Community Making and un-Making: Social Relations and Cultural Repertoires of Young Somalis in Italy

The young Somali migrants who since the early 2010s have arrived in Italy, and chose or found themselves to live in the metropolitan area of Milan, frequently interrogate themselves about what does it mean to have or have not a jaliyaad. The latter is the most common denomination both in Somalia and in the diasporas used for those forms of association, or “community”, set up by Somalis when they live away from the Somali territories. The young migrants discuss about what have they heard from friends and co-travelers from the Horn, or what have they seen, for instance, when visiting other European countries. Thus, they make comparative analyses between different diasporic contexts. The protracted disillusion experienced while seeking help from other Somalis, the individualization of mobility trajectories, the self-constrained attitude towards information sharing, and the precarious relationship with previous generations of migrants are all considered as violations of inherited cultural values. At the same time, the young migrants acknowledge that they contribute too to dynamics of community unmaking as a consequence of their adaptation to the security, bureaucratic and economic constraints of Milanese context. By talking about community and its absence in Milan, young Somalis produce pragmatic strategies, ideological reflections, and engage with morally and culturally inherited norms which provide social meaning to their mobility trajectories and settlement abroad. In particular, they struggle to manage their social maturation and belonging to the Somali cultural ecumene (somalinimo). Milan, and other locations of the Somali diasporas, are arenas in which the future of Somali social institutions and culture is being negotiated. These dynamics are presented and discussed on the basis of ethnographic material collected during prolonged research activities conducted since the early 2010s both in the Somali territories and the diasporas, and during an ongoing research project that started in 2022 in Milan.