Activists, Migrants and Forms of Fighting for Home. The Social Life of a "Citizen Coordination" in Contemporary Rome

Abstract

Rome plays a particularly important role in the struggle for dwelling’s right in the national context. Born in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, the movements for dwelling’s right today act in a context characterized by the presence of a chronic housing crisis. 
In this configuration, the research dealt with analyzing the participation and the roles played by migrants within squatted buildings. 
The squatted buildings Caravaggio I and II represent the field of research and the analysis focuses on the relationships that exist between migrants and activists of the “Coordinamento Cittadino di lotta per la casa”. We read the phenomena observed through the concepts of post-citizenship and right to the city. Squatted spaces in fact highlight a fertile ground for social interaction, that is, create "free zones" where alternative forms of sharing spaces between migrants and non-migrants are born. Interaction with migrants is able to overcome the legal and rigid meaning of the concept of citizenship, transforming it on the contrary, into a concept rooted in the sharing of a common condition. Thus, migrations create multiple forms of urban identity.