Papers by ANDREA PETTRACHIN
International journal of migration and border studies, 2023
Policy sciences, Feb 22, 2024
Several scholars have observed persistent gaps between policy responses to complex, ambiguous and... more Several scholars have observed persistent gaps between policy responses to complex, ambiguous and politicized problems (such as migration, climate change and the recent Covid-19 pandemic) and evidence or 'facts'. While most existing explanations for this 'evidence-policy gap' in the migration policy field focus on knowledge availability and knowledge use by policymakers, this article shifts the focus to processes of knowledge formation, exploring the questions of what counts as 'evidence' for migration policymakers and what are the sources of information that shape their understandings of migration policy issues. It does so, by developing a network-centred approach and focusing on elite US policy-makers in the field of irregular and asylum-seeking migration. This 'heuristic case' is used to challenge existing explanations of the 'evidence-policy gap' and to generate new explanations to be tested in future research. Our findings-based on qualitative and quantitative data collected in 2015-2018 through 57 elite interviews analysed applying social network analysis and qualitative content analysis-challenge scholarly claims about policymakers' lack of access to evidence about migration. We also challenge claims that migration-related decision-making processes are irrational or merely driven by political interests, showing that policymakers rationally collect information, select sources and attribute different relevance to 'evidence' acquired. We instead highlight that knowledge acquisition processes by elite policymakers are decisively shaped by dynamics of trust and perceptions of political and organizational like-mindedness among actors, and that political and ideological factors determine what qualifies as 'evidence' in the first place.
Mediterranean Politics, Apr 14, 2020
Through analysis of decision-making dynamics on migration in Sicily, this paper shows how party e... more Through analysis of decision-making dynamics on migration in Sicily, this paper shows how party elites define strategies to politicise migration. Conventional explanations of the politicisation of migration assume that party elites politicise migration in reaction to increasing flows and issue salience, explicitly ignoring cognitive factors and actors' reasoning. Conversely, I show that Sicilian party elites' politicisation strategies are not shaped by objective evidence about public attitudes, salience and the effects of migration, but, rather, by actors' understandings of these objective factors, embedded in deeply rooted narratives and reinforced by the outputs of the decision-making dynamics that they contribute to shape.
Contemporary Italian Politics, Apr 13, 2023
International Migration Review, Feb 9, 2023
The existing literature on the multilevel governance of migration in Europe and on migration fede... more The existing literature on the multilevel governance of migration in Europe and on migration federalism in the United States tends to assume that the modes of city network (CN) mobilization can be accounted for by different institutional opportunity structures which favor collaborative relations with higher levels of government and civil society in Europe and more contentions interactions in the United States. However, comparative research on how CNs mobilize in different multilevel systems is scarce and largely focuses on official discourse. To fill this gap, this article conducts an inductive policy frame analysis of the discourse and actions of two CNs—the Working Group on Migration and Integration in Europe and Cities for Action in the United States—and examines official documents they released between 2014 and 2019. We find that the actions of CNs are often decoupled from their discourse and are centered on political advocacy, thus challenging the idea that modes of CN mobilization are shaped by institutional opportunity structures. We propose an alternative understanding of CNs as political actors that adapt their discourse and actions to the multilevel political context in which they operate, i.e., to the political leaning of national governments or to the policy issues at stake.
The local sphere of asylum policy, during the refugee crisis, became a key area of intervention f... more The local sphere of asylum policy, during the refugee crisis, became a key area of intervention for local governments. The existing literature on the topic has largely neglected the role of political affiliation in local asylum policy-making and the implications for policy implementation of mayors' subjective understandings and decisionmaking. This article aims to fill these gaps by focusing on the case of 'socially useful works' (SUW) for asylumseekers, a local policy that was defined as the Italian way to deal with the reception and integration of asylumseekers. The article first analyses the outputs of this policy, assessing which local governments developed SUW policies, what types of measures were implemented and with what policy goals. Second, by applying insights from Weick's sensemaking approach and relying on semi-structured interviews conducted in the Veneto region, it develops an account that analyses how and why these measures were adopted. The analysis concludes, first, that mayors' party affiliations are a strong predictor of how SUW policies are (or are not) implemented. Second, it shows that mayors are not mere passive implementers: they adapt state-level guidelines to their own aims in ways that powerfully shape policy implementation and its outcomes. Third, the article shows how decisions about the implementation of SUW policies are significantly influenced by the mayors' diverse interpretations of the many anti-migrant protests against asylum-seekers, and by different identity processes, past experiences and social relations.
Policy Studies, Mar 15, 2023
Social Science Research Network, 2019
Challenging and complementing the existing literature on the Italian refugee crisis, this working... more Challenging and complementing the existing literature on the Italian refugee crisis, this working paper develops an actor-centred approach to open the 'black box' of asylum governance processes, showing the constitutive effects of governance on the asylum issue. The approach developed is applied to the case of the Veneto region in Italy during the recent "refugee crisis", a heuristic case-study that shows the value of the approach developed. The paper, first, investigates the cognitive and environmental mechanisms that shape key actors' asylum policy decisions. Drawing concepts and ideas from framing and sensemaking theories, it shows that, while there is certainly a strategic element that shapes actors' policy preferences, there is also a meaningful cognitive component in asylum governance. The analysis reveals, indeed, that actors' strategies are powerfully shaped by political actors' (different) understandings of public attitudes on migration, rather than by attitudes per se. Secondly, SNA is applied to examine how such understandings are located within and depend upon network relations and to investigate actors' agency, power and interactions. The analysis shows that local asylum policy outcomes are deeply influenced by the "politics of policy-making", i.e. by power dynamics and how powerful actors position themselves, behave and mobilise their understandings. Ultimately, the paper sheds light on the interplay between the "regulatory" and the "public reaction" dimensions of the Italian asylum crisis, illustrating the politicisation of asylum governance and the relationship between public attitudes on migration, frame emergence, policy-making, politics and public mobilisations in the active constitution of the Italian asylum crisis.
Journal of European Public Policy, May 14, 2022
Territory, Politics, Governance, Oct 4, 2021
This article sheds light on the so-far neglected role of decision-makers' subjective interpretati... more This article sheds light on the so-far neglected role of decision-makers' subjective interpretations and cognitive factors in local asylum policymaking, complementing and challenging the existing literature explaining local policy responses to the 2015 European 'refugee crisis'. The article asks: How and why do local decision-makers interpret the environment in which they operate? Do subjective interpretations contribute to influence local asylum policymaking, and how? To analyse these questions, I adopt an actor-centred approach grounded on framing and sensemaking theories and on Bevir and Rhodes' concept of 'situated agency', and develop a methodology based on anonymous interviews and social network analysis. I apply such approach to the heuristic case of Tuscany, an Italian region where the local asylum policies produced during the 'crisis' cannot be convincingly explained by looking merely at structural, institutional, or strategic factors. I develop three arguments. First, at least in situations of 'crisis', local decision-makers are not mere passive recipients of information, but active interpreters and rationalizers, whose subjective interpretations result from framing processes and several judgement heuristics. Second, these interpretations can decisively influence local migration policymaking. Third, these interpretations can be also shaped by policy outputs, meaning that local asylum policymaking processes can have important constitutive effects.
Contemporary Italian Politics, Mar 26, 2020
Key political and legislative developments related to immigration in Italy in 2019 were crystalli... more Key political and legislative developments related to immigration in Italy in 2019 were crystallised, represented and powerfully mediated in public debate by the Sea-Watch incident, which was emblematic not only of the politicisation of immigration in Italy but also of underlying paradoxes. One paradox is that migration flows to Italy across the Mediterranean attracted huge political and media attention despite being much smaller than migration for family or employment reasons. Another is that Italians' attitudes to immigration have generally become more favourable, although issue salience has been persistently high with important political effects. The third is that, while ostensibly driven by the intention of reducing undocumented migration, Matteo Salvini's actions as Interior Minister may lead to its increase and feed the problems his actions are supposed to address. While paradoxes of these types are evident in other destination countries, the commitment and political will to resolve them has further diminished in Italy in 2019.
Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, Oct 19, 2021
Through analysis of the dynamics of decision-making on migration in Sicily, this paper shows how ... more Through analysis of the dynamics of decision-making on migration in Sicily, this paper shows how party elites define strategies to politicise (or not) the migration issue. Conventional explanations of the politicization of immigration have largely neglected decision-making processes and explicitly ignored the reasoning of political actors, assuming that cognitive factors and strategic considerations are less relevant in the migration policy domain than in others. They conversely assume that party elites politicise migration in reaction to pressures caused by increasing flows or issue salience, anti-migrant public attitudes and/or far right propaganda. In contrast, this paper shows how actors' understandings of migration flows and of public reactions are formed, and how they shape or influence the dynamics of politicisation. By doing so, the paper develops three key arguments. First, it is not self-evident that increases in migration flows, issue salience and/or social mobilisations lead to political contestation of migration or initiate reactive responses by political elites. Second, party elites' decisions to politicise migration or not are shaped by their understandings of the effects of migration on underlying social systems rather than by objective evidence about public attitudes or social mobilisations. Third, these understandings are embedded in narratives, influenced by inherited traditions, and reinforced by the outputs of the very decision-making dynamics that they contribute to shape. To develop these arguments, the paper adopts an actor-centred constructivist approach and investigates decision-making dynamics by applying insights from framing theories and sensemaking approaches.
Contemporary Italian Politics, Dec 17, 2021
ABSTRACT The actions of populist parties in government are typically assumed to be driven more by... more ABSTRACT The actions of populist parties in government are typically assumed to be driven more by their ‘host’ ideologies than by their ‘thin’ populist ideology, especially in the highly politicized field of migration policy. We challenge this assumption with an analysis of Italian local governments led by the populist Lega and Five Star Movement during the so-called ‘refugee crisis’. Our analysis not only examines their policies and discourses, but also enquires into their decision-making processes. To do so, we develop an approach that derives insights from framing and political marketing theories, and use it to reconstruct the decision-making processes of Italian local governments, relying on 46 semi-structured interviews with mayors. Our analysis shows, first, that there is frequent decoupling of populist actors’ discourses and actions from their parties’ (host) ideological positions towards migration. Second, to a greater extent compared to those of non-populist parties, the strategies of populist parties in local government are shaped by their perceptions of local attitudes to immigration and the need to act according to the perceived ‘will of the people’. Third, this voter-driven attitude leads to a populist policy-making approach characterized by an adaptation of migration policy choices to the perceived public salience of policy issues.
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Aug 16, 2022
International Communication Gazette, Feb 16, 2018
This article, conceived as a mainly empirically based contribution, analyses a discursive context... more This article, conceived as a mainly empirically based contribution, analyses a discursive context composed of 58 documents proclaiming Internet-related human rights drafted and launched by different actors between 1997 and 2015. The article hypothesises that a discourse on Internet-related human rights is being shaped, autonomous from the broader discourse on Internet governance. Therefore, differently from other scholarly works, it does not focus on the many initiatives aimed at defining principles for the governance of the Internet but only on those documents that specifically aim to proclaim Internet-related rights and freedoms. The article, first, analyses the findings of a software-enabled content analysis aimed at (1) identifying the key issues that dominate the discourse, (2) assessing the evolution of the discourse in the last two decades and (3) identifying the thematic priorities of different types of drafting entities. Second, it discusses possible research, policy and legal developments.
Contemporary Italian Politics
International Migration Review
The existing literature on the multilevel governance of migration in Europe and on migration fede... more The existing literature on the multilevel governance of migration in Europe and on migration federalism in the United States tends to assume that the modes of city network (CN) mobilization can be accounted for by different institutional opportunity structures which favor collaborative relations with higher levels of government and civil society in Europe and more contentions interactions in the United States. However, comparative research on how CNs mobilize in different multilevel systems is scarce and largely focuses on official discourse. To fill this gap, this article conducts an inductive policy frame analysis of the discourse and actions of two CNs—the Working Group on Migration and Integration in Europe and Cities for Action in the United States—and examines official documents they released between 2014 and 2019. We find that the actions of CNs are often decoupled from their discourse and are centered on political advocacy, thus challenging the idea that modes of CN mobiliza...
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Papers by ANDREA PETTRACHIN