Activism of immigrants in vulnerable conditions and radical-left allies: a case study of Italy’s Struggle of the Crane

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs interest in immigrant mobilisations in hostile national environments grows among migration scholars, the reasons why immigrants in vulnerable conditions engage in radicalised mobilisation at the local level and why they make alliances with controversial non-institutional radical-left actors need to be further explained. This study examines the conditions of mobilisation and radicalisation by undocumented immigrants in Brescia (a mid-sized city in Northern Italy) through the lens of a contentious moment that took place for two months in 2010, known as the Struggle of the Crane (Lotta della gru). It addresses two questions: why have undocumented immigrants in Brescia been mobilised to contentious political activism? And, why have they created partnerships with non-institutional radical-left organisations, rather than institutional non-state organisations, such as the Church and traditional trade unions? In addition to the hostile national context, discrimination and repression by local authorities triggered the motivation for mobilisation and nourished the radicalisation of the struggle and its endurance. Additionally, competing discourses and practices over immigrants’ access to rights and deservingness by multiple non-state actors played a key role in shaping alliances. The long-lasting alliance with the radical left since the 1990s was renewed and reinforced in 2010 by immigrants’ growing distrust towards institutional non-state actors.