The protests of migrants in Sicily: Why are there few and only single-issue?

Abstract

ABSTRACTSicily is one of the most important “gates of Europe” for migrants from Africa and the Middle East. The recent chronicles are full of migrants’ journeys, often ending in real tragedies, across the Mediterranean sea to reach the coast of Sicily, first Lampedusa. Sicily has become the arrival place of migrants fleeing from wars, hunger and misery, a hub of passage for those who want to continue to Northern Italy and Europe (especially France, Germany, Scandinavian countries), but also a place where migrants stay by choice, or by constriction when forced into temporary detention centres. The largest detention centre was the CARA (Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers) of Mineo (close to Catania), under media attention for corruption scandals in its management, as well as episodic riots of migrants. However, other than sudden but ephemeral riots and protests, there have not been radical and continuous struggles of migrants in Sicily, such as those in the logistics sector or in the squatting for housing in the cities of Central-Northern Italy. This contribution is the result of research on the protests of migrants in Sicily, and not for or about migrants. We analyse migrants’ protests in Sicily in the lasts 5 years from 2013 to 2018, with the aim to understand their motivations and goals, but above all why in Sicily there are few single-issue protests and such scarcity of mobilizations led by migrants, which other Italian regions are instead experiencing.