The non-community of Somali migrants in Milan (Italy): The analysis of a “situation”

The article builds on the concept of “situation”, derived from the contribution of Georges Balandier, as an instrument to frame the representations and practices of solidarity and social networking of Somali migrants in Milan, Italy, both historically and analytically. The work is grounded on ethnographic experience in the study of Somali societies which started in the early 2010s and research conducted since 2022 in Milan. By conceiving the “situation” as a historical “totality”, the article considers the working conditions and exploitation of migrants in the Milan labour market, the predicament of inter-generational relations between different cohorts of migrants, the role of clan or qabil as part of the infrastructure of social networking, and the individual representations and practices of solidarity emerging at the conjuncture between inherited cultural repertoires of “community” making and contextual factors in the host context. From the standpoint of young Somali migrants, these elements are inter-related within the framework of the 2010s-20s Somali migrations to Europe and linked to the clash between expectations and everyday experiences of diasporic social networking. The idea of “non-community” helps to synthetise the ethnographic data on this situated, open and dynamic process of social adaptation.