Silence of the State, Women’s Voices. Abandonment and suffering in migration for asylum

Abstract

Drawing on research carried out in the reception centres for asylum seekers (CARA), this article explores the vicissitudes of the women asylum seekers who live - after landing on Italian southern coasts – on the margins of the protection system while waiting for their residence permit. By illustrating European and national asylum policies and through the analysis of a case study, I describe a lifeworld flowing silently in the shadow of the law. My goal is to shed light on the perverse effects of the protection system. In fact, on the one hand, this system strictly controls the legal position of asylum seekers without admitting any exceptions. On the other hand, it abandons these people to endure suffering by forcing on them a regime of poverty and exclusion. The analysis aims at documenting the dynamics of violence and processes of subjection by privileging the point of view of the human subjects who underwent abuse and social oppression. By discussing the political dimension of suffering, silence and voice, this essay shows how the social and political dynamics experienced by asylum seekers in Italy shape their subjectivities and life trajectories up to the denial of protection.  These social and political dynamics raise in asylum-seekers a deep sense of injustice, anger and suffering.