When Statistics Are Moved by Words. Biopolitic of International Migration Flows in Contemporary Italy.

The current direction of migration flows in Italy appears strongly linked with the new trends in post-Fordist globalization that pushes an increasing number of high-qualified youths to leave the country in order to insert themselves in the other European knowledge-economies. On the one hand, it unveils the structural transformation of the Italian economy against the backdrop of the cognitive capitalistic turn. On the other hand, the same dynamic show as the power of economic globalization moves people (statistics) just operating through specific keywords that drive the migrants’ intentions and perspectives. Referring to Foucault’s theoretical analysis of biopolitic, the chapter argues that the new high-qualified emigration flows from Italy during the recent economic crisis have been oriented by means of keywords that convinced people to comply with the rationale of economic calculation. The linguistic way used by these Italian emigrants to stigmatize the contemporary economic situation in their home-country and to imagine their future abroad unveils a clear biopolitical content