Senior researcher. He is a socio-anthropologist and member of the research area ‘Populations and Migrations’ where he mainly deals with the anthropology and ethnography of migration and the study of processes of social change.
Senior researcher
Rome
stefano.degliuberti@cnr.it
Stefano degli Uberti is a senior researcher at the National Research Council, Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies (CNR-IRPPS) in Rome.
Since February 2023, he has been appointed CNR Alternate Delegate to the international network of Scholars at Risk (SAR), which promotes academic freedom and protects scholars whose lives are in danger or whose work is severely compromised.
Dr. degli Uberti (BA, University of Venice Ca’ Foscari; MA, Sussex University; PhD, University of Bergamo) was a Visiting Researcher at UNU-CRIS in Belgium and has taught at the Universities of Bergamo and Bologna, and at UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands.
Alongside his research activities, he worked as Vice Coordinator of a reception center for asylum seekers and refugees in South Tyrol. He also served as a migration project officer for humanitarian associations, national institutions, and international organizations (including the Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, ICMPD, and Agriconsulting Europe SA).
Since his postgraduate studies, Dr. degli Uberti’s research has mainly focused on the qualitative analysis of the relationship between migration and development through a transnational approach. He has focused his attention on the social construction of migration in both departure and arrival contexts from the perspective of the multiple actors involved, not only migrants.
Working primarily in Italy and Senegal, his migration research has also extended to the study of integration and diversity (social representations and multiculturalism), associationism, tourism, and social change, and more recently on the processes of (im)mobility decision-making (migration culture, migration aspirations, imaginaries, and capabilities).
Between 2017 and 2019, he participated as a senior expert in the MIRECO project (Monitoring and Improvement of REception COnditions – financed by the Ministry of the Interior – AMIF fund), which provided support to the Observatory on Reception through the creation of guidelines aimed at establishing an accreditation and monitoring system.
Following this line of research, his ethnographic focus has turned to the analysis of the historical layers of the reception system to examine the practices and policy mechanisms that inform the life experiences of asylum seekers and refugees, particularly on the Italo-Austrian border.
More recently, as part of an interdisciplinary team, Dr. degli Uberti has participated in the Metromosaic project (2022) to explore the motivations and patterns of residential (im)mobility and settlement of migrants in Italy through socio-anthropological and demographic perspectives.
Since August 2022, he has been the coordinator of the CNR research unit for the multidisciplinary H2020 project FUME (Future Migration Scenarios for Europe), aimed at determining and envisioning both current and future migration trends to Europe at multiple levels (international, national, regional, and local).
An updated resume and publications are available here.
Crisci, M., degli Uberti, S., Pelliccia, A. and Santurro, M. (2025), Patterns and Motivations of Intra-Urban Residential Mobility in a Southern European Metropolis. The Case of Filipino Migrants in Rome, in Journal of Population, Space and Place, 31: e2875. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2875
degli Uberti S., Altin R. (2024) “Historical Layers of Refugee Reception in Border Areas of Italy. Crossroads of Transit and Temporalities of (Im)mobility”, in Journal of International Migration and Integration, 25(1), pp. 1133–1152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-024-01125-0
Crisci, M., degli Uberti, S., Paparusso, A., Pelliccia, A., Vitiello, M. (2024) Demographic decline and reproductive choices in an Italy of uncertainty, in La società italiana nelle intemperie del nuovo millennio, S. Turcio, C. Pennacchiotti, Rome, CNR-IRPPS. http://epub.irpps.cnr.it/index.php/mono/article/view/302
degli Uberti S., Heins F., Diop L.N., Sall M. (2023). SENEGAL: Drivers and trajectories of migration to Europe. FUME H20 project report. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8223962
Heins, F., degli Uberti, S., Bonifazi, C., Crisci, M., Paparusso, A., Pelliccia, A., De Rocchi, D., & Vitiello, M. (2023). Drivers of International Migration. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8183340
Altin R., degli Uberti S. (2022) “Placed in Time. Migration Policies and Temporalities of (Im)Mobility Across the Eastern European Borders”, in Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 24 (3), pp.439-459. https://doi.org/10.1080/19448 953.2021.2015662
degli Uberti, S., & Altin, R. (2022). Editorial. Entangled temporalities of migration in the western Balkans. Ethnographic perspectives on (im)-mobilities and reception governance. in Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 24(3), pp. 429–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/19448953.2021.2015655
degli Uberti S. (2021) “Unveiling Informality through Im/mobility. Conceptual Analysis of Asylum Seekers and Refugees at the Margins of the Reception system in Italy”, in Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 26(5), pp. 528-551. https://doi.org/10.1080/1354571X.2021.1953777
degli Uberti, S. (2021) "Eine zwiespältige Aufnahmepraxis im italienisch-österreichischen Grenzraum. Die Asylbewerber fuori quota zwischen lokalen Medien und Mikropolitik des Andersseins / An ambiguous reception on the Italo-Austrian border. The 'fuori quota' asylum seekers between local media and micro-politics of alterity". Flucht – Grenze – Integration / Fuga – Confine – Integrazione: Beiträge zum Phänomen der Deplatzierung / Contributi al fenomeno dello spostamento, D. Heimböckel, N. Roelens and C. Wille (Eds.), Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, pp. 91-110. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839451175-007
degli Uberti S. (2019) “Borders within. An ethnographic take on the reception policies of asylum seekers in Alto Adige/South Tyrol”, in Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo, 21(2), https://doi.org/10.4000/aam.1887
degli Uberti S. (2019) ‘Migrating while staying at home’. Mobility Practices and Migration Imaginaries in Senegal, in B. Riccio (eds.), Mobilità. Incursioni etnografiche, Milan: Mondadori, pp. 23-63
degli Uberti S., Pelliccia A. (2019) “The socio-cultural dimensions of low fertility. Between continuity and change”, in La Rivista delle Politiche Sociali, 4, pp. 51-69
degli Uberti S., Riccio B. (2017) “Imagining greener pastures? Shifting perceptions of Europe and mobility within contemporary Senegal. A diachronic grounded perspective”, in Journal of Ethnography and Qualitative Research, 3, pp. 339-362
degli Uberti S., De Lombaerde P., Nita S., Legovini E. (2015) “Analyzing Intra-regional Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa. Statistical Data Constraints and the role for Regional Organizations”, in Regions and Cohesion, 5 (2), pp. 77-113
Kingah S., degli Uberti S. (2015) “Has South Africa the Spine for Global Leadership?”, in S. Kingah and C. Quiliconi (eds), Global and Regional Leadership of Brics Countries, Springer Press, pp. 209-224
degli Uberti S. (2014) “Migration Cultures”, in B. Riccio, Antropologia e Migrazioni, CISU, pp. 21-33
degli Uberti S. (2014) “Victims of their Fantasies or Heroes for a Day? Media Representations, Local History and Daily Narratives on Boat Migrations from Senegal”, in Cahiers d’Études Africaines, LIV (1-2), 213-214, pp. 81-113
Riccio B., degli Uberti S. (2013) “Senegalese Migrants in Italy. Beyond the Assimilation/Transnationalism Divide”, in Journal of Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development, 42, pp. 207-254
degli Uberti S. (2011) “Tourism and migration imaginaries. Experiences of the Elsewhere in urban Senegal”, in Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo, 13 (1), pp. 67-83. http://www.archivioantropologicomediterraneo.it/riviste/estratti_13/07.pdf
