Italianness, flexible citizenship and belonging: unraveling paths of emigrants’ descendants “return” in North Eastern Italy

International audienceBuilding on an ethnographic research carried out with emigrants’ children and descendants “coming back” to the Trentino from Argentina at the present time, this chapter explores the complex links between “return” and Italianness in North-Eastern Italy.Emigrants’ descendants’ migration to the Trentino do not necessarily reflect a feeling of belonging, but a strategic use of Italian nationality, in order to (re)emigrate to Europe and to circulate in the Schengen space. Material motives may underlie the decisions individuals make about nationality and mobility. This contrasts with the representations that Italian law and institutions seem to attach to nationality, referring to sentimental ties with the place of origin and with the genealogic community, linking the individual to a shared history and to a shared culture: referring to Italianness. Regional institutions, which aim is to protect people hailing from the Trentino and to promote Trentino identity, do not mention the concept of Italianness. Trentinness is a central and essentialized concept in their work and it is presented as the main reason that motivates or should motivate emigrants’ descendants’ “returns”. This concept is vital, as it is the keystone of the political construction that these institutions represent. If it ceased to be fostered, the political entity (the Autonomous Province) and the very institutions that represent it, would lose their raison d'être