In the last few years, in the Ionian zone of the Province of Reggio Calabria, known as Locride, five small villages, such as Caulonia, Stignano, Monasterace and Badolato, along with Riace itself (the first case), have become successful models of integration offering immigrants arriving from across the sea a warm welcome along with homes in a number of empty buildings in the historic centre. These experiences are based on an experiment of territorial development through the rebirth of rural economies in Southern Italy that had almost disappeared. This way, migration is providing a new lease of life to rural villages abandoned over the last two centuries that have now been repopulated and can be lively communities once again. Starting from this assumption, the five Italian villages that risked becoming “ghost towns” because of the emigration of most part of their population to the USA, Northern Italy and the rest of Europe, are now experimentinglong-term strategies and policies regarding migration, seeing migration itself as a positive factor enhancing the whole society economically, socially and culturally.
Federico Sutera Photography
Federico Sutera is an italian freelance photographer based in Venice.
His main work is focused on documentary projects and fine art prints.