Maurizio Ambrosini, university of Milan

Better than our fears? Refugees in Italy, between rhetoric of exclusion and local projects of inclusion

Flows of refugees and Southern Europe on the frontline

• About 81% of refugees (2012) are welcomed in countries of the so called Third World, but public opinion and governments fear the invasion of asylum seekers

• They were 70% ten years ago• Less then 15% are received in the EU• The “rhetoric of abuse” (Schuster) does

not fit with actual data

The actual reception of asylum seekers

• The first country in the world for what concerns reception of asylum seekers is Pakistan (1,600,000), followed by Iran (900,000), Germany (590,000) and Kenya (570,000).

• Related to the population: Jordan 49 out of 1,000 inhabitants; Chad 33; Lebanon 32; Democratic Republic of Congo 24; Syria 23; Mauritania 23

• Related to the GNP per capita: Pakistan 552; Ethiopia 303; Kenya 301; South Sudan 209; Chad 200

Europe and the role of Italy• The provision of the Dublin

convention concerning the application for asylum in the “first safe country” has brought the countries of Southern Europe into the frontline.

• Among these countries, Italy has a leading position

• The Northern countries are pushing their Southern partners to do more for the reception of refugees

Refugees in Northern and Southern Europe

• Even today, Italy hosts some 65,000 refugees (2012) in all, compared with 594,000 in Germany, 218,000 in France, 150,000 in the UK and 93,000 in Sweden

• New applications (2012): 64,000 in Germany, 14,000 in Italy

Italian asylum policies

• Italy still lacks a national law on the reception of refugees, although it has signed international treaties and European conventions that oblige it to recognize the right of asylum.

• It has put itself on the margins of the routes of asylum seekers for a long time: until 1990, it only recognized refugees from Eastern Europe.

• Exceptions were made in the ‘70s for Chilean and Argentinian political refugees, then for boat people arriving from Vietnam and Cambodia

• In the ‘80s thousands of refugees arrived from countries such as Eritrea, Somalia, Iran, the Palestinian territories, mainly as students

The refugees of the Balkan wars

• At the time of the Balkan wars, in the ‘90s, provisional reception measures were adopted in the form of temporary residence permits on humanitarian grounds.

• After a brief period of protection (three months), supported by state funding, the refugees (in total the official figure was 77,000) were then in fact given the same status as economic migrants

• But they had to find the means to live independently, negotiating their way through the black economy and the formal economy.

The silent policy• As a standard practice, the Italian

authorities unofficially let aspiring refugees in transit pass through, silently helping them on their way to other countries.

• Even today, Italy hosts some 65,000 refugees (2012) in all, compared with 594,000 in Germany, 218,000 in France, 150,000in the UK and 93,000 in Sweden

• New applications (2012): 64,000 in Germany, 14,000 in Italy

Boat Landings

• In the last few years the majority of asylum seekers have arrived by boat, and landed on the small island of Lampedusa

• Lampedusa has thus become the symbol of unwanted immigration, and for many people it represents the invasion of the country by hordes of desperate people

• The arrivals reached their peak in 2011, with 50-60,000 people landed, and on the whole reach the amount of about 100,000 in the last three years

• But they are a small fraction of the immigrant population in Italy (4,5-5,3 millions), and even of irregular immigration (400-500,000 people)

The landings at Lampedusa and on the Southern coasts

• Till the 14th October, 35,000 migrants have landed in Italy. 9,805 come from Syria, 8,443 from Eritrea, 3,140 from Somalia, 1,058 from Mali, 879 from Afghanistan.

• 73% on the total of landed people, about 24,000, can obtain international protection as refugees.

Tightening the borders

• The issues related to security and the fight against illegal immigration were among the key issues of the election campaign of 2008 and of the action of the government in the period 2008-2010

• In a context of restriction of immigration policies, in 2009 the Italian government drew up new and more stringent agreements with Libya, turning away boats carrying a total of about 800 migrants

• The applications for humanitarian protection dropped to 17,000 in 2009 and to about 10,000 in 2010

• Italy faced a conflict with UN and was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights

The new emergency• In 2011, the arrival of some thousands of

people from North Africa has been labeled as an “emergency” and even a “human tsunami”

• No reception measures were adopted in advance

• A fierce rhetoric of closure was used• Afterwards, about 15,000 temporary

humanitarian permits were granted and some assistance measures were adopted

• But the hope, often explicit, is to allow them to pass through the country and to go abroad

• A political tension with France was the result

Integration without protection?

• Alongside the silent strategy of passage, the main Italian policy for refugees can be labeled as “integration without protection”

• They are confused with economic migrants, and often regularized as informal workers

• Most of them have become integrated through work, helped by ethnic networks and to some extent by several solidarity institutions (Catholic church, trade unions, charities…)

Protection without integration?• The so called “North African Emergency” (ENA)

was faced distributing the asylum seekers on the national territory

• NGOs and various types of reception centres were involved

• The local experiences were very differentiated, with investments to integration or, on the contrary, the protection of the “naked life”

• Huge uncertainty about the future of the refugees

• The experience was concluded at the end of March 2013, giving 500 euros to each refugee

• On the whole, the experience was expensive and unsatisfactory in its results

Some better practices

• In the last few years, some better practices have been developed, based on collaboration between organizations at national level (SPRAR), local authorities and NGO’s.

• 3,000 refugees have been welcomed in 138 local projects for small groups of people (on average 22), in which accommodation, training and employment services are provided

• Other local resources are often activated

Other independent projects• Other independent projects (Turin,

Lombardy), involving networks of associations and local authorities, have achieved good results

• On average, 50% of refugees have found a job

• Entry into the labour market at the lowest levels remains frequent, and the economic crisis has made it more difficult to find better jobs

Conclusion: better than our fears?

• Italy is perhaps the European country where the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee public rhetoric has reached its highest levels

• By contrast, in practice the demand for labour and amnesties legitimate the presence of migrants

• Refugees are often confused with economic migrants

• But local projects and the cooperation with NGOs show us another way, with several interesting results: we can be better than our fears