Urbanities, Vol. 4 · No 1 · May 2014 © 2014 Urbanities 11 Ambiguous Welcomings: The Identity Construction of Asylum Seekers in Turin ,Italy. Giulia Borri gborri84@gmail.com (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany) Brigida Orria brigida.orria@hotmail.com (University of Milan, Italy) Alex Vailati alexvailati@gmail.com (Federal University at Santa Catarina, Brazil) Based on fieldwork carried out in Turin, Italy between 2009 and 2011, this article focuses on welcoming systems for asylum seekers. In political discourses, refugees are usually described as passive victims or even as a ‘social problem’. Local institutions often make an exploitative use of this category. Welcoming projects and plans are in fact increasingly conveying policies based on a charitable approach instead of fostering and enhancing individual empowerment. This influences public opinion and political discourse concerning forced migration. Unequal power relations between asylum seekers and their caretakers help to shape the reception of refugees, and humanitarian associations concur in strengthening this idea. As a consequence of these factors, the right to asylum becomes a mere right to basic services that local institutions should provide. In these terms, the welcoming system for refugees loses its main aim and becomes guided by economic and budgetary concerns. Keywords: Asylum seekers, Refugees, Welcoming system, Displacement, Migration. Introduction In every social context we can find particular philosophies and expressions of welcoming. Strangers and travelers are part of everyday life even in places that are far from the global flow of symbols and people. Welcoming practices are usually very complex. They have different aims and strategies in every context. To ‘welcome’ a person could mean, according to Latin etymology, 1 to try to bridge the distance to create a relationship. This definition may indicate the potential for welcoming to be an important tool for recognizing and accepting cultural diversity. This reception can also lead to cultural enrichment through the adoption of heteronomic practices and symbols. In spite of this, in a world where the circulation of information is perceived as a fundamental process in support of every social development, the circulation of people is generally not seen in this way. The common public perception of political refugees and asylum seekers seems to be a clear example of this refusal to see the circulation of people positively. Emblematic of this is how the concept of welcoming changes in relation to refugees and asylum seekers and loses this connotation of receptivity. It no longer involves establishing a dialog with alterity. The concept of welcoming, through a complex process of re-signification, becomes completely 1 From the Latin ‘colligere’, to ‘collect’ with a demonstration of attachment. In the Middle English, alteration (influenced by wel well) of wilcume, from Old English wilcuma, wilcume, from wilcuma desirable guest akin to Old High German willicomo desirable guest; probably both from a prehistoric West Germanic compound.