Processus interculturels dans les zones frontalières exposées aux flux migratoires : malentendus culturels et urgence

In intercultural exchange, immaterial elements of culture (values, codes of behaviour, traditions and beliefs, etc.) give birth to major problems: they produce differences that are invisible but engender cultural misunderstandings. These usually arise through verbal expression, but they are often hidden in a glance, a silence, a simple gesture which, despite its ordinary appearance, may be the cause of a disturbing feeling for other persons. Cultural misunderstandings may have a tremendous impact on services dedicated to migrants' psychological and physical health. They add further obstacles to migrants' psychosocial conditions and they make the expression and understanding of their needs more difficult. This is dramatically true in border areas highly exposed to migration flows. An urgent intervention requires a rapid and clear identification of their problems. The unsafe conditions of their long journey and their first and distressing confrontation with diversity, as well as their mental bewilderment, or even anxiety and hostility, all are obstacles to an intercultural communication process. In such critical contexts, intercultural communication faces further challenges, as shown by the real case of a cultural misunderstanding with a young Nigerien migrant, in the small Italian island of Lampedusa in 2011. This case also gives the opportunity to introduce a wider and more integrated approach on how to manage migration crises. This approach aims at considering both migrants' psycho-physical conditions and their cultural elements rooted in their behaviors. They need to be acknowledged and addressed before reaching a deep mutual understanding and providing a suitable answer to their needs.