De fractura humana: narrative turning points and the ideological genesis of dehumanization among forced migrants in the Italian context

This study examines how dehumanizing ideologies emerge within forced-migration contexts in Italy – specifically among asylum seekers, refugees, and holders of humanitarian or subsidiary protection. Drawing on longitudinal interviews, the analysis traces how experiences of meta-dehumanization evolve into self-dehumanization and may be projected as other-dehumanization toward fellow forced migrants. Four experiential domains – relational, institutional, aspirational, and symbolic – serve as key sites where moral hierarchies are narratively reconstructed. Turning points function as discursive pivots through which exclusionary beliefs are emotionally justified and symbolically sustained. The findings suggest that dehumanization is not only externally imposed but also internally reproduced as a coping mechanism, a form of moral differentiation, and a strategy of symbolic repair under conditions of social and institutional marginalization.