Challenging Societal Bordering to Transform Injustices Affecting Migrants: A Contextualist Political Theory Analysis of the Case of Aboubakar Soumahoro and his Activism in Italian Society

The public relevance of migration as a societal issue results from narratives that involve categorizations. Social and political categorizations take part in how migration is and should be governed, the contents of public philosophy of migrants’ integration, and, more generally, representations about what a cohesive national society should be. However, counter-narratives challenge dominant narratives of migrants’ categorizations. These stem not only from advocacy groups but also from migrants themselves. The subjectivation of the marginalized and invisibilized gives this group a voice and a space, even if often not strong enough to make a difference in the power relations that exclude it. In this paper, we address the case of Mr Aboubakar Soumahoro, a rare figure of the African diaspora to hold a high-level position in Italy. He is, in fact, a current member of the Italian parliament and co-founder of the Union for Social Development and Support, Lega Braccianti, the Farmhands’ League. Soumahoro’s case is paradigmatic in analyzing the process underlying the role categorizations play in migration narratives and performing social and political outcomes that affect migrants’ opportunities to be part of the national community and be protected in their fundamental rights. It shows how bordering processes in receiving societies take place physically in specific spaces – through the relegation of certain migrants to certain places (e.g., suburbs, countryside and the fields), but also non-physically through their societal categorization lacking contact with individual and group self-identification: migrants thus appear to the receiving society far and almost invisible – both physically, in spaces, and non-physically, through external categorization. Through his activism, Soumahoro has politicized migrants’ categories in an alternative way, creating conflict with the mainstream categorization. In this paper, we analyze this case by showing how migrants (particularly publicly visible ones) are categorized when they do not comply with the adjustment to national norms and behaviours expected from them. We show how, by challenging the representations of the national community through their political subjectivity, they are categorized as lacking the resources to be integrated and to belong to the nation. We present our theoretical contribution in addressing the underlying logic of what we call process of exclusion by conflicts of categorizations. We start from its ontological characterization, namely that categorizations create counter-narratives and, therefore, the inherently conflicting nature of the process. We then argue that, although migrants’ challenge of the dominant narrative can produce more exclusions, it is a necessary condition to figure out modalities to transform injustices affecting migrants. Conflict is not the opposite of integration; instead, the ability to be present, visible and engage in a conflicting process of counter-narratives is a sign of integration in society. To consider conflict seriously is necessary to expand social and democratic justice and safeguard the democratic principle of equality and liberty for all.