Solidarities on the move between the Horn of Africa and Italy: Somali migrants’ disconnection and networking practices in the 2010s

Through the reconstruction of the de-activations and re-activations of solidarity in different phases of migration trajectories, this article analyses transnational migration from the Somali territories during the 2010s. Somali migrants who arrived in Italy between 2011 and 2017 provide the ethnographic basis for a historically situated, socio-cultural theory of transnational migration from below. The article addresses the moral, social, economic and political milieu within which the migrants defined their intention to travel to Europe and assembled their trajectories. The analysis focuses on the interaction between the all-pervasive presence of networks of smugglers and traffickers in the Horn of Africa and their capacity to respond to the practical necessities and aspirations of young individuals. The second object of analysis is the transformative and productive dimension of the journey. The migrants re-adapted their theory of practice of solidarity and social networking to very specific circumstances imposed on them during the journey. Finally, the paper addresses the creative readaptations of ideas and practices of solidarity in Italy, under the combined pressure of inherited moral codes, the emotional and socio-economic effects of the previous steps in the migrants’ trajectories, and everyday life in a securitised and precarious context.