Motus Internus: Narrative Turning Points and the Intragroup Emergence of Dehumanizing Ideologies Among Migrants

Abstract

This article explores how forced migrants in Italy come to adopt morally distancing and dehumanizing views toward fellow migrants, and how these ideological shifts are narratively justified through turning points. Drawing on longitudinal narrative interviews with 52 forced migrants in Italy conducted over six years (2019–2025), the study analyzes how moments of rupture — relational, institutional, aspirational, and symbolic — prompt migrants to reorganize moral evaluations and redefine group boundaries. Through a typology of corrective, disillusioning, and liberating turning points, the article shows how migrants reposition themselves in response to betrayal, exclusion, or the desire for civic recognition. Dehumanization emerges as a discursive strategy for asserting dignity and legitimacy under precarious conditions, rather than as a mere rhetorical excess. The study contributes to research on narrative, ideology, and migrant integration, and highlights the need for policy approaches that address the relational and moral dimensions of belonging.