Books by alessandra sciurba
This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and ... more This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, explores the working conditions of migrant women in agriculture in the EU, focusing on some case studies in Italy and Spain. In particular, it aims to examine the factors that render women vulnerable to exploitation, paying attention to gendered dynamics and power relations. The study contends that to prevent and combat exploitation in agriculture it is necessary to implement concerted actions aimed at tackling, from a human rights and gender perspective, the structural factors of a socio-economic system which fosters and relies on workers’ vulnerability.
En ce début de XXI e siècle, la pauvreté, la précarité et les inégalités aff ectent un nombre cro... more En ce début de XXI e siècle, la pauvreté, la précarité et les inégalités aff ectent un nombre croissant de personnes sur le continent européen. Ces phénomènes fragilisent non seulement la cohésion sociale des sociétés européennes mais violent les droits humains, aussi bien les droits sociaux que civils et politiques, et questionnent le fonctionnement de la démocratie. En eff et, comment les personnes en situation de pauvreté peuvent-elles faire entendre leurs voix dans des sociétés polarisées, où plus de 40 % du patrimoine et 25 % des revenus sont détenus par 10 % de la population ? Ce guide est le fruit de deux années de travail collectif mené dans le cadre du projet « Les droits humains des personnes en situation de pauvreté ». Il a été préparé avec le concours de nombreuses personnes et organisations, dont des personnes en situation de pauvreté, des chercheurs, des associations et des représentants des autorités publiques. Outre qu'il off re une étude critique de la situation actuelle, en analysant les inégalités et la pauvreté par le prisme des droits humains, de la démocratie et des politiques de redistribution, ce guide invite également le lecteur à explorer les pistes d'une stratégie renouvelée de lutte contre la pauvreté permettant de rétablir le sens de la justice sociale. Il avance des propositions qui visent à dépasser la stigmatisation et la catégorisation, en ouvrant des voies d'apprentissage pour bâtir des biens communs par le partage, en évitant le gaspillage et en renforçant dans la conscience publique le principe de respect de la dignité humaine en tant que droit de tous. Le Conseil de l'Europe regroupe aujourd'hui 47 Etats membres, soit la quasi-totalité des pays du continent euro-péen. Son objectif est de créer un espace démocratique et juridique commun, organisé autour de la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme et d'autres textes de référence sur la protection de l'individu. Créé en 1949, au lendemain de la seconde guerre mondiale, le Conseil de l'Europe est le symbole historique de la réconciliation.
The research focuses on migrant women exploited in the Italian domestic and agricultural sector. ... more The research focuses on migrant women exploited in the Italian domestic and agricultural sector. It addresses EU legislation on labour exploitation, forced labour and trafficking, together with the analysis on social and political studies on migration flows, immigration laws and welfare policies, both at national and at a EU level. The relationship between care, gender and justice, with a particular focus on the new forms of coercion which affect migrant work, has also been explored through a philosophical-legal approach. The second part of this book is based on qualitative interviews conducted in Veneto and in Sicily.
Papers by alessandra sciurba
Muovendo da una riflessione teorica che definisce l’asilo come il “diritto di confine” dei diritt... more Muovendo da una riflessione teorica che definisce l’asilo come il “diritto di confine” dei diritti umani, il presente contributo analizza criticamente il sistema di accoglienza e le procedure stragiudiziali che coinvolgono i richiedenti asilo, dall’arrivo in Italia fino all’audizione presso le Commissioni territoriali per il riconoscimento della protezione internazionale. A questo riguardo, viene descritto per ogni fase, sottolineandone l’importanza, il lavoro degli operatori legali delle associazioni e delle cliniche legali che, assistendo gratuitamente chi chiede protezione in Italia, rappresentano molte volte l’unica garanzia di accesso a un diritto universale troppo spesso violato nella sua concreta essenza.
Questo articolo ha come oggetto lo sfruttamento lavorativo delle donne migranti all’interno del m... more Questo articolo ha come oggetto lo sfruttamento lavorativo delle donne migranti all’interno del mercato del lavoro italiano, guardando in particolare ai fattori che producono la “posizione di vulnerabilità” delle lavoratrici provenienti dall’Est Europa e inserite nel settore del lavoro domestico.
I casi analizzati dimostreranno che la condizione di molte donne migranti europee che lavorano in Italia può essere definita come una condizione di tratta ai sensi della definizione offerta dalla Direttiva dell’Unione europea n. 36 del 2011 , la cosiddetta Direttiva Anti-tratta.
Il connubio tra sfruttamento, tratta e migrazioni interne all’Europa, osservato anche da una prospettiva di genere legata alla particolarità delle migrazioni femminili, costituisce quindi il contesto nel quale sono inseriti gli stralci biografici inclusi in queste pagine, così come le analisi e le riflessioni che da essi emergeranno.
Verranno indagati i tipi di “scelte” che hanno accompagnato la migrazione delle donne qui prese in considerazione, e le forme di “consenso” da queste donne prestato alle condizioni di sfruttamento di cui sono vittime. Tale indagine sarà quindi occasione per accennare ad alcuni paradigmi teorici tra i quali provare a identificare un modello di interpretazione adeguato alle specifiche situazioni esaminate. Questa riflessione condurrà, nella sezione conclusiva di questo scritto, a interrogare le responsabilità delle violazioni dei diritti di tutte le persone coinvolte negli avvenimenti narrati.
In contemporary European societies, rhetoric and practices of cultural stigmatization, reductioni... more In contemporary European societies, rhetoric and practices of cultural stigmatization, reductionism and discrimination may, by putting them at risk, deeply affect arts, traditions, customs and competences of several cultural and ethnic groups. From this viewpoint, this paper takes into account the situation of 'Romani People' as an emblematic, and maybe the most durable example of cultural construction based on prejudices and marginalisation. This 'case study' serves as a particularly good representative in order to question the actuality of the dynamic and inclusive assumptions which the Faro Convention places at the very basis of the processes of patrimonialization of CH.
Il metodo clinico dell’insegnamento del diritto è un approccio ormai ampiamente diffuso a livello... more Il metodo clinico dell’insegnamento del diritto è un approccio ormai ampiamente diffuso a livello globale grazie alle esperienze delle cliniche legali. Il presente contributo, suddiviso in due sezioni, analizza nella prima parte i fondamenti teorici e valoriali di tale approccio che, a partire da una specifica declinazione del metodo casistico, è in grado di produrre una profonda modifica dei centri di gravità dell’educazione giuridica tradizionale. La seconda sezione illustra un’esperienza concreta di applicazione del metodo clinico che esplicita le sue intrinseche finalità di giustizia sociale e di tutela delle vulnerabilità, specificamente con riguardo al supporto offerto dalla Clinica legale per i diritti umani dell’Università di Palermo a sostegno dei minori migranti soli richiedenti asilo.
The clinical legal method is a law teaching approach, which has been globally spread through the experiences of Legal clinics. This paper, divided into two sections, analyses in the first part the theoretical and value foundation of this approach, which, starting from a specific declination of the case method, can produce a profound change in the gravity centers of traditional legal education. Therefore, the second section describes a practical experience of the application of the clinical method by explicitly addressing its intrinsic aims of social justice and vulnerability protection, specifically with respect to the legal support offered by the Human Rights Clinic of the University of Palermo for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.
This article argues for a new centrality of the right to asylum within the Mediterranean zone and... more This article argues for a new centrality of the right to asylum within the Mediterranean zone and the necessity to defend and implement this right beyond the " humanitarian regime ". The first section describes the ways in which humanitarianism's logic has weakened the right to asylum through the implementation of specific EU migration policies since 2013. The second section focuses on the distinction between such a humanitarian regime and the human rights system, assessing the possibility of and necessity for a renewed defense of human rights, starting with the right to asylum. The third section focuses on the Charter of Lampedusa, a radical, alternative normative instrument developed through a grassroots process which involved activists and migrant rights groups and which represents a concrete illustration of how the horizon of human rights might be redefined. Keywords: the right to asylum, the Mediterranean, humanitarianism, EU migration policy, human rights, Charter of Lampedusa
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The conversation between Étienne Balibar and Nicholas De Genova engages with the Mediterranean of... more The conversation between Étienne Balibar and Nicholas De Genova engages with the Mediterranean of migration as a multifaceted, productive, and contested space, which can represent a counterpoint to a deep-rooted Eurocentric imaginary. Looking at the Mediterranean as a space produced by the mobility of the bodies crossing it and by the combination of different struggles, Balibar and De Genova comment on some of the political movements that have taken center stage in the Mediterranean region in the past few years and suggest that the most important challenge today is to mobilize a " Mediterranean point of view " whereby the political borders of Europe and its self-centered referentiality can be challenged.
This contribution aims to shed light on the specific mechanism of migrant categorization impleme... more This contribution aims to shed light on the specific mechanism of migrant categorization implemented by the so-called «Hotspot approach», which was launched by the EU Agenda on Migration in May 2015. This approach is here envisaged as a response to the current changes in the composition of migration towards Europe. Provisions contained in EU and Italian policy documents are compared with concrete practices enacted on the ground by investigating two case studies: the initial opening of the Hotspot at Milo, in Trapani, and the first months of functioning of the Hotspot on Lampedusa. The empirical research covers the period between the last months of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. The short-term consequences of the hotspot system have been the creation of thousands of irregularized migrants within the Italian territory, and a massive violation of the principles grounding the right to asylum. These consequences were so blatant to oblige Italian authorities to interrupt some of these practices. Yet, in the long term, this experimental phase can be regarded as a laboratory for the subsequent development of EU policies on migration and asylum.
Recent EU migration policies, traditionally centred on migrants' mobility governance, have increa... more Recent EU migration policies, traditionally centred on migrants' mobility governance, have increasingly been focused, since 2015,on the managing of the so-called refugee crisis. This transition has been accompanied by a new discursive and visual representation of migration, within which the impressive image of Aylan Kurdi and the chaotic and confused images of the Sylvester Night in Colonia, in 2015, take a significant role. This article analyses the impact of these two events, as they were narrated by the media, by identifying a nonlinear process which has led from the perception of a migrant crisis to the one of a refugee crisis and, consequently, from the implementation of EU anti-migration policies to the implementation of anti-refugee policies.
The so-called contemporary refugee crisis can be defined as a European " right-to-asylum crisis, ... more The so-called contemporary refugee crisis can be defined as a European " right-to-asylum crisis, " a crisis of its fundamental principles, namely, the protection of asylum seekers' rights and the accompanying principle of non-refoulement. Here the modalities and trends shaping the recognition of asylum applicants as refugees, and of migrants as asylum seekers, will be considered along with the current implementation of the notion of a " safe country " within the context of EU texts on migration developed since 2015. This " right-to-asylum crisis " is then briefly analyzed as both a symptom and a cause of the European Union project's wider political and cultural crisis. A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization. (Aimé Césaire, 1972)
Il presente contributo muove da una preliminare analisi del concetto di " cura " , per prendere p... more Il presente contributo muove da una preliminare analisi del concetto di " cura " , per prendere poi in esame le dina-miche di misconoscimento di questa dimensione fondante della condizione umana, e le conseguenze della sua traduzione in specifiche norme culturali, giuridiche e sociali. Potenzialità e limiti della cosiddetta " etica della cura " vengono quindi valutati prima di approfondire alcune delle principali critiche mosse alle teorie contrat-tualistiche rispetto alla loro inadeguatezza nel restituire la complessità delle relazioni che pretendono di normare. L'interazione dell'etica della cura con la prospettiva liberale della giustizia e dei diritti è infine posta a fonda-mento di un diritto universale di cura, integrando tra loro alcune tra le più promettenti elaborazioni teoriche a disposizione su questi temi, anche in relazione ad argomenti estremamente attuali come quelli del mercato della cura migrante e dei diritti delle coppie omosessuali e dei loro bambini. The present contribution begins with a preliminary analysis of the concept of " care " , before considering the dynamics of misrecognition of this fundamental dimension of the human condition. Peculiar attention will be devoted to the modalities in which this misrecognition has been translated into specific cultural, legal and social norms. Potentialities and limits of the so-called " Ethics of care " will be evaluated, along with some of the main criticisms to the contractualist theories with the regard to their inadequacy in reflecting the complexity of the relations they pretend to regulate. Finally, the interactions between the ethics of care and the liberal vision of justice and rights are regarded as the ground for a universal right to care, by integrating the most promising theoretical elaborations on these issues. Some extremely actual questions such as the migrant care market and the rights of homosexual couples and their children will be also considered.
This paper focuses on labour and sexual exploitation faced by Romanian female workers employed in... more This paper focuses on labour and sexual exploitation faced by Romanian female workers employed in the agricultural sector in Ragusa, Sicily, Italy. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2013 and 2014 with Romanian female farm workers in Ragusa, the paper identifies factors that contribute towards their vulnerability to exploitation. By paying specific attention to the experiences of women who are mothers with dependent children, we look at structural factors that increase their vulnerability and consider how this vulnerability 'forces' women into situations whereby they effectively accept and/or submit to abuse. We also highlight how European Union (EU) citizenship does not automatically protect migrants from such abuse. This is important because, as we argue, the mistreatment experienced by participants in this study can be regarded as cases of forced labour and trafficking, based on International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators 1 and the definition of trafficking provided by the Directive 2011/36/EU. For a long time, these cases have mostly been neglected by incompetent authorities or addressed using only repressive and assistentialist approaches. Thus, this paper also investigates the limits and potentialities of the Italian legal framework on trafficking, and the ways local institutions and organisations confront the rights violations occurring in the agricultural sector. We contend that in order to effectively counter these phenomena, labour rights measures and anti-trafficking interventions have to be combined based on a comprehensive approach aimed not only at assisting victims, but also at tackling the structural factors that create their vulnerability.
The essay analyses the current increase of abortions among migrant women in Italy, by comparing t... more The essay analyses the current increase of abortions among migrant women in Italy, by comparing the available data and statistics with those concerning the parallel decrease in the number of abortions among Italian women. Migrant women who interrupt pregnancy seem to experience situations of segregation and subordination, which remember at least partially the conditions lived by Italian women in the past. At the same time, they also deal with specific and additional difficulties, that can lead them to voluntary abortion. In the Italian case, the link between feminization of migrations and feminization of the labour market has been clearly expressed by the arrival of specific categories of migrant women-especially women from Eastern Europe, above all Rumenian-employed in the domestic and care work. Not by chance, those groups of women are those with the highest rate of abortions according to all statistics. The
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Books by alessandra sciurba
Papers by alessandra sciurba
I casi analizzati dimostreranno che la condizione di molte donne migranti europee che lavorano in Italia può essere definita come una condizione di tratta ai sensi della definizione offerta dalla Direttiva dell’Unione europea n. 36 del 2011 , la cosiddetta Direttiva Anti-tratta.
Il connubio tra sfruttamento, tratta e migrazioni interne all’Europa, osservato anche da una prospettiva di genere legata alla particolarità delle migrazioni femminili, costituisce quindi il contesto nel quale sono inseriti gli stralci biografici inclusi in queste pagine, così come le analisi e le riflessioni che da essi emergeranno.
Verranno indagati i tipi di “scelte” che hanno accompagnato la migrazione delle donne qui prese in considerazione, e le forme di “consenso” da queste donne prestato alle condizioni di sfruttamento di cui sono vittime. Tale indagine sarà quindi occasione per accennare ad alcuni paradigmi teorici tra i quali provare a identificare un modello di interpretazione adeguato alle specifiche situazioni esaminate. Questa riflessione condurrà, nella sezione conclusiva di questo scritto, a interrogare le responsabilità delle violazioni dei diritti di tutte le persone coinvolte negli avvenimenti narrati.
The clinical legal method is a law teaching approach, which has been globally spread through the experiences of Legal clinics. This paper, divided into two sections, analyses in the first part the theoretical and value foundation of this approach, which, starting from a specific declination of the case method, can produce a profound change in the gravity centers of traditional legal education. Therefore, the second section describes a practical experience of the application of the clinical method by explicitly addressing its intrinsic aims of social justice and vulnerability protection, specifically with respect to the legal support offered by the Human Rights Clinic of the University of Palermo for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.
I casi analizzati dimostreranno che la condizione di molte donne migranti europee che lavorano in Italia può essere definita come una condizione di tratta ai sensi della definizione offerta dalla Direttiva dell’Unione europea n. 36 del 2011 , la cosiddetta Direttiva Anti-tratta.
Il connubio tra sfruttamento, tratta e migrazioni interne all’Europa, osservato anche da una prospettiva di genere legata alla particolarità delle migrazioni femminili, costituisce quindi il contesto nel quale sono inseriti gli stralci biografici inclusi in queste pagine, così come le analisi e le riflessioni che da essi emergeranno.
Verranno indagati i tipi di “scelte” che hanno accompagnato la migrazione delle donne qui prese in considerazione, e le forme di “consenso” da queste donne prestato alle condizioni di sfruttamento di cui sono vittime. Tale indagine sarà quindi occasione per accennare ad alcuni paradigmi teorici tra i quali provare a identificare un modello di interpretazione adeguato alle specifiche situazioni esaminate. Questa riflessione condurrà, nella sezione conclusiva di questo scritto, a interrogare le responsabilità delle violazioni dei diritti di tutte le persone coinvolte negli avvenimenti narrati.
The clinical legal method is a law teaching approach, which has been globally spread through the experiences of Legal clinics. This paper, divided into two sections, analyses in the first part the theoretical and value foundation of this approach, which, starting from a specific declination of the case method, can produce a profound change in the gravity centers of traditional legal education. Therefore, the second section describes a practical experience of the application of the clinical method by explicitly addressing its intrinsic aims of social justice and vulnerability protection, specifically with respect to the legal support offered by the Human Rights Clinic of the University of Palermo for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.
In order to avoid this risks, the ‘commons’ approach is proposed as a different way to recognize, implement and transmit cultural heritage through its ‘commonification’.
This process is already at work in many different contexts, fields and sectors, as it will be illustrated by some concrete examples of commonification of cultural heritage throughout Europe.