La mobilità/il multilinguismo degli “altri” (e la pandemia)

The article examines some aspects of two strongly interconnected paradigms, that of Mobility and that of Multilingualism, which have dominated the scene of social and linguistic sciences in the last decades of the previous century and the first decade of the current one. The criticism raised against each of them indicates their inadequacy both from a descriptive point of view, since they con- ceive certain phenomena that do not belong to modernity at all as modern, and from an analytical point of view, since they fail to grasp the fundamental aspect of contemporary reality, i.e. the growth of inequalities and gaps between areas and social groups, together with the forced immobilisation of a huge number of individuals who attempt to cross state borders. In this regard, Jan Blommaert’s considerations are particularly important. In recent years, he has been able, with his usual lucidity, to identify new research directions focused on the theme of immobility.