"Meaningful Immobilities: South Italy's Postwar Migration through the Voices of the Leccese Women Who Stayed Behind, c. 1945-1973."

My doctorate research project examines the cultural history of postwar seasonal migration from southern Italy to economically booming Western Europe - specifically France and Belgium - from the untold perspective of the women who remained behind. It investigates the implications of gendered (im)mobility in the southern province of Lecce by combining micro-historical and oral history methods with transnational-comparative approaches. This research is an important contribution to the historiography of labour mobility in twentieth-century Europe, shedding light on the complexity of local, national and international identities in the mobile reality of the postwar European working class. Moreover, it would be a significant addition to the growing body of literature looking at the development of north-south divides in integrating Europe and Italy, offering an innovative perspective from which to examine the question of the building of a "European identity" in the second half of the twentieth century. Using women's voices and a local-regional frame to inform a larger history, my proposed dissertation aims to explore seasonal migration's cyclical temporalities through the useful lenses of subjectivity and gender, moving the focus from the bureaucratic imaginary of the grand narratives of European integration to the idea of a "Europeanness from below".
My research will draw from and contribute to the historiography of postwar European mobility and, to a smaller extent, postcolonial Europe. The main research questions I intend to address are the impact of the second boom of the Italian exodus (c. 1945-1973) on southern Italian women, its long-term effects on Italy, and its entangled history with other decolonising European states. Compared to the first period of intense emigration from the 1870s to the 1930s, this second era remains unexplored, notwithstanding notable exceptions. Sala (2009), De Clementi (2010) and Colucci (2021) have offered the most significant contributions, although their much-needed analyses remain - appropriately for works of such breadth - largely reliant on institutional sources. I also intend to investigate the exacerbation of Europe's and Italy's north-south divides. This was reflected in the infamous 1946 "men for coal" agreement between Italy and Belgium, and the 1956 Marcinelle mining disaster, engraved in Italian memory to this day (De Clementi, 2010).
The Lecce province is a fruitful area for research, given its exceptionally high rates of seasonal migration and social unrest in this era. Lecce also represents an anomaly particularly well suited to microhistorical inquiry: unlike most agricultural provinces in Italy, it never experienced mass emigration until the late 1940s (Zacchino, 2007). My research project, studying immobility alongside mobility at different scales of analysis, will significantly show the brittle and incomplete quality of Italian national identity in the long twentieth century, as reflected in the local and often temporary nature of migratory movements (Gabaccia 7).
My work will also benefit from recent contributions by historians of postwar Europe such as Gatrell (2019). This recent historiography has emphasised the importance of labour mobility in analyses of modern European history. However, whilst illuminating the experiences of (largely male) migrants, prisoners of war, refugees and guest labourers, it has failed to engage with the continuing experience of immobile Europe, especially women in rural areas.
My doctorate thesis will consider different types of sources to provide a predominantly qualitative analysis. Oral testimonies will be given centrality, because of their potential to bring to the forefront unexplored facets of the daily lives of nonhegemonic classes and women. The hitherto unheard voices of the 'immobile' Leccese women offer my project an unexplored resource that can reveal more about the meaning of emigration and periodical returns, notably to wives, famil