Who Feels Safe? Uncertain Futures and Enduring Aspirations in Italy

ABSTRACT

In an attempt of going beyond a simple opposition between those conceived as agents and those seen as subjects of disciplinary power, this article engages with a reflection on differential states of precariousness and (un)safety, which involve both ‘forced migrants’ and ‘citizens’. Drawing on ethnographic research in Milan (Italy), I outline some recent institutional changes in the Italian asylum system, which led to the political abandonment of refugees in situations of increasing marginalisation, but also to the layoff of several frontline asylum workers, who were often young people hit by the consequences of economic recession. Through the words and biographical trajectories of three young women (two asylum workers and one refugee), I trace the emergence of contested temporal and work experiences, marked by widespread feelings of uncertainty and devaluation. I approach empirically the idea of (un)safety as a material and bodily condition and as an emotional state, directly linked to the perceived possibility of being able to orient oneself towards the future. By zooming in on differential experiences of (un)safety and precariousness – but also on enduring aspirations – I aim at documenting the material and affective entanglements of acts of government, as well as their inherent potential for empowerment and transformation.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank my research interlocutors, who kindly shared with me their words and time. I am also thankful to the editors and fellow contributors of the special issue “Questioning the Safe Haven” for interesting and fruitful collective discussions.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. It is noteworthy that by referring to future-oriented qualities, I do not mean to imply an unquestionably positive or inherently political orientation towards what will come. Engagements towards the future, as well as forms of hope, occur in concrete social settings and may be empowering as well as constraining (Kleist and Jansen 2016).

2. The MIUR-FARE HOASI, based at the University of Trento, Italy. As in many other ethnographic projects carried out in those years, fieldwork underwent several interruptions due to the global pandemic and relative social distancing rules. However, I have personally been involved in different stages of ethnographic research with asylum seekers, refugees and social workers in Italy since 2010.

3. At that time, the local administration aimed at establishing Milan as a ‘city of transit and refuge’ (Caponio 2018). Yet, Italy was also criticised for its informal ‘policies of laissez-passer’. The municipal reception system for transit migrants was definitely closed in the first half of 2017 (see also Artero and Fontanari 2021).

4. All names and some more recognisable details have been changed to protect research participants’ anonymity.

5. In Italy social and immigration services are generally outsourced to a multiplicity of non-governmental actors, such as social cooperatives, NGOs, charitable and volunteer organisations. On the specificities of the governance of social services in Milan, see (Polizzi and Vitale 2017). On the multi-level governance of asylum reception in Italy, see (Campomori and Ambrosini 2020).

6. The Italian asylum reception system is very complex: it involves several state and non-governmental actors, strong regional variations and recurrent changes of functions. For a synthetic analysis of asylum procedures and policies until 2015, see Sorgoni (2015). For an exploration of recent shifts in Italian policies meant to govern asylum seekers, and their moral underpinnings, see Marchetti (2020).

7. Miriam and her colleagues were asking a dismissal for ‘just cause’, to prove that their contractual rights had not been respected. They were asking this kind of dismissal also in order to be eligible for some social benefits, such as unemployment allowance.

8. Grounded in leftist social movements, self-managed Social Centers are a typical feature of Italian post-industrial urban landscape. Squatted empty warehouses, factories or vacant schools are the setting for a multiplicity of self-organised social, cultural and political activities (see, e.g., Casaglia 2018).

9. Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Lisbon Treaty), Article 67.

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was supported by the Italian Ministry of Education , University and Research (MIUR), in framework of the MIUR-FARE HOASI project based at the University of Trento.