What affective rupture does. Disrupting affective citizenship in migrant solidarity

The aim of this paper is to show how emotions and citizenship are inextricably intertwined in the analysis of migrant solidarity. It does so by highlighting the ‘disrupting’ dimensions of emotions as processes that redefine the very criteria by which one is included or excluded, close or distant, intimate or foreign, in every situation. The essay draws on ethnographic research with Italian citizens doing solidarity work for and with migrants in Florence and Turin. Solidarity practices and the emotions that constitute them are important for the production of lived citizenship, which happens on a daily basis. By discussing results that emerged through qualitative methods, the essay has the aim to investigate the role of affective ruptures in migrant solidarity networks, and how they may be emotional and reflexive turning points that transform the ethical-political attitudes.