Imagined and Social Landscapes

Aspirations and the desire for upward mobility compel migrants to view Europe through an imagined perspective of hope and anticipation. Lived experience, on the other hand, foregrounds the experience of racism, exclusion and difference. This paper seeks to understand the typical immigrant's desire to migrate out of India and the experience of migration in a region of northern Italy. It attempts to do so by understanding the aspirations of potential immigrants in terms of what Europe signifies and the lived experience of immigrants of Indian origin in northern Italy. The analysis is based on interviews with potential migrants in New Delhi and in the region of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, more specifically in Fidenza and Parma.