Italy’s Migration Policies Combating Irregular Immigration: from the Early Days to the Present Times

Abstract

Italian migration policies combating irregular immigration from the early 20^th century to the present times have been increasingly debated and controversial. Four phases are detectable: the absence of a legal framework while Italy was still an emigration country, the first regulations of the 1980s, policies influenced by both the European integration process and the increase in immigration until 2002 and, lastly, the country’s controversial approaches since 2004. What is noticeable is a dichotomy in Italy’s migration policies, with generally consistent internal measures and often contrasting external ones.

Keywords:

• Italy
• migration policy
• immigration
• irregular immigration
• asylum seekers
• history of immigration
• Arab Spring

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank co-editor Gabriele Tonne and the anonymous reviewers of The International Spectator for their helpful comments on this paper.

Notes

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² UNHCR Italia, Il punto di vista dell'UNHCR; European Parliament, Irregular immigration in the EU, 1-4.

³ Del Boca and Venturini, Italian Migration, 1-45.

⁴ Mainly from neighbouring countries, followed by the US, Russia, Argentina, Brazil and Turkey. See Colombo and Sciortino, “Italian Immigration”, 49-70.

⁵ https://www.senato.it/documenti/repository/istituzione/costituzione_inglese.pdf

⁶ Tintori and Romei, “Emigration from Italy after Crisis”, 49-64.

⁷ Colombo and Sciortino, “Italian Immigration”, 49-70.

⁸ Zaslove, “Closing the door?”, 99-118.

⁹ Caritas Italiana, 35 anni di immigrazione, 1-9.

¹⁰ Veugelers, “Recent immigration politics in Italy”, 33-49.

¹¹ Colombo and Sciortino, “Italian Immigration”.

¹² Italian Parliament, Law No. 943 of 1986, 30 December 1986, art. 12. https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1987/01/12/086U0943/sg.

¹³ Convey and Kupiszewski, “Keeping up with Schengen”, 939-53.

¹⁴ Del Boca and Venturini, Italian Migration.

¹⁵ Veugelers, “Recent immigration politics in Italy”.

¹⁶ Italian Parliament, Law Decree No. 416 of 1989, 30 December 1989, art. 1-13, https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1990/03/21/090A1329/sg.

¹⁷ Italian Parliament, Law No. 39 of 1990, 28 February 1990, art. 10. https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1990/02/28/090G0075/sg.

¹⁸ Castellazzi, “Le implicazioni legislative”, 113-5.

¹⁹ Ibidem, 116-7. Author’s translation.

²⁰ Fondazione ISMU, “Stima della presenza straniera”.

²¹ Zincone and Caponio, Immigrant and immigration policy-making, 1-20.

²² Kosic and Triandafyllidou, “Albanian and Polish Migration to Italy”, 1413–46.

²³ Bontempelli, Il governo dell’immigrazione in Italia, 115-36.

²⁴ European Community, Maastricht Treaty, art. K.1. Maastricht, 7 February 1992, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=LEGISSUM:xy0026&from=EN.

²⁵ Paparusso et al., “Immigration Policies in Italy”, 499-546.

²⁶ Di Mauro, Origini dei centri di permanenza temporanea, 2.1.

²⁷ European Community, Amsterdam Treaty, Title IIIa. Amsterdam, 2 October 1997. www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/treaty/pdf/amst-en.pdf.

²⁸ Dal Lago, Non-persone: l'esclusione dei migranti, 27-8.

²⁹ Italian Parliament, Law No. 40 of 1998, 6 March 1998, art. 12.1. http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/98040l.htm.

³⁰ Italian Parliament, Legislative Decree No. 286 of 1998, 25 July 1998, art. 21. https://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/deleghe/98286dl.htm.

³¹ Di Bello, La devianza degli immigrati, 1.6.

³² Koff, “Security, Markets and Power”, 397-415.

³³ Doomernik, “Migrant Smuggling between Two Logics”, 113-29.

³⁴ Testaì, “From (e)migrant to (im)migrant”, 24-38.

³⁵ Reyneri, “Role of underground economy”, 313-31.

³⁶ Reyneri and Fullin, “Ethnic penalties in the transition”, 247-63.

³⁷ Ambrosini, “Immigration in Italy”, 175-94.

³⁸ Triandafyllidou and Ambrosini, “Irregular Immigration Control”, 251-73.

³⁹ Abbondanza and Bailo, “Electoral payoff of immigration flows”.

⁴⁰ Fondazione ISMU, “Stima della presenza straniera”.

⁴¹ Italian Parliament, Law No. 189 of 2002, 30 July 2002, art. 33. https://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/02189l.htm.

⁴² Colombo and Sciortino, “The Bossi-Fini law”, 162-79.

⁴³ McMahon, Immigration and Citizenship, 48.

⁴⁴ Amnesty International, Rapporto Annuale 2006, 5.

⁴⁵ In its judgment no. 22 of 2007, https://www.giurcost.org/decisioni/2007/0022s-07.html

⁴⁶ Fondazione ISMU, Stima della presenza straniera.

⁴⁷ Italian Parliament, Legislative Decree No. 241 of 2004, 14 September 2004. https://www.parlamento.it/parlam/leggi/decreti/04241d.htm.

⁴⁸ Peers, “Legislative update”, 219-47.

⁴⁹ Italian Parliament, Law Decree No. 92 of 2008, 23 May 2008, https://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/decreti/08092d.htm.

⁵⁰ Italian Government, Trattato di amicizia, partenariato e cooperazione tra la Repubblica Italiana e la Grande Giamahiria Araba Libica Popolare Socialista, art. 14-23. Benghazi, 2008. https://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Trattato_di_amicizia,_partenariato_e_cooperazione_tra_la_Repubblica_Italiana_e_la_Grande_Giamahiria_Araba_Libica_Popolare_Socialista.

⁵¹ Fondazione ISMU, Sbarchi di migranti registrati.

⁵² Panizzon et al., Palgrave Handbook of Labour Migration, 417-21.

⁵³ The situation was comparable to Australia’s contemporary ‘Pacific Solution’. See Abbondanza, Il liberalismo dell’Australia, 8-14.

⁵⁴ Marfleet and Cetti, “Identity Politics”, 233.

⁵⁵ Italian Parliament, Law No. 94 of 2009, 15 July 2009, art. 1, 15a. https://www.parlamento.it/parlam/leggi/09094l.htm.

⁵⁶ Italian Parliament, Law No. 102 of 2009, 3 August 2009. https://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/09102l.htm.

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⁵⁹ Fondazione ISMU, Sbarchi di migranti registrati.

⁶⁰ Marfleet and Cetti, “Identity Politics”, 230-31.

⁶¹ European Court of Human Rights, Hirsi Jamaa and Others v. Italy.

⁶² Italian Parliament, Legislative Decree No. 109 of 2012, 16 July 2012. https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/gunewsletter/dettaglio.jsp?service=1&datagu=2012-07-25&task=dettaglio&numgu=172&redaz=012G0136&tmstp=1343719748160.

⁶³ From Latin, ‘our sea’.

⁶⁴ Cuttitta, From Cap Anamur to Mare Nostrum, 21-37.

⁶⁵ Hammond, “The Mediterranean Migration Crisis”, 1-12.

⁶⁶ Italian Navy, Dati statistici Mare Nostrum. https://www.marina.difesa.it/cosa-facciamo/operazioni-concluse/Pagine/mare-nostrum.aspx.

⁶⁷ UNHCR Italia, Nel 2014, oltre 348.000 persone, 1-4.

⁶⁸ Cusumano, “Emptying the sea with a spoon?”, 91-98.

⁶⁹ As set down in Article 13 of the 2013 Dublin III Regulation. Council of the European Union, Council Regulation (EC) No. 604/2013, 26 June 2013, art. 13. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32013R0604&from=en.

⁷⁰ Albahari, Crimes of Peace, 31-2.

⁷¹ Del Valle, “Search and Rescue in Mediterranean”, 22-40.

⁷² For 2015 and 2016, Italian Ministry of the Interior, Cruscotto statistico al 31 dicembre 2015 e 2016, 1 January 2016 e 2017. http://www.libertaciviliimmigrazione.dlci.interno.gov.it/sites/default/files/allegati/cruscotto_statistico_giornaliero_31_dicembre_2015.pdf. http://www.libertaciviliimmigrazione.dlci.interno.gov.it/sites/default/files/allegati/cruscotto_statistico_giornaliero_31_dicembre_2016.pdf.

⁷³ Italian Ministry of the Interior, Cruscotto statistico giornaliero del 31 luglio 2017. 1 August 2017. http://www.libertaciviliimmigrazione.dlci.interno.gov.it/sites/default/files/allegati/cruscotto_statistico_giornaliero_del_31_luglio_2017.pdf.

⁷⁴ Barbulescu, “Still a Beacon of Human Rights?”, 301-8.

⁷⁵ Zoeteweij and Turhan, “Above the Law-Beneath Contempt”, 151-165.

⁷⁶ Abbondanza, Italy as a Regional Power, 277-283.

⁷⁷ At the time of writing, a new shift in Italian migration policies is taking place, with Italy having reached EU-backed agreements aiming at curbing the world’s most active maritime migratory route. These agreements involve the introduction of a new code of conduct for NGOs operating in the Mediterranean, supplying money, equipment and training for Libya’s border and coast guard, deploying ships from the Italian Navy in Libyan coastal waters, and implementing deals with local groups that control Libya’s internal areas crossed by migrants and asylum seekers. An assessment of this new policy has not yet been carried out , though its nature seems to confirm the variability of Italy’s external migration policies, as opposed to the relative consistency of its internal ones.

⁷⁸ Finotelli and Sciortino, “The Importance of Being Southern”, 119-38.

⁷⁹ Hammond, “The Mediterranean Migration Crisis”, 1-12.