Self-Narration, Participatory Video and Migrant Memories: A (Re)making of the Italian Borders

This chapter analyses self-narration of migration and border crossing by present-day migrants in Italy. It examines how bordering is symbolically represented and re-made by people who, after having experienced border crossing, have found a listening context able to receive their stories and amplify them in ways that disrupt the dominant media narrative. Some examples from the author's experience as a scholar and activist interested in recording and facilitating the work being done in the field of migrant memories illustrate how migrants, together with the cultural workers who support them, actively produce counter-narratives of their border-crossing experiences. Two kinds of experimental participatory video projects, which transform migrants "from object to subject" of representation-set on the islands of Lampedusa and Sardinia-are examined.