Faide indiane e allarmismi lombardi. La mediatizzazione del conflitto ‘etnico’ e la sua eco sulla quotidiana convivenza migranti/autoctoni

Drawing from my research on Panjabi diasporas in Lombardy, I discuss the media hype which followed the accidental murder of an Italian lady doctor occurred in Bergamo in 2013, during a brawl among Panjabi family clans. An embittered xenophobic and racist imagination tainted the local public opinion, replacing the typecast of Indians as mild laborers with ruthless criminals, enmeshed in feuds of southern Italian memory. Through ethnographic narratives and local chronicles, I contrast the stakes of immigrants and natives, citizens and officials, unraveling how the identity outcomes of that drama affected social interactions and integration of the Panjabi communities long established in the area.