Adaptive and Solidarity Counter Maps for Individuals in Transit at the Ventimiglia Border

Abstract Nongovernmental organizations, churches, associations, activists, individuals, facilitators, and migrants themselves have deployed various support practices for border transgressions and dwellings. Essential to that effort is the acquisition and circulation of the underground knowledge related to mobility. The “right information” is fundamental in determining directions to movement and levels of risk embedded in various routes as well as in constructing specific behaviors and migration careers within the European Union’s border landscape. This article focuses on about twenty kinds of maps produced and/or used by people on the move and various solidarity actors to facilitate border crossings. Maps of the border area and places of solidarity, mountain trails, canteens and distribution of materials, transport infrastructures, relevant institutions, hospital and health services available, and legal desks are some of the information provided by those materials. The observation point for this study is the InfoPoint Eufemia and then Upupa in Ventimiglia: peculiar spaces of encounters where people in transit and solidarity actors establish relations, including through the creation and dissemination of maps. The decision to collect diverse categories of maps has been motivated by their recognition as potent traces of solidarity, which facilitate an understanding of the knowledge production process linked to border transgression.