Neighbours, not by chance. Italian and migrant housing trajectories in Castel Volturno

Abstract

Between 2021 and 2022, as part of the SI.VALUTA local assessment project, the authors carried out a research and analysis work in Castel Volturno, exploring some local housing dynamics in the light of the migration processes that, in various ways and at different times, have affected this area. Here, dispersed in an extensive semi-abandoned housing stock, Italians and foreigners coexist, with different backgrounds but similar housing outcomes. In this paper, we investigate the common elements of such housing paths that emerged from structured and semi-structured interviews. The fieldwork, which involved several periods of observation, highlights the role of Castel Volturno as a landing place for life paths in contraction: a time of economic instability, of housing hardship, of administrative irregularity. This phenomenon is the result of ‘structured’ forms of precariousness, regardless of the geographical, ethnic and cultural origin of the subjects encountered. As a conclusion we show how, despite the many contact points in the reasons for arriving to this territory, there remains a lack of mutual recognition between the different groups, which leads to an impossibility of building alliances.