“Time is on me”: Entangled Temporalities Between Italy and the Gambia

Abstract

AbstractGambian’s migration towards Europe, mainly constituted by young men, substantially increased since 2010. Arriving mainly through the Central Mediterranean Route because of the extremely scarce possibility to obtain a visa, most Gambians applied for asylum in Italy, the first arrival country according to the Dublin regulation. The administrative and juridical system largely rejected their asylum requests, leaving most undocumented, in legal limbo, and deportable. The paper focuses on the different trajectories of Gambians in Italy in their post-asylum phase, discussing how existential precariousness heavily shapes their lives and how this condition compromises future building along different but entangled temporalities. In particular, the contribution wants to reflect on the various intertwined timelines that people on the move forge and inhabit, showing how they are always multiple and articulated through spatial, social, cultural, economic, and personal dimensions. In so doing, I analyze temporal dispossession as a continuous process that Gambians on the move experience prior to, during, and after their trip to Europe and which they actively struggle to overcome.