https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3331-4183
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ABSTRACT
For decades, the academic literature on migration policy change suggested that migration policies in Western Europe had become overall more liberal. Yet, in an age of strong polarization, highly institutionalized policy regimes are likely to change. Adopting the theoretical lens of policy feedback literature, this paper argues that a better grasp of policy dynamics in the field of migration requires a more nuanced definition of the policy. Namely, we contend that the stability of liberal arrangements constitutes only an apparent paradox. Indeed, disentangling paradigms and instruments may enable different patterns of change and stability to emerge, as well as the role of agency. We build this argument using Italian reception policy as the case for a theory-building study on the drivers of change and stability of asylum policy regimes. Our study also suggests the benefits of applying a micro-level analysis to uncover agent-based mechanisms of policy entrenchment.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the referees and editors for their constructive comments and suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 As shown in the latest Charter of Rome report (Associazione Carta di Roma, Citation2020), immigration-related news dropped by 34 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. Specifically, in the first ten months of 2020, immigration news broadcast on prime-time television news was half of what it had been in the previous two years.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marco Di Giulio
Marco Di Giulio is assistant professor of political science at the University of Genoa where he teaches public administration and policy evaluation.
Stella Gianfreda
Stella Gianfreda got a PhD in political sciences and worked as research fellow at the University of Genoa. Her main area of investigation is migration politics and policy.