The Right to Escape: Migration, Citizenship, Globalization

Originally published in Italian in 2001, The Right to Escape was published in an enlarged edition in 2006. Since its publication it has spurred lively debates at the international level. This Japanese edition is a proof of its lasting originality and influence. Japanese translation by Shin'ya Kitagawa. Starting with the discussion of a specific case study (the young Max Weber's analysis of German and Polish migration from and to Eastern Prussia at the end of the 19th century), the book proposes to take a crucial focus in the analysis of migratory movements their subjective dimension, which means the whole set of behaviors and imaginaries that make migration a social movement. Through the discussion of several historical studies on the management of labor mobility in capitalism, the author investigates the contemporary situation, which is characterized by a steady process of removal of the obstacles to the circulation of commodities and capitals and at the same time by the a multiplication and a hardening of borders for migrants and refugees. This is also an effective angle on the implications of globalization on the shape of citizenship in Western democracies. The book further analyzes migration in the framework of a set of questions at the center of theoretical debates on globalization - from the transformations of citizenship to the meaning of the "postcolonial" condition.