Biopolitics and the 'Complementary Heterogeneity' of Migratory Flows in Italy

This article focuses on the links and interdependences between new trends in post-Fordist globalization and the current direction of migration flows and migrants' projects in Italy. On the one hand, thousands of migrants are arriving as stowaways or asylum seekers due to political and economic tensions from the Syrian crisis and elsewhere in the Arab world. At the same time, an increasing number of highly-skilled youths are leaving Italy in order to seek insertion in more dynamic knowledge-based economies. Informed by Foucault's approach to biopolitics, this work critically considers the 'complementary heterogeneity' of these migratory flows as a focal point and examines them in the structural context produced by the post-2007 crisis.