GENEALOGIA DEI PASSAGGI MIGRANTI E DEL LAVORO IMBRIGLIATO ALLA FRONTIERA ALPINA/Genealogy of migrants’ passages and bridled labour at the Alpine border

Abstract

This article traces a genealogy of migrant passages and border controls practices at the French-Italian Alpine border building on Moulier-Boutang’s conceptualisation of “bridled labour” and autonomy of migration’ s reflections on the “right to escape”. It argues that for developing a critique of the border regime it is key to intertwine an analysis of migration controls with one of labour mobility. Drawing on archival research and interviews, the piece retraces the history of how some of people who crossed the Alpine frontier in the past had been turned into “migrants” and how they had been classified by French and Italian authorities. In the second part, the article takes into account the way in which migrants and refugees’ labour mobility has been channelled and regulated by the French government in the twentieth century. In the final section, it traces a genealogy of mountain rescue to investigate how solidarity practices developed through the encounter between rescuers and migrants.

Keywords:

Bridled Labour; Alpine Border; Migrants’ Passages; Collective Memory; Escape.