University “Aldo Moro” of Bari, Bari, Italy

Thinking of migrants brings to mind in the imagination people who leave their land, for an indefinite time, in search of conditions absent in their country of origin. It often becomes difficult to define them, as some are immigrants, some are migrants, and some are nomads or travellers. Migration brings to mind a movement of people between countries of departure and those of arrival, that is, a journey, mostly, into the unknown, the detachment of which also produces a feeling of nostalgia. The present work seeks to highlight the condition of the migrant who becomes one by choice, in some cases, and at other times is one by compulsion. Migration becomes an evolving phenomenon, prompting insiders to question themselves in order to observe, with a critical lens, the social reality of the host country, which changes rapidly in the interchange with migrants. It’s interesting to read the migration numbers provided by ISMU, UNICEF and UNHCR to understand how this phenomenon has evolved, including by virtue of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Afghan issue and, recently, the Russia-Ukraine war, in light of the economic crisis that characterizes Europe and whose repercussions have resulted in fluctuating migration inflows and outflows, with medium- to long-term consequences. In the history of migration, there are often stories of abandonment, family tragedies or other painful events from which migrants flee, hoping to find a better condition, creating a kind of “watershed” that separates the “before” from the “after” and especially from the “here” to the “there”.