Summary

Vado verso dove vengo offers a complex meditation on emigration, immigration, and belonging. From New York City to Aliano, from London to Castelmezzano, the voices of emigrants and of their descendants narrate tales filled with emotions of leaving and of remaining, of desertions and returns to small towns on Italy’s fringes, where emigration and depopulation have left enduring scars and where economic and geographical health are emergencies desperately requiring attention. Governmental inattention is to blame, and it still runs rampant in Italy. Is it possible, after more than 100 years of emigration, to forge a new balance between local communities and global flows? Can small towns hold the key to innovative projects and sensibilities that will inform the future?