Introduction. A nagging thought of a scholar

This paper is – as introduction of volume “Proximity violence in migration times” – is the result of the nagging thought of a scholar and the support the European Commission decided to provide her with in order to favour the theoretical challenge the project envisaged and allowing her to conduct these two years of research supported by a network of partners comprising universities, research centres and non-profit organisations. It is the product of a combined, reasoned in-the-field research and desk analysis regarding recognition and reception of refugee-asylum seekers, victims of violence within their places of origin, during the journey to the European states bordering on the Mediterranean and, above all, in Italy, the destination of many asylum seekers arriving from the African continent.