UNIRSM News The director of the Emigration Research Center of the University of San Marino among the experts of the conference “Italian Diasporas”, in Genoa

The director of the Emigration Research Center of the University of San Marino among the experts of the conference “Italian Diasporas”, in Genoa

Patrizia Di Luca spoke together with colleagues from Argentina, Australia, USA, Brazil, South Africa and other countries

What were the characteristics of the processes of social, cultural and economic innovation carried out by the Sammarinese who returned to the Titan between 1965 and 1980, after a period abroad? The answer was offered by Patrizia Di Luca, director of the Research Centre on Emigration of the University of the Republic of San Marino, during a report presented in Genoa last Saturday, 7 December, as part of the fifth edition of the international conference “Italian Diasporas – representation and questions of identity”.

In the context of an initiative that hosted over eighty experts from institutions such as the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute in New York and the Museum of Immigration in Buenos Aires, the academic offered a contribution based on a wide range of testimonies collected from the opening of the Museum of the Emigrant in San Marino, in 1997, to today. “The existential experience described – explains di Luca – is that of those who emigrate between nostalgia and emancipation, that is, between the desire to return to the place and culture of origin and the will to choose new ways of life, different from the traditional ones of their family and social environment”. Hence an analysis of the ability to “integrate elements of multiple cultures into one’s identity, helping to activate creativity and renewal”.

The director of the Emigration Research Center of the University of San Marino spoke at the National Museum of Italian Emigration (MEI) during one of the 24 sessions scheduled for the event, which ended on Saturday after three days of debates, analyses and insights together with speakers from countries such as Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, Germany, Uruguay, France, the United States, Argentina and Canada.

“The conference – Di Luca evaluates – represented a precious, concrete and productive opportunity to deepen the research on emigration and to compare with some prestigious migration museums of other States. New projects have been born that will involve some collaborations on San Marino emigration, in particular with the Immigration Museum of Buenos Aires and some institutions of our peninsula. Finally, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented a network of museums dedicated to the theme of emigration. We were invited to be part of it because the links between San Marino and Italy, in this area of ​​research, are multiple and very significant”.