The Mediterranean has witnessed the circulation of ideas, people, and goods between Northern Africa and Southern Europe across the centuries. Both during times of conflict and cooperation, colonization, religious expansion, and human migrations have shaped the lives of individuals and the history of cultures. Current migrations and conditions associated with globalization date back centuries – Italy once a sending country has now increasingly become a receiving country. The 2nd Mediterranean Mosaic will focus on migrations to and from Italy, with an emphasis on recent (im)migrations to Italy from Africa.  It will explore the multiple and interacting identities embodied by individuals, communities, regions, and the nation-state. We will examine the creation of transnational communities, ethnic and religious tensions and cooperation, philosophical orientations to diversity, and social policy at the national and EU level.

Sustainability, broadly conceived, will be another important component. We will explore cultural sustainability (the ways in which migrant and immigrant communities maintain their dynamic culture even as they adapt to their new transnational reality); and economic and environmental sustainability (how the state, employers, and workers negotiate economic and environmental costs and benefits related to productivity, labor, and health of humans and the environment).

Multi-lingual research teams will explore these dynamic interactions, with a focus on labor and family migrations. Through oral histories, ethnographic, and survey research we will begin to trace migration patterns; the contexts and conditions of both sending and receiving communities; the journeys and life experiences of (im)migrants; and community building and reception. Debates over social policy, national identity, religious diversity, and collective memory will inform our discussions.