In the Name of Antigone: Migrants and Human Rights in Contemporary Urban Spaces

Abstract

Starting from the metaphor of the ethical conflict between dignity and rights in Antigone, the article reflects on the theme of human dignity for a critique of global inequalities. These theoretical assumptions are the basis for reflecting on the theme of contemporary international mobility of populations, which generates significant effects on the production of borders and the right to the city, highlighting new issues of social and spatial justice. In particular, with respect to the “newcomers”, claiming the “right to the city”, after claiming the “right to mobility”, very often coincides with the claim and protection of human rights, in order to build “spaces for survival”. On the one hand, the outcomes of these phenomena can be considered as a serious deterioration of problems, like an existential disadvantage of some individuals constantly claiming their rights, a condition that generates fragmented (individual or collective) identities; on the other hand, they contribute to the construction of the identity of places, generating new forms of city and citizenship, both at institutional level and, above all, in everyday practice.