Civil Society Actors and the 2020 Italian Amnesty: Bordering to Deborder?

ABSTRACT

Using the 2020 regularisation of irregular migrant workers in Italy as a case study, the paper inquires about the role of Civil Society Actors (hereafter CSAs) in (de/re)bordering processes. Conceptualising borders as filters that draw distinctions through the sociocultural, legal and administrative constructs of deservingness entailed by immigration policymaking, the paper shows that, when implementing the regularisation programme, CSAs reproduce governmental distinctions between deserving and undeserving migrant workers and employers. However, CSAs can also find ways to challenge or circumvent internal borders, broadening the range of legitimate potential applicants through more or less visible and confrontational struggles, bending or even breaking the rules. In doing so, they redefine internal borders through alternative definitions of migrants’ deservingness.

KEYWORDS:

• Borders
• civil society
• immigration policies
• amnesties

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The so-called patronato is a body stemming from both workers’ and employers’ associations recognised by the Ministry of Labour with the aim of carrying out free bureaucratic practices regarding social security and pensions. Typically, patronati carry out practices concerning all types of benefits including those of disability, unemployment and welfare, but also assistance to non-EU workers applying for a residence permit. Unlike trade unions, which are financed by the registration fees of the workers, the services of a patronato are free because they are financed by the state.

2 For private citizens, this meant an annual income of 20,000 euros when alone, or 27,000 when it concerned the income of a family. For corporate entities, the income had to be above 30,000 euros annually.

3 CSAs denounced these illegitimate requests, for instance NAGA: https://www.meltingpot.org/Naga-Una-sanatoria-insoddisfacente-e-contro-i-richiedenti.html#.YD_iP2RKjfY

4 For instance, cases in which both the regularisation tax and social security contributions were paid by migrant workers themselves were widely reported.

5 ASGI (Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione) is an association of lawyers, jurists and scholars, who discuss and contribute to immigration legislation, with the intention of promoting the protection of migrant rights in the political-parliamentary debate and in the work of public authorities.

6 For example, the ‘Ero Straniero’ network, created by the Italian Radical Party in collaboration with NGOs, non-profit legal associations, Christian organisations and migrant organisations.

7 For example, the Grei25 network: a collaboration of NGOs, researchers, lawyers, cultural mediators and other professionals from the immigration field that had mobilised to pressure for the regularisation programme.

8 (D.L. 130/2020).

9 https://erostraniero.radicali.it/salviamolasanatoria/.

10 In theory, every employer possessing a SPID (a relatively new tool through which Italian citizens can access governmental services online) could submit the procedure under the comma 1. However, for some, often elderly employers, this digital process was a serious obstacle and therefore, they reached out to CSAs. If these organisations wanted to manage more than five applications, they had to apply to the Ministry of Interiors to be formally authorised to proceed.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by MIUR: [grant number 2017999JXZ].

Notes on contributors

Paola Bonizzoni

Paola Bonizzoni is Associate Professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Milan, where she teaches “Globalization, Diversity and Inequality” and “Society and Social Change”. She has carried out research on several migration-related issues, including (il)legalization and family reunification policies and migrants’ strategies, immigration governance in small local contexts, intra-EU Italian youth mobility in a time of economic crisis, gendered and familial experiences of migration. She is currently involved in a research exploring the role of volunteering activities in the refugee field.

Minke Hajer

Minke Hajer is a Post-doc researcher at the Dipartimento di scienze sociali e politiche of the Università degli studi di Milano. She currently works on a project regarding the integration and practices of citizenship of asylum seekers in Italy. Her main research interests are citizenship, irregular migration, and social movements.