SSIIM Paper Series Vol. 2
Conexiones translocales y formación de territorios migratorios. El caso de los cochabambinos de Bérgamo
by Mirko Marzadro
This paper focuses on the trans-local migration processes from Cochabamba (Bolivia) to Bergamo (Italy). It explores a deep rooted and complex international migration system which led to a very high concentration of Bolivians in a limited territory as the province of Bergamo is. About 20 thousand Bolivians are settled in Bergamo today, i.e. more than half of all Bolivians living in Italy. Over the last ten years this phenomenon started to emerge as a relevant social issue at the local level. The paper try to explain that such a migration system is based on two apparently independent processes that are instead strongly interconnected. On the one hand the Diocesan Cooperation of Bergamo is working in Bolivia since 1962; on the other, the migration process from Bolivia to Bergamo started during the early ‘70s. Through reference to theories on ‘transnationalism’, the paper aims at demonstrate how these two processes led to the creation of a ‘migratory territory’ made up of a ‘population’ (i.e. the Bolivian community in Bergamo plus all the people with whom they keep connections back home) and ‘actors’ structuring an international migration system.
