ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses formations of transnational cultural identity among asylum seekers in Italy, based on a series of musical workshops that the author and her students conducted with asylum seekers at an overflow reception center near Vigolzone, Piacenza, from 2015 to 2017. The author begins by describing the living conditions of asylum seekers in Italy, where they are forced to live in overflow reception centers for years. These crowded, contested spaces hold significant potential for studies of music, language, and belonging in contexts of migration. The following section describes the musical workshop in Vigolzone, which was conducted through participatory listening and collaborative composition. Throughout, the asylum seekers adopted a strategy of “metrolingualism” (Pennycook 2012) to support creative transnational forms of belonging that helped them endure the limbo of their condition. Musical composition became a platform for reflecting critically on their situation and expressing their emotional responses. Ultimately, they reconfigured the fragmentation and uprootedness of asylum into a creative form of belonging and musical citizenship.The chapter contributes to our understanding of the fundamental roles that both music and language can play in processes of identity formation among people in movement.
