The ongoing EU “refugee crisis” is drawing public attention on the brutal forces of war, persecution and exploitation, which are at the origin of contemporary displacements. However, the humanitarian governance of forced migration is now more than ever embedded in the construction of powerful moral imaginaries, which tend to depict “real refugees” as speechless and passive subjects, substantially devoid of wills, personal aspirations or desires. In an attempt to contrast the pervasive de-politicisation of forced migrants’ life trajectories this article seeks to contest the by shedding light on the role of intimacy in the shaping of the struggle for freedom and mobility, as well as of claims to the right to settle. Drawing on the ethnographic account of subjective experiences of an Iranian refugee encountered during my fieldwork in Bologna (Italy) in 2011, I show how affective relationships experienced or sought, existing or missing can play a crucial role in imagining and concretely enacting the flight from oppressive regimes, as well as in taking the decision to settle in a specific national context. Through an analysis of the transformative nature of intimate relationships, this paper sheds light on the multiple connections between political subjectivity and affectivity in forced migrants’ life paths in contemporary Europe. © 2018, Fondazione Centro Studi Emigrazione. All rights reserved.

Iranian refugees Political subjectivity Affective relationships Forced migration Italy

international migration Italy refugee political border political geography migration