Una lettura antropologica del rimpatrio delle salme: quando spegnersi in Italia è sinonimo di ‘cattiva’ morte

The migratory phenomenon from developing countries toward Europe has taken on increasing significance in recent years. This process has transformed, and continues to transform, Italy into a country where important social changes are developing, leading to a gradual institutional and administrative adaptation to the new configuration of the population. Among these adjustments for coexistence, the funerary sphere is rarely considered: how do foreigners die in Italy? How is death handled in our country? Certainly, one might be tempted to respond with cultural relativism, but the aim of this anthropological reflection is not to create a general map of each community’s behaviors. Instead, the objective is to outline the difficulties and common features that characterize the heterogeneous group of first-generation migrants, as well as to examine the solutions these social actors put into practice when they must deal with death far from their homeland.