the early theories of migration to the more recent, meso-level approaches. The theories analysed will be presented diachronically, in conjunction with the historical contingencies that characterised their inception. Many of the assumptions that form the basis of our approach to the study of migration were the result of the observation of critical moments in the history of western migration, such as the wave of mass migration to North America, and because of that often present a western bias (Arnold, 2016). The second part of the chapter will look at the two main approaches that inspired this research: the Migrant Network Theory and the Autonomy of Migration paradigm. The two theories share similarities, as they are both designed for meso-level analyses of forms of migrant organisations, but are also based on radically different perspectives. The

Transnational turn, whose effects can be perceived in the whole field of Migration Studies, will also be discussed. Lastly, we will look at the System Theory of Migration, which stresses the innate complexity of a migratory process. Such approach, that describes migration as a form of embedded social process in a continuous relationship of mutual influence with the other existing ties between countries, characterises a migratory pattern as the result of a process of cumulative causation. To understand a migratory pattern is therefore necessary to frame it in the context of the numerous social, cultural and economic factors that shaped it, such as that own migratory group’s culture of migration (Massey, 1997).

 The second part of the paper will analyse the setting of our research. Italy, as most countries in Southern Europe, has been at the centre of a migration transition (Castles et al., 2014), going from being a country of mass emigration to being the destination of multiple, diversified migratory trajectories. The process of integration of the migrant workforce in Italian society has been characterised by a peculiar, and apparently contradictory, dichotomy. While economic integration has been swift, and has interested critical sectors of the economy (such as the domestic sector), political integration has been slow, and the attitude of Italian policymakers on the subject has ranged from negligence to downright opposition. (Ambrosini, 2013). The numerous forms of associations that have “stepped in” in providing support to the migrant population have such a predominant role that Ambrosini (2013) dubs the Italian model a model of implicit inclusion. This chapter will provide an overview on the way migration is framed in Italy, both from a legal perspective and as a national paradigm (Thranhardt et al., 2010). It will then look at the landscapes inhabited by the migrant population, and the different types of organisations that are currently active in the country. Lastly, we will look at the peculiarities that characterize Southern Italy as a migrant destination. The Italian Mezzogiorno is traditionally a neglected area in the mainstream literature surrounding immigration in Italy, and often merely characterized as an “area of transit” for migrants directed towards the richer parts of Europe (Schmoll, 2006). Il Mezzogiorno presents instead diversified migratory landscapes: in particular, the area surrounding Naples is a dynamic reality, in which migrants play a significant role, especially in its highly competitive and ethnically niched labour market (DeMaria, 2012).

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 Lastly, we will look at the peculiarities that characterize the Ukrainian minority in the Metropolitan City of Naples. We will first provide an overview of the Ukrainian migratory trajectory towards Italy, focusing on its structure and the time-space dynamics surrounding it. We will then look at the importance that such a migrant trajectory has in Ukrainian culture, in what has been dubbed a process of constitutive circularity (Solari, 2010). We will then look at the researches previously conducted in the Neapolitan area, their results and possible shortcomings. Special focus will be given to the differences observed between Naples and Nola, a town in Paesi Vesuviani with a significant migratory presence, and the setting of part of my fieldwork (Pugliese et al., 2010). The four aforementioned institutions will be analysed, employing categories developed for the analysis of

migrant networks, or as forms of organising practices of mobile commons. A special focus will be given to

the Ukrainian presence in the public space of the Metropolitan city. Migrant communities in Italy are often characterised by a weak territorialisation (SGI 2003): when compared to other countries, in Italy migrant groups are often able of only leaving temporary marques in the Italian landscapes, generally in association with symbolic rituals, such as Ramadan for the Islamic population. The Ukrainian minority, in particular, is almost entirely associated with private spaces or semi-open informal spaces: a natural consequence of their occupations, that largely confine them in the private houses of their elderly Italian employers (Nare, L. 2009). The research will instead look at some events that

characterise the Ukrainian presence in the Neapolitan public space. The Ukrainian community in the Neapolitan area celebrates both the Catholic, and Orthodox Easter with public displays of their cultural heritage. For the Ukrainian migrants that reside in the area such religious events are

considered of primary importance, as Ukraine, as most Post-Soviet countries, has been interested by a resurgence of religious fervor (Plekhy, 2012). The Ukrainian presence in the Neapolitan landscape is not limited to religious celebration: Ukrainians also take part, albeit covertly, in the Victory Day march, a common day of remembrance of the Soviet victory against the Third Reich. Such a recurrence, far from being neutral, holds a central place in the narrative of a shared Russian heritage that is pursued by both the Russian government and the ROC, the only two official institutions that actively took part in the celebration in Naples.

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Structure of Analysis

This chapter will focus on discussing the structure of the following paper. We will first briefly illustrate how the main theories employed can be operationalised, by looking at the main units of analysis, and assumptions, over which these theories are built. This will result in the formulation of our main research question, and of its research subquestions. Then we will focus on the research strategy itself, and on the methodology employed to gather the data. The possible limitations of the research will also be discussed. Finally, the last part of the chapter will be devoted to the analysis of the positionality of the researcher himself, reflecting on possible biases, or on ethical concerns that require to be acknowledged.

Theories employed

The following analysis is a study on some of the form of organising practices that can be observed within the Ukrainian migrant community in the Metropolitan City of Naples. The study is exploratory in its intention: an in-depth, comprehensive study of the Ukrainian organizational forms that can be observed in the Neapolitan landscape was not feasible due to time constraints.

The reasons why the Ukrainian minority was chosen as the subject of analysis are due to its considerable size, and due to an apparent contradiction in the pre-existing literature. While some studies, such as Nare’s (2009), portray Ukrainian migrants as “paradigmatic” migrant workers involved in the domestic care chain, Cinzia Solari (2016) asserts that analyses of Ukrainian migration could make most assumptions of contemporary mainstream migration studies problematic.

To analyse the organisational forms present in the territory, two main theories have been employed : ● Migrant Network Theory, which portrays migrants as actors that utilise their ties and lasting relations to

actively self-organise, thus facilitating their lives as migrants. The main unit of analysis employed in the

MNT is the actor: As an approach, it focuses on the perspective of the individual migrants and their

respective life strategies. Because of that, it is better suited for the study of informal organisational practices. The approach has already been employed in analyses conducted in the Ukrainian minority of Naples, such as Nare’s (2009) and DeMaria’s (2012). However, it has also been criticised for its implicit

functionalism and over-reliance on the analysis of economic phenomena.

● Autonomy of migration, an approach that characterises migrants organising practices as a method to favour the further diffusion of mobile commons. The main unit of analysis is the transmigrant, an autonomous subjectivity that can not be reduced to pre-existing polities. Because of that, transmigrants’ organising practices are interpreted as a creative force that actively produces new ontologies, and therefore inherently

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political (Papadopoulos & Tsianos, 2013). While it is an approach designed for meso-level analyses, it

presupposes a theory on the way global capitalism operates (Mezzadra, 2010). This approach has been criticised for over-romanticising the migrants’s condition. Furthermore, not all migrants can be reduced to the category of transmigrant that the authors employ (Castles et al., 2014).

Both paradigms present peculiarities and possible theoretical shortcomings that will be further explained later in the paper. However, it is important to already highlight how neither of these paradigms give information regarding the structuration of the organisational practices observed. The following paper will define some of the forms of organisations as institutions , following the classic definition given by Selznick (1948) that sees institutions as a particular form of organisation characterised by specific, distinct goals and autonomous values.

Both approaches will require to be framed within the context of the Ukrainian-Italian migration trajectory. According to Cinzia Solari, the Ukrainian-Italian migration trajectory, characterised as a

gender/nation-state nexus, possess peculiarities that make the application of existing theories of migration

problematic. While Cinzia Solari provides a macro-level interpretation of the Ukrainian-Italian migration pattern, her theory is informed by meso-level analyses, first and foremost the observation of the

settlement practices of the UGCC in Rome (Solari, 2006). Her main unit of analysis proposed is the

migration pattern itself: according to her, different migration patterns create result that can only be

understood within the context of the migration pattern itself. While a migration pattern is shaped by both the receiving and sending countries, it possesses a degree of autonomy that can not be reduced to neither the home nor the destination country.

Research questions

Based on the aforementioned theories, the following main research question has been formulated :

What are some of the institutions that operate within the Ukrainian migrant

community of the Metropolitan City of Naples?

The main research question will be structured in a series of sub-questions:

1)

To what extent can the organising practices observed in the Ukrainian

Minority in Naples be reduced to the transnational migrant network paradigm?

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a) To what extent does the Ukrainian community in Naples presents the development of factors (such as the emergence of a Ukrainian culture of migration or organisational practices that favour further migration) that contribute to the self-perpetuation of migration, as postulated by the Migrant network theory? (Massey, 1998)

2)

To what extent can the organisational practices observed in the Ukrainian

community in Naples be reduced to the organising practices described by the

autonomy of migration approach?

(Papadopoulos & Tsianos, 2013)

a) To what extent do the organising practices observed in Naples produce alternative ontologies that can not be reduced to pre-existing ontological categories?

b) To what extent do such organising practices favour further mobility through the mobile commons?

Methodology

Time and Location

The entire research was carried out in the Metropolitan City of Naples, between March and May 2019. The time spent in Naples was split into two separate periods of data collecting and on-site participant observation, of circa 20 days each. The total amount of time spent in Naples is 45 days.

The scope of my research was originally limited to the city of Naples itself, which is the main focus of the studies already available on the Ukrainian minority of Naples (for example: Näre, 2009; or Näre, 2008). The most comprehensive attempt at mapping the spatial dynamics of migrants in the Neapolitan landscape is the analysis produced by Camille Schmoll (2006), which served as a main resource through my research. However, at the time of the aforementioned scholarly work, the community was still negligible in size, albeit already growing at a rapid pace. Because of that, most of the data collected on the Ukrainian minority is either imprecise or somewhat outdated. On-site observations soon made clear, however, that by limiting the scope of the research to the city of Naples, numerous dynamics that can be observed in the Metropolitan area would have had been left out. That would have only replicated the

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narrative that overemphasizes the dynamics located within the Neapolitan historic city centre over what happens in the peripheral areas (Dines, 2012), and ignored the general tendency, already widely observed, that migrants have of moving into areas that are at the periphery of the largest urban conglomerates (Rapporto Istituto Italiano Geografia, 2003). The scope of the research was therefore expanded, to include the area known as Paesi Vesuviani, and especially the town of Nola. While the Ukrainian community located in the city of Naples is the largest in absolute terms, the Ukrainian minority in Paesi Vesuviani was relatively larger, and presented a higher spatial concentration compared to the scattered settlement patterns that characterize the community in Naples (Pugliese et al., 2010).

The timeframe of the research proved to be ideal for observations within the Ukrainian community. During the period of analysis the following events took place:

● The Ukrainian Presidential Elections, that were held in two rounds, one on the 31st_{of March}

and the other on the 21st_{of April}

● Catholic Easter, that took place on the 21st_{of April}

● Orthodox Easter, that took place between the 27th_{and 28}th_{of April}

● The march to commemorate Victory Day (9th_{of May), the day of remembrance of the Nazi}

defeat by the end of the Allies, an event of primary importance for the collective memory of countries that belonged to the former soviet bloc. Some members of the Ukrainian community were present, albeit Masqueraded (SIG, 2003) due to the current political tension existing between Russia and Ukraine.

Therefore, during the time of the fieldwork the Ukrainian community left a marked presence on the territory, as all these events had a spatial dimension that involved an extensive usage of the public space. This is somewhat extraordinary, considering that the Ukrainian minority is a community whose spatial dynamics are almost exclusively associated with private spaces, such as their employers’ homes (Nare, 2009; Balashova, 2017). The Ukrainian presidential election also gave me the chance to observe a community in a moment of politically-driven mobilisation, as several local Ukrainians were not only actively engaging politically with one another, but also contributing to the local organisation of the voting process, by helping the local Ukrainian embassy in setting up and managing the voting booths.

The data was collected exclusively through qualitative methods: participant observation, interview and general data analysis. The most problematic aspect of the data-gathering session of my research proved to be gaining access in the community. The difficulties I encountered while trying to access data will be further explained later.

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Participant Observation

Numerous sessions of participant observation were organised during the timeframe of the fieldwork, all spanning from 3 to 6 hours. The setting of the first series of observations would focus on the informal gathering areas that characterise the Ukrainian community, and that were mentioned in the pre-existing literature (Schmoll, 2006). Ukrainians have the characteristic of gathering informally, in areas that are peripheral in the public space. The first round of observation were therefore carried out in the City of Naples, in selected areas: the Giardini in Via Ruoppolo in Vomero (Mentioned by Schmoll), in front of an Ukrainian store in the centre of the neighbourhood Sanitá, and the area near the station of Piazza

Garibaldi.

Two specific observations were set in places that were known to all members of the community : the area around the Ukrainian consulate, in Via Giovanni Porzio, in the Centro Direzionale neighbourhood, and the weekly market of Eastern European delicacies, that is held every Sunday in Corso Lucci. During the market, more than one hundred Eastern Europeans, mostly Ukrainians, are estimated to gather in the area. After I decided to expand the scope of my research, to include the Paesi Vesuviani area, I organised two sessions of participation observation, of six hours each, in the town of Nola. The first one was an observation set in Oksana’s store, in the centre of Nola . Oksana, my main contact and respondent in the Nolana community, is both the owner of a store of Ukrainian products, and the president of the only Ukrainian cultural association currently active in the area of Paesi Vesuviani, at least according to the official website of the Italian Ministry of Interior. Her store serves as the main gathering place of the cultural association, and is considered the main gathering place for Ukrainians in the Paesi Vesuviani area, according to all my respondents. The second observation was instead conducted during the celebration of Easter by the Orthodox Ukrainian community in Nola, during the night between the 27th and 28th of April. During the mass held that evening, I estimated a presence of circa 210 people attending the celebration, mostly Ukrainian women. However, there was also a male Ukrainian presence, and the presence of numerous Italians, mostly males, often belonging to a “mixed household”. The ceremony was held at the Catholic Church Chiesa Santa Maria blabla, and organised by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Three more observations were carried out in the city of Naples, during three events of notable

significance: The celebration of Catholic Easter, organised by the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the Chiesa blabla at Spaccanapoli; The second voting session for the Ukrainian presidential elections, for which electoral booths were set up at the Ukrainian consulate in Naples; the march to celebrate Victory Day, on the 9th of May, a mass commemoration of the Soviet Union’s victory against the Third Reich.

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The march took a circular path, that went from Piazza Università to the square in front of the Russian Orthodox Church. Both before and after the march, both the Orthodox priest of the city, and the Russian consulate in Italy, gave extensive speeches on the historic significance of the event. The Ukrainian community was certainly not majoritarian in the celebration, but several Ukrainians were still present: however, the tensions born from the Russo-Ukrainian tensions were often mentioned by the attendants.

Interviews

The other major method employed to gather data were interviews. Problematics connected to my access within the community required a modification of my original plans. While I originally envisioned to make an extensive usage of semi-structured, recorded interviews, almost all Ukrainian respondents refused to be recorded, or for me to take note. Because of that, I was only able to conduct two fully recorded interviews, of two hours each: one to Svitlana, in Naples, and one to Oksana, in Nola. Svitlana, 36, is a union worker currently employed at USB. Oksana, 35, is the owner of a store in Nola, and the president of the cultural association Cielo e Grano, the only Ukrainian association active in Paesi Vesuviani. Because of their positions of authority within the community, they can be considered significative stakeholders. While other Ukrainian respondents refused to be audio-recorded, I was still able to conduct two group interviews. The first one involved a group of 6 Ukrainian women, all Orthodox, during the Orthodox Eastern lunch in Nola. The second interview was instead conducted following the Victory Day march, and it involved 7 Ukrainians, all Orthodox women, and 1 Belarusian woman, in attendance with them. In total, the first group interview lasted for circa five hours; the second interview has instead an estimated duration of two hours. Both group interviews were organised thanks to the mediation of my two main respondents. During the course of my observation, I also conducted several shorter interviews, of maximum fifteen minutes of length, with many of the Ukrainians that were present, as a way to achieve some data (such as their age, occupation, and religious denomination). Italian people interviewed during the participant observations usually belonged to two categories: either members of a mixed household, that were therefore attending a ceremony with their families, or the members of Marxist groups that took part in the celebration of Victory Day.

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Data Analysis

Several data was also collected by looking at other sources of information. Among them, the internet soon proved to be the main source of additional data. Facebook groups, websites and WhatsApp group chats proved to be useful, for several reasons. First and foremost, they allow for an estimate of the size of certain networks, as the members of a certain Facebook group are visible to anyone. They also provide not only a channel of information to the community, but a chance of observing how certain actors, or the community as a whole, portray themselves. The two largest Facebook groups analysed are the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Community Facebook page, in Ukrainian and Italian, and the Russian Orthodox Community Facebook page, entirely written in Russian. While the first page mentioned had 220 members, all assumed to be Ukrainians, the latter had 310 members: according to some respondents, in that group Ukrainians are a negligible presence. The high degree of Institutionalisation that characterises the presence of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Italy , and Naples in particular, is also reflected in their strong online presence. Not only the UGCC of Naples has an official Facebook page, but also possesses an official, independent website. Furthermore, the UGCC of Nola possesses an autonomous website. The websites of the separate UGCC dioceses are grouped in the official italian website of the UGCC. All the material in the websites is available in both Italian and Ukrainina. On the contrary, the Russian Orthodox Church appears to a weaker online presence, and mostly in Russian.

Limitations

The study of migration, a social process that is multi-located by nature, has led to an overhaul of the traditional qualitative methods employed in classical ethnography. As noted by P. Kelly & K. Olds (2007), traditional methods of observation draw their scientific rigor from being contained in a localized space for a certain amount of time. This method may offer but a partial view when studying a Transnational network, which is, by definition, operating between different spaces in different nations. Transnational analyses are therefore conducted in Transnational social spaces, and a localised social process can not be understood if not in reference to a process that is taking place in another location. Furthermore, even the usage of traditional units of analyses is problematic in the context of a transnational process: for example, a traditional analytical concept like the household acquires a completely new significance if applied to

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characterised by new approaches to both participant observation and interviews. New observation techniques have been developed, such as mobile ethnography, or multi-sided ethnography, that are more suited to capture the Transnational scope of the phenomenon studied. In the context of the Ukrainian-Italian migration pattern, both methods have been employed by.Vianello (2013). Cinzia Solari (2011), instead, proposes a global ethnography, that allows for a comparison between different migration patterns that originate from the same home country. In her case, the Ukrainian-Italian migration pattern was compared with the Ukrainian-American migrant trajectory, thanks to observations conducted both ends of both migrant trajectories. Due to its limited scope, the following research has instead been informed by the usage of traditional qualitative techniques, in the area of the Metropolitan City of Naples.

Because of that, the analysis itself has to be considered intrinsically partial, and limited to dynamics that can be observed in the destination country. However, while time and space constraints didn’t allow us to “follow the network”, the research, while it “focus its attention on a particular node”, it is regardless “conscious of the expansive ties reaching outwards from it” (Kelly & Olds, 2007).

Other possible limitations of my study can be reconducted back to its exploratory nature. The original design of my research intended to focus on the dynamics that interest the male minority that exists within the Ukrainian community in Naples. However, access problems would soon require for a drastic overhaul of my original research plan. Not only gaining access proved to be difficult, but even when directly contacted, all Ukrainian males would refuse to discuss their occupations. According to Sergei, one of the Ukrainians I tried to get in contact with, “we make bread, what there is to say?”. Members of the Ukrainian would often be reluctant in discussing their occupation: their jobs were often considered not worth mentioning, due to their demeaning nature. Such a negative attitude towards discussing work-related topics brought me to change the research plan I had envisioned, and instead focus on the organising practices that could be observed in the area.

The access problem proved to be the most problematic aspect of the whole research. Ukrainian women were often suspicious of me, and soon proved to be reluctant in answering me. The way in which my positionality as a researcher has influenced the Ukrainian reception of me, and the whole research process, will be further discussed in a later section.

Numerous limitations of the research itself can, in fact, be traced back to my background. Because of my lack of knowledge of either Russian or Ukrainian, all the interviews were conducted in Italian. My lack of

knowledge of either language would also have another consequence: during my participant observation, I sometimes had problems in distinguishing between Ukrainian and Russian, due to my limited knowledge of the cyrillic alphabet. While I managed to solve the problem thanks to the help of two personal contacts of mine, that provided translations for most of the data I collected, there was no way for me to understand the

Ukrainian population when they were talking in either of those languages. That was repeatedly exploited by my interviewees, especially during group interviews: they would often have long conversations between them, in either Russian or Ukrainian, and then provide me with just short summaries, or downright refusing to translate some of what they said.

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In numerous cases, the structure of the community itself will appear to be hazy. While the other analyses on organisational practices conducted in Naples employ an individualistic perspective on the studio of the form of organisations in Naples, my analysis attempted to describe them as practices that have a

significance that goes beyond the life trajectories of the single migrants involved, as already shown by C. Solari (2006) in the case of the UGCC. However, the comparison between different forms of

organisations, such as migrant associations and unions, is in itself problematic. More than a detailed description of the organisations active in the territory, my paper is an attempt to find aspects, such as the existence of a shared culture of migration, or certain expectations towards how Ukrainians are supposed to behave, that are to a degree common all forms of organising practices observed.

Reflections : the researcher as a migrant

Studies in Social Sciences that stress the “impartiality” and “objectivity” of the researcher appear to be a thing of the past. In line with the reflexive turn that interested the realm of Social Sciences (Mauthner & Doucet, 2003), it is important to highlight the importance that my background had in shaping my relationship with the subjects of this analysis. Problematics concerning the positionality of the researcher when analysing migration processes have already been explored, for example in the paper by Carling et al. (2014). As noted by the authors, it is widely assumed that the dialectic between the research and the migrant community would replicate a traditional dynamic between insiders and outsiders. As an Italian, I belong to the majoritarian population in the area of my study. Because of that, I was constantly perceived as an outsider by several members of the Ukrainian community. This directly translated into an

unwillingness to cooperate, that proved to be the most problematic aspect of my whole research. Most Ukrainians would not feel comfortable interacting with me, and would often prove reluctant in discussing several key aspects of their lives, such as their occupation. Due to my behaviour several Ukrainians assumed that I was actually working for Italian authorities, something that only contributed to increase the distrust towards me. After all, several members of the Ukrainian community are not in possession of a regular permit to stay, and therefore feel uncomfortable when discussing with Italian officials. Carling et al. (2014) discuss several methods that can be applied to move beyond the traditional insider-outsider

dichotomy, and give a more nuanced and dynamic portrayal of the relations between the research and the subject of their study. During the course of my research I, for the first time, developed self-awareness of my own migratory experience. As a person who has the current life goal of residing in the Netherlands for a prolonged period of time, I could be defined as an expat. As a graduate who is leaving his region, Sicily, due to mass youth unemployment, I am part of an active process of brain draining. Currently. the chances that I am going back to Italy to “re-invest the human capital” I developed abroad appear to be

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slim. As many people of my generation, I have held low-paid, low-skilled jobs in the service sector, albeit only for short periods of time, as a mean to pay my rent in Amsterdam, a city that could certainly be defined as “global”. My long-term plan of pursuing academia as a career made me accept low-skill jobs and a precarious living condition. It was, to a degree, my own coping mechanism.. Because of that, I felt empathy towards the way in which returning home to Ukraine is for, many people in the Ukrainian community, both a long term goal and a coping mechanism. From a political perspective, moving to a country whose political history I only knew superficially also made me question my position as a political activist and voting citizen. To this day, I have very little knowledge to the way Amsterdam, and even the Netherlands, are administered. Discussing their condition as a “minority surrounded by a majority” would often make me think of moments in which the cultural divide I perceive between me and the Dutch majority in Amsterdam would lead to insensitive behavior. As a person originating from Sicily, I get often jokingly called mafioso. Jokes structural problems of my region, such as unemployment, tax evasion and organized crime are common. It should be noted that, other than insensitive comments, I was never subjected to openly xenophobic behavior, or hate crimes, as unfortunately happened to many of my interviewees. My position of privilege remains undeniable, but I still felt an emotional connection towards my respondents. Because of that, I was starting to perceive myself as an insider by proxy, and hoped that the similarities that I perceived between them and me would favour the establishment of an emotional connection.

All my attempts to establish a connection on what I perceived as shared experiences, however, were not successful. Ukrainians would constantly reaffirm my position as an Italian, an outsider that belongs to a community with whom Ukrainians have tense relations. The raise of ethnic tensions that can be perceived in Italy was the topic of many conversations I had with my respondents. Such conversations would reach their most dramatic points when interviewees would mention their own first-hand experience of

xenophobic behavior towards them. Even after gaining the trust of some of the members of the

community, a general distrust towards me was always perceptible: numerous Ukrainians would still refuse to talk to me, even when I was accompanied by my contacts. Furthermore, most of them were

uncomfortable with the idea of me recording our conversations: in to respect their wishes, and to gain their trust, I therefore accepted not to record any interview except two. While my position as an Italian was the reason why most Ukrainians felt reluctant towards talking to me, it also motivated some Ukrainians to actively engage with me. Most interviewees that agreed to talk to me, in fact, would often mention how they wanted to “prove” Italian stereotypes against Ukrainians to be untrue, and to show that Ukrainians “are hard working people” (Oksana, Svitlana). My attempts at maintaining a position of impartiality appeared to be futile, as Ukrainians themselves continued to engage me with the intention of “proving Italians wrong”.The current political climate in Ukraine also made my attempts at “objectivity” problematics. As can be expected when discussing a war, most respondents would only actively engage with me if they assumed that I agreed with them. For an outsider like me, it feels almost absurd to take a

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side in a conflict that doesn’t involve me and that is the result of a highly complex geopolitical situation. For members of the community that is directly affected by the war, it felt absurd not to take a side. Due to the topic of my research, both my religious background and my political beliefs have to also be taken into account. The fact that I am a Roman Catholic was often mentioned by members of the Greco-Catholic Church. While there was often a degree of mutual understanding, based on belonging to the same denomination, there were numerous mentions of how “Italians are more superstitious than religious”. Most Ukrainian Uniates would describe themselves as “truly religious”, in comparison to the “superstitious” Southern Italians. Orthodox Christians, instead, would be more interested in explaining the differences that exist between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church, often stressing how “more ancient” and “more authentic” the Orthodox Church is, when compared to the Catholic Faith. From a political perspective, both my presence at the Victory March, and my attempts at contacting local unions, framed me as a leftist person. Because of that, most people I interacted with during the Victory March assumed I held somewhat sympathetic view towards the Soviet Union. Numerous activists belonging to different Marxist groups took part in the march, and often interacted with me assuming I was not only supportive of Russia against “Ukrainian reactionaries”, but also a supporter of highly controversial figures, such as Josif Stalin.

Lastly, both my age and gender also played an important part in shaping the behaviour the respondents had towards me. All my Ukrainians interviewees were older women, and almost all of them were part of a household, and had at least a child. The relationship established between me and my respondents was always framed taking by both our gender and age difference. All interviewees often employed an

heteronormative lexicon when discussing with me. I was often treated as a male child, and called Bambino, Figliolo, Figlio. After “proving myself” as respectful to their traditions, by asking questions related to the way they celebrate Easter, two women deemed me “ready to find an Ukrainian wife”. The common occurrence of mixed marriages, in which the male Italian marries a female Ukrainian, probably made the connection more obvious. My portrayal as a child actively shaped our conversations, as they would often assume a motherly tone when discussing with me. I was often compared to their children in Ukraine, during the moments of strongest emotional connection I established.

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Part I : Labour Migration in Theory and Context

1.1 Migration as a topic

Migratory movements interesting different areas of the globe can be traced back to the early development of human societies, with such a frequency that has led Massey (1998) to define humans as a “migratory species”. The presence of an innate, perennial predisposition towards mobility should, however, not overshadow the radical differences that exist between different migration patterns in different eras. The birth of migration as an autonomous field of study, in fact, can be traced back to a specific moment in western intellectual history, and is contemporary to the development of the concept of Social Sciences. Because of that shared origin, the hegemonic western theories on migration would not only share a common cultural milieu, but would also look at the historical contingencies that characterised the times of their inception as the basis for many of the assumptions made regarding migration. That directly

translated into the creation of specific narratives concerning migration, as characteristics that were exclusive to the history of western migration were generalised, and used as benchmarks against which all migratory processes were measured (Arnold, 2016).

The global landscape of migration, however, has undergone through radical changes during the course of the 20th_{century, both in qualitative and quantitative aspects (Castles et al., 2014). The growing complexity}

of the migratory processes have led to a critical overhaul of the predominant western-centric theories, and the development of different approaches that would often openly challenge the same assumptions over which the theories previously employed were built (Arnold, 2016).

The aim of the following chapter is to present an overview of some of the theories surrounding labour Migration. The theories will be presented following a diachronic order, and their inception and

development related to the historical contingencies of their times.

We will first briefly look at the classical theories of labour migration, from the first attempts at

generalizing laws of migration (Ravenstein, 1885) to the end of the Era of Mass Migration. While some of the assumptions and overtly deterministic tones that characterize them may appear dated when compared to the current state of Migration Studies, these theories still provide the frameworks that have been

employed, thorough the course of the 20th_{century , to study migratory processes. We will see not only}

how these assumptions shaped the subsequent approaches on the same topic, but also how some of these assumptions survive to this day, albeit often in a modified form (Mezzadra & Nielsen, 2013; Sayad, 2016).

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1.2 Early optimism: the migrant labourer as an economic agent

The systemic study of migratory processes in the western scholarly tradition was, since its inception, predominantly framed as the study of an economic phenomenon. The identity of the migrant, for the most part, overlaps with that of the migrant labourer (Sayad, 2016), whose most elementary definition is the one given by Arnold (2017), as “A person who goes from one place to another, especially to find work”. Traces of economic determinism can already be observed in some of the earliest scientific studies of migration, such as the works of E. G. Ravenstein (1885). Ravenstein developed a rudimentary model of migratory behaviour, by identifying 11 different tendencies that he generalised to the whole migrant population, and dubbed eleven laws of Migration. As was common at the time, the theoretical model developed, which has been defined as “gravitational” (Greenwod & Hunt, 2003), would mimic the ones employed in hard sciences: it was widely believed by Positivist theorists that human behaviour could be reduced to a series of perennial laws, akin to the laws of physics, that just needed to be discovered (Comte, 1975; Manicas, 1991).

Greatly indebted to Adam Smith and classical Political Economy, Ravenstein’s work greatly influenced further developments on the same topic, and is often identified as the first explanation of migration through Push and Pull factors (Arnold, 2016). However, Ravenstein’s theories also present numerous peculiarities that are worth mentioning.

First of all, it should be noted that, contrary to the vast majority of subsequent researches, Ravenstein dedicated his attention to dynamics of internal migration, and not to international migration.

The process of industrialisation during the 19th_{century had led to an unprecedented migratory pattern,}

that would bring countless peasants from the countryside to the cities of the United Kingdom, boosting the development of industrial cities, such as Manchester and Liverpool, and making London into the first modern metropolis (Nicholas & Shergold, 1987). Because of that, Ravenstein’s model is the first one that explicitly links migration to the process of urbanisation, thus establishing a connection between the migrant population and the urban landscape that would be further explored during the course of the 20th

century (Thomas, B., 2012; Sasseen, S, 1991).

Evidently, migration and the process of industrialisation, and therefore of modernisation, were linked since the inception of the discipline (Arnold, 2016). However, the migrant described by Ravenstein is still radically different from the paradigm of the Fordist worker, that would only be developed and employed in a latter phase. The fordist worker is the working unit that is at the basis of the mass production process, first theorised by Taylor (1914) and then famously described in anthropological terms by Antonio Gramsci (Mezzadra & Nielsen, 2013 ; Gramsci, 1950). According to feminist critiques, such as McDowell’s (1991), the Fordist system of production is inherently partriarchal, as it relegates the role of women to domestic work, and the domestic labour is appropriated by husbands (Walby, 1989). On the contrary, by looking at the empirical data available in 19th century Britain, an era that preceded such gendered division of labour,

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Ravenstein had to conclude that the “Woman is a greater migrant than man”, as women would engage in migration more often than males, albeit in a temporary manner. By focusing on push and pull factors (hence the definition of this model as “gravitational”), Ravenstein led the foundations for an approach that was further developed, albeit in different forms, by subsequent theories on migration.

Theorists in the field of Neoclassical Economics refined the laws identified by Ravenstein into a series of hypotheses, and developed their own theories from some of the same assumptions (Arnold, 2016). The Neoclassical approach to International Migration, from a macroeconomic perspective, can also be explained as an extension of neoclassical theory of labour market to an international scale (Krugman, 2008). Therefore, Labour migration is first and foremost the movement of a factor of production

(labour), from a country in which it’s abundant to a country in which the same factor is scarce. Because of that, migration is framed as a flow of people from poor, labour-heavy countries to richer, capital-heavy economies. Trajectories of migration are almost exclusively shaped by the law of supply and demand. As noted by Ambrosini (2013), the more refined forms of push and pull analysis often distinguish between phases in which pulling factors are predominant, and phases in which the same can be said about pushing factors. During the Euro-Atlantic mass migration towards North America, pulling factors are more important, as employment opportunities were both available and widely publicised. As a consequence of that, most analyses of the time would almost exclusively focus on the effects that the host country’s demand for labour has on migration (Piore, 1978). From a microeconomic perspective, migrants in Neoclassical economics are characterised as rational economic actors. Migrants are individuals that provide a single factor of production (labour), and make the decision to migrate to countries with labour shortage in an effort to maximize their wages, following a logic that is completely motivated by economic rationale. The decision of whether to migrate or not could therefore be reduced to a cost-benefit analysis on the part of the potential migrant, as famously claimed in the international migration markets model developed by Borjas (1989).

A more nuanced approach on the decision making process of migrants, that is complementary to the aforementioned theories, was proposed by Sjaastad (1962) and is based on the concept of Human Capital (Sweetland, 1996). Human Capital is defined as the set of knowledge and skills possessed by an individual, and can be increased by the act of migrating. Such a concept was later explored by numerous studies, but also served as the starting point of approaches that would define migration as an intrinsically selective process: to go from potential migrant to actually migrate, a starting human capital will prove to be necessary. The outlook on migration that characterises the aforementioned approach is tendentially positive: migrants were often reduced to “agents of modernisation”, that not only would contribute to the economic growth of their host country, but also have a positive effect on their country of origin, for example through remittances (Arnold, D.; 2016).

The Neoclassical analysis of labour migration was subjected to numerous criticisms: if macroeconomics appear to be overly reliant on macro factors, microeconomics tends to oversimplify the decision-making

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process of a migrant to simple economic rationale, with little interest for any cultural, or political

determinant (Mezzadra & Nielsen, 2013; Arnold, 2016). The neoclassical portrayal of the migrant appears to be based on unrealistic core assumptions (Castles et al., 2014): not only is the concept of rationality employed reductive and overtly-economical, but there is also little space given to actual, structural constraints that the migrant may face in the process of migrating, such as information asymmetry, or access problems.

The application of the concept of human capital to the migrant workforce also proved to be problematic: when compared to native workers, migrants show a tendency to obtain jobs that are perceived as

undesirable. Such jobs, also known as 3D (dirty, dangerous, degrading) jobs (Stalker, 2001) usually involve both a general lack of professional fulfilment and few chances of career advancements. Most of these jobs are also to be found in the generally unregulated, informal sector of the economy, and often exist in a legally grey area. Therefore, migrant workers are relatively more subjected to both downward mobility and a systemic underutilisation of their skills, regardless of their starting human capital (Luis and Bauder, 2010).

Not only did migrant workers perform in a significantly different way from native workers, but even the concept of a single, generalised labour market appeared to be problematic: the labour market has since then been described as Segmented (Clairmont et al., 1983), as numerous entrance barriers limit the access of the migrant workforce to certain occupations (Bauder 2003; 2005).

1.3 From the periphery to the centre: the migrant labourer as the

subject of exploitation

The positive outlook that characterised the theories developed between the 1950s and 60s would soon make room to paradigms built on much bleaker assumptions. When compared to the previous analyses, the ones conducted between the 1970s and the 1980s tend to focus on the negative consequences that can be attributed to migration. Instead of looking at migration as a voluntary, individual phenomenon, studies that employ an historical-structural perspective (Castles et al., 2014) tend to look at the historical determinants that have originated certain migratory processes.

The context had radically changed: Western colonial empires were disintegrating, as the world entered the era of Decolonisation (Ferro, 2005). The relations established between the former colonisers and the new, independent states in the developing world, would however often reproduce the pre-existing uneven power relations that characterised the Colonial era, albeit in a different form (Ambrosini, 2013). After all, the economies of the territories that comprised former colonies were often developed in function of the

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economies of the colonial power (Di Muzio, 2007). The economic systems of the newly decolonised country would reflect the history of past exploitations, as they would often focus on the mass exportation of raw materials. Early studies on a similar phenomenon were the analyses conducted by Harold Innis (1930) on the way the exploitation of certain “staples” (fur, timber) directly affected, and even shaped, Canadian economic history as a British dominion.

The focus of most analyses of the time therefore went from migration trajectories that were perceived as “voluntary”, such as the Euro-Atlantic migration wave, to the study of processes of mass-scale labour recruitment from developing countries to developed countries. (Castles et al., 2014). An important influence in this era of migration studies would be the resurgence of Marxist studies, that could be observed in both the developed and developing world (Hoff, 2016).

The writings of Marx himself contain his analysis of migration, as he had observed first-hand the effects of labour immigration on the English working class in the late 19th century. The large influx of Irish workers to the English cities, a direct consequences of the exploitative practices that had characterised the English administration of Ireland at least since Cromwell’s Irish Wars, had generated a fracture within the working class, as Irish workers were ready to work longer hours for lower wages. Because of their status as the perfect “reserve army of labour”, and their role as outsiders when compared to the English culture, they were more easily subjected to systemic exploitation, and would often weaken the structure and efficiency of the English labour unions (Marx & Engels,1973). While the subsequent Marxist analyses would produce innovative results, that go beyond the original analysis provided by Marx, the assumptions first made by the German philosopher proved to be widely influential. In fact, they would have a part in reproducing a portrayal of the migrant labourer as essentially disruptive to local, national unions, due to being more easily subjected to exploitative practices.

Among the authors inspired by the Marxian analysis of capitalism, S. Amin (1974) developed his own paradigm, also called the dependency theory, that proved to be widely influential. According to the author, the objective inequalities that are present during the development process have led to neo-colonial practices that not only replicate the exploitation of former colonies through unequal economic exchanges, but also actively hinder the developing country’s chances at economic progress (Ambrosini, 2013; Castles et al., 2014). Migration is therefore associated with its negative effects on the country of emigration, such as brain drain (Arnold, 2016), in what is a noticeable difference to previous analyses, that would instead focus on the country of immigration.

Starting from similar, Marxist assumptions, such as the international division of labour, Immanuel Wallerstein’s (1981) World System Theory is one of the first attempts at analysing migration as comprehensive phenomenon. The main innovation of Wallerstein’s approach, when compared to previous, Marxist-inspired theories, is the unit of analysis employed: not the single nation states, the world-system as a whole. As the processes of globalisation were, for the first time, creating a unified

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system of capitalist accumulation, the majority of nations would participate in the global chain of production, albeit in very different roles. Wallerstein divides the existing countries in three ideal areas: core, semi-periphery and periphery. Due to how the capitalist mode of production historically developed, rich, western nations (The “Global North”) (Arrighi, 2001) are located at the centre of the World-System, and reap most of the benefits derived from the world economy. At the same time, countries at the periphery were often forcibly “incorporated” in the world-system, and are in a condition of dependency towards the rich centre (Castels et al., 2014). The world-system theory doesn’t present an autonomous theory of migration. The flows of population from the Global South to the Global North are one of many unequal exchanges that take place between the centre and the periphery. The approach employed by Wallerstein is not only macro-scalar, but also holistic. It could also be defined as multidisciplinary by design; in fact, Wallerstein has often rejected the traditional division in Social Sciences that is at the basis of the western tradition of social analysis. Because of that, he has refused to defined his approach as a “theory”, preferring the term “knowledge movement” (Wallerstein, 2004).

1.4 Common aspects of the classical theories of Labour migration

The theories presented were often built on radically different assumptions, and even present radically different opinions on the effects of migration. However, they also present many shared aspects that would contribute to create the framework under which migration was traditionally studied.

First and foremost, migration was never studied as a unitary process: instead, immigration and emigration were often presented as two different phenomena. The reason behind this can be traced back to the specific contingencies of the time. With assumptions built on the Euro-Atlantic migration trajectory, migration was analysed as a movement that would lead to sedentary settlement in another country. The permanent nature of migration led to analyses focused on the assimilation process of the migrant workforce within the host society, (Arnold, 2016). While phenomena of immigration originated a large body of work, the topic of emigration was always understudied. Not only that, but emigration was often studied in light of immigration, in a relation that reflects the uneven power balance that exists among developed countries of immigration and countries of emigration (Sayad, 2016).

As discussed above, all theories listed also characterise migration as a predominantly economic

phenomenon. While Neoclassical Economics treat labour migration as an international movement of a factor of production, Marxist-inspired theories tend to frame labour migration as one of the many relations of resource-exploitation that take place between developed and developing countries (Castles et

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al., 2014). Because of that, both approaches, to a degree, inherently objectify the migrant population, by treating them as either raw resources or factors of production. As a natural consequence both theories contributed, albeit in different ways, to the construction of the migrant as an intrinsically passive subject (Ambrosini, 2013): either because capable of only following economic rationality, or due to the fact that their inherently lower social standing make them the prime target of exploitation. At the time, the political and cultural consequences of migration received little to no attention (Ambrosini, 2013).

As migration processes grew in complexity and variety, the aforementioned theories proved to be unsatisfactory in explaining the causes behind migratory processes without over-relying on

macrostructural dynamics. Furthermore, the radical changes in the global structure of capitalism, and the subsequent politicisation of migration (Geddes & Scholten, 2016), would have soon required for a drastic overhaul of the assumptions over which the early theories of migration were built.

1.5 Migration in the contemporary world

During the 70s, a series of events of historical significance would lead the transition from a fordist system of accumulation to new, unprecedented developments (Aglietta, 1982).

The decade was characterized by two economic events of primary importance: the energy crisis, that started in 1973 when OAPEC (Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) issued an embargo during the Yom Kippur war (Hamilton, 2011), and the end of the Bretton Woods system (Gowa, 1983). The event that informally ended the Bretton Woods system is known as “The Nixon Shock”, when Nixon suspended the convertibility of the dollar to gold, paving the way for a transition to a system of floating exchange rate (Gowa, 1983). In concurrence with these events, western countries were hit by stagflation (Barsky & Killian, 2004): stagnating growth (with high unemployment) and rising inflation rate. The simultaneous conjunction of inflation and lack of growth were not explainable according to the predominant interpretation of Keynesian theories, that were at the basis of all western governments’ economic policies (Helliwell, 1988).

The Fordist mode of production appeared to have reached its natural limits: productivity gains were decreasing, due to a number of factors. Among them, technical limitations in expanding the production line, and the changes in patterns of consumption (which now favoured diversified products) showed the limits of an approach based on standardisation. However, the biggest limitation to Fordism would often prove to be workers resistance. During that time, political struggles in the western world had reached an all-time high, with a season of mass mobilisations and strikes following the May 1968 in France (Ross, 2008) (Wright, 2002). Labour, in the form of unions, had reached an unprecedented level of self-organisation and political militancy. As a reaction to the diminishing profits and the aforementioned political tensions, firms developed innovations and technologies that would allow for a global outsourcing of

Organising practices in the Ukrainian community of the Metropolitan city of Naples

Master Thesis in Human Geography