IMPRONTE VIVE vol. 2 - You are not a foreigner, you are just poor

March 6, 2025

This is IMPRONTE VIVE The monthly newsletter for those who want to resist travel FOMO, learn how NOT to be a tourist 🧢🤳, and discover their inner activist spirit (el fuego dentro)! 🗺️
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ALT ✋ DISCLAIMER

This month’s newsletter is a bit heavy. We're discussing a topic that is very close to our hearts—a reminder that the simple right to travel is still a privilege for a few.

Happy reading!

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I Am Border

"One more step," I thought, "and I’ll be elsewhere. The moment I step on the other side of the road, I won’t be the same person anymore. If I take this step, I will be an 'illegal'—and my world will change forever."

That night, I took the step, marking the beginning of my odyssey of “illegality.”

These are the words of Shahram Khosravi in the preface of I Am Border (2019), a book we recommended in last month's newsletter.

Travel opens up many topics. Last month, we talked about vacations, about escaping to discover and explore.

Today, we discuss another kind of escape—one that, for many, means fleeing not for adventure, but for survival.

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"You're not a foreigner, you're just poor."

"If you’re rich, you’re never a foreigner," wisely says Celestina (Dea Lanzaro), the 10-year-old Neapolitan girl who crosses the American continent to reunite with her emigrated sister in Gabriele Salvatores’ latest film, Napoli – New York.

It’s the early 1950s, and Neapolitans in New York are not having the best time—they’re ghettoized, racialized, and marginalized. In other words, they are not welcome.

We bring up this film because the writer of this newsletter (aka, moi) recently watched it. But there are countless other films that expose this harsh reality—the topic we’ve chosen to tackle this month: the right to move and travel.

While a privileged minority enjoys absolute mobility, the vast majority remain trapped by borders. Where there is a border, there will always be those who cross it.

WALLS IN EUROPE

"Walls are immoral." – David Sassoli

The exodus of migrants seeking safety is often perceived as a problem by many nations (see the U.S., Trump, and the horror porn of ASMR deportation videos). In response, countries build walls—crude and often barbaric displays of power, separating "us" from "them," "inside" from "outside."

Yet, data from IOM (International Organization for Migration) shows that walls haven’t stopped migration flows:

- Between 2016 and 2021, land arrivals in Europe averaged 24,152 people per year, while sea arrivals averaged 158,601 per year.

- The construction of physical barriers is not an effective solution but rather a political distraction that fuels xenophobia and conservative parties. In 2022 , when this article was published, 39 anti-migrant parties were active in Europe, holding significant parliamentary presence in 10 EU member states, including Italy, France, and Germany.

For more on the usefulness of walls and their symbolism, we’ve recommended some books at the end of this email.

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More Walls, More People Crossing

(Because of Conflicts and Climate Change)

At the end of the 20th century, Europe had only three walls: in Berlin, Cyprus, and Northern Ireland.
By 2020, the world had 70 walls, stretching over 40,000 km—enough to wrap around the Earth’s circumference, according to Elizabeth Vallet (University of Montreal).
The number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, and disasters has reached record highs. As of May 2024, there are about 120 million displaced people worldwide—double the number from a decade ago (UNHCR).
Beyond wars, climate change is a driving force behind forced migration. Extreme droughts, devastating floods, and rising sea levels are making some regions uninhabitable. According to the World Bank, by 2050, up to 216 million people may be forced to migrate within their own countries due to climate change (Legambiente).