Italian migration policy and politics: Exacerbating paradoxes

2016

Migration represents one of the key issues in both Italian and European politics, and it has triggered EU-wide debates and negotiations, alongside alarmist and often sensationalist news reporting on the activities of government, party and social movement actors. The Politics of Migration in Italy explores what happens when previously undiscussed issues become central to political agendas and are publicly debated in the mass media. Examining how political actors engage with the issue of migration in electoral campaigning, this book highlights how complex policy issues are addressed selectively by political entrepreneurs and how the responses of political actors are influenced by strategic incentives and ongoing events. This book studies the dynamics of the politicization of the immigration issue across three local contexts in Italy-Prato, Milan and Rome-which differ systematically with respect to crucial economic, cultural and security dimensions of immigration. Offering an innovative exploration of party competition and migration in Italy, as well as providing the conceptual and analytical tools to understand how these dynamics play out beyond the Italian case, this book is essential reading for students, scholars and policymakers working in the areas of migration studies, agenda-setting and European politics more generally.

Immigration, in E. Jones, G. Pasquino, eds., Oxford Handbook of Italian Politics and Society, Oxford University Press, pp. 633-644., 2016

Rome, IAI, July 2019, 5 p. (IAI Commentaries ; 19|44), 2019

Italy’s coalition government led by Giuseppe Conte and composed of the Five Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle – M5S) and the League party is celebrating itself as a transformational force on migration policy compared to its predecessor. However, its policy choices, combined with a broader nationalist push and a neglect of careful diplomacy in relations with traditional allies and neighbours, have caused Italy to progressively lose influence and credibility at both the European and multilateral level. It is also a self-defeating approach, given that ultimately Italy will need external support in order to address migratory flows.

Análisis del Real Instituto Elcano (ARI), 2008

Este ARI examina los recientes cambios en la política de inmigración italiana llevados a cabo en 2008 por el gobierno conservador de Silvio Berlusconi. Las medidas contra la migración irregular aprobadas en 2008 han suscitado una oleada de críticas en toda la UE.

Many have described 2017 as a turning point for Italy’s external migration policies. A large portion of responsibility has been ascribed to Marco Minniti, a veteran of Italy’s secret services and since December 2016 Minister of the Interior in the centre-left coalition government led by the Democratic Party (Partito Democratico, PD). But what have been the fundamentals of Italy’s migration policy and what can one expect of these policies following the Italian elections on 4 March 2018?

Journal of modern Italian studies, 2004

Since the start of the debate on immigration in Italy there has been considerable interest in analysing the ways in which the public discourse on immigration has changed over time. This article examines the changes that have taken place in the period from 1969 to 2001. It is based on systematic study of the principal weekly news magazines (1969)(1970)(1971)(1972)(1973)(1974)(1975)(1976)(1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981) and on the daily press (1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001). It demonstrates significant changes in the ways in which immigrants have been portrayed and in the situations with which they are associated. These changes do not correspond with assumptions that continue to prevail in much of the press coverage. The study indicates that the key interpretative themes in the debate were evident prior to the mid-1970s, but that the politicization of the immigrant question in the period 1989-1990 critically changed the terms of public discourse. While the press is highly selective in the way these issues are presented, this has little to do with the criminalization of the immigrants (a theme on which most of the research on immigration has focused) but is more closely linked with the lack of transparency that continues to surround the participation of foreign workers in the Italian economy.

2020

Especially since the outbreak of the 2014-2015 so-called ‘migration crisis’, immigration policy has come to be frequently regarded as part of Italy’s foreign policy. Although the management of inbound popu-lation movements clearly comprises a relevant external dimension, the relations between immigration and foreign policy are less plain than might appear at first sight. Based on this assumption, the paper examines the domestic-international nexus in Italy’s immigration policy, the association of the latter with foreign policy, and how this process is connected to Italy’s participation in the migration and asy-lum policy system of the European Union (EU). In particular, the article examines the role played by Interior Ministers in bridging the domestic-international divide typical of this policy area, as well as how the country’s participation in the EU migration policy system has backed up this process.

2020

Migration Pathways. A historic, demographic and policy review of four countries of the European Union, Brussels: European Commission Research Directorate, 2001

South European Society and Politics

Numerous studies have shown that there is a structural gap between restrictive migration policies and expansive inflows in democratic countries; yet scholars have not yet sufficiently reflected on how this gap is shaped in times of crisis. Focusing on the case of Italy in the years between 2007 and 2017, this article aims to answer the following research questions: How have the different challenges triggered by economic and humanitarian crises affected the gap between restrictive policies and expansive outcomes in Italy? Which actors have shaped this gap? Our analysis reconsiders the two dominant hypotheses in the literature-the 'client politics' and the 'embedded liberalism' hypotheses-by showing how in the last decade the migration policy gap in Italy has not been the result of pressure by actors in the economic and liberal norm spheres, but rather reflects conflictual relationships within the political-institutional sphere between Italian governments and EU institutions.