Il tragitto balcanico dei flussi migratori

The article deals with the issue of illegal migration at the border between Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. The author, analyses the symbolic and material interdependence between the challenges of “border control” and the imaginary fears of threats and insecurity that historically haunts the area. Particularly, it seems that the same problematic context of mutual mistrusts on the different sides of the borders sets nonetheless the stage for a joint solution. In other words, cross-border cooperation and local exchange are the “strenghts” to exploit in order to contrast the threats coming from new patterns of transnational crime. Therefore, the solution to the challenge of illegal migration should bring about the overcome of historical rivalries and the activation of institutional practices of cross-border cooperation, which are already working in other sectors of public life. Also, illegal migration already takes place along such transnational cooperation templates; so, it is a matter of catching up with their methods and techniques. The author discusses data and information taken from police sources and sketches a new geography of illegal migration on the north-eastern borders of Italy, which reflects wider geo-political changes. Differently from the dramatically media reported arrivals of immigrants on the southern shores of Italy, the Central and Eastern European immigration flows have different carachters and methods. As a matter of fact, mostly Chinese and Eastern Asian migrants cross illegally central Europe and disbark on the Italian side of the border. According to the investigations of the Anti Mafia Department of Italian Police, illegal migrants from China, Philippines or Sri Lanka are transferred to Russia or Ukraine via airplane and than moved again via airplane to the Balkans, mostly in Serbia. From Serbia are transferred with bus or auto to Romania, Hungary, Croatia or Slovenia and accomodated in some sort of centers of detention. Eventually, only when there are proper conditions they are taken on the other side of the Italian-Slovenia border, where the control procedures are often very relaxed for the Schangen regime. Once in Italy the illegal immigrants are taken into custody by the Italian organised crime, which sned them in different cities according to the demands of the illegal market. What is sociologically interesting, according to the author, is that the trafficking appears to be a complex set of interactions among different organisations in different countries. Thus, it seems a truly global enterprise that goes beyond ethnic or legal divides. Also, the immigrants are exchanged with weapons, drugs or other criminal goods and thus are reduced in a condition of almost slavery by cruel and powerful geopolitical actors.