Political ecology of borderscapes: the Poland-Belarus border in the BiaÅ‚owieża Forest. – The BiaÅ‚owieża Forest stretches across the Poland-Belarus border and it is considered as one of the most ecologically valuable forests of Europe. The area, which is partly protected for its natural value, has been historically interested by military operations including the recent construction of a fence along the border due to the migrant crisis between Belarus and the EU. Here migrants are used by Belarus as pawns in a game of blackmail with Poland and the other European countries, with serious implications on people’s life also due to the harsh climatic and environmental conditions of the area. The case of BiaÅ‚owieża suggests the potential of a new field of investigation on the militarisation of natural, protected areas in Europe as well as around the world.

Migrants, abandonment and reuse of historical centers. The case of Riace in Calabria. – Italy, a migratory crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia, has always been affected by migratory movements that have affected its regions in different ways. In recent decades, they have assumed a synergistic demo-graphic dimension between population and depopulation, which modifies the structure and composition of the population, mitigating the unstop-pable demographic decline along with the depopulation of historic cen-ters. This is possible through urban redevelopment and socio-economic revitalization paths linked to the reception of migrants. The contribution analyzes possible causes and effects of migratory processes on the Cala-brian population, using the Riace case study as a model in which the “wel-come path” has had positive results and revitalized the historical center with the return of residents and the construction of a society with high values of cultural pluralism.

Space, diversity, security. Anthropological notes on symbolic control of migration flows. – Focusing on the Italian recent «decreto sicurezza» (Security bill) the article provides an interpretive frame for understanding the symbolic implications of regulating migration flows across the states. While politics would tackle in the past both security and welfare, neoliberal expansion of autonomous capitals has progressively confined the role of professional politicians to preserving security for their constituencies. National decision makers thus need emergencies to legitimate their existence as securitization agents. That exasperation by politics of the sole security dimension of social life within the nation state has exacerbated the otherization of migrants through space (clandestinification) and the space production (local and national) through the otherization and widespread physical marginalization because of their mobility status of people in transit.

Migrations: between imaginaries and transnational dynamics. Research ideas from Guinea Bissau – The article analyzes two aspects of the migration process. On the one hand, the role played by migratory imagination in the definition of emigration choices and strategies and, on the other hand, through the case study of Guinea Bissau, the role played by family, association and village networks in establishing transnational relations of mutual collabo-ration between the host country and the country of departure.