The Representation of the “European Refugee Crisis” in Italy: Domopolitics, Securitization, and Humanitarian Communication in Political and Media Discourses

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to offer an overview of how the “refugee crisis” has been discursively constructed in political and media discourses in Italy, focusing on how securitarian discourses are intertwined with other discourses, in particular, with humanitarian discourses. To this purpose, I offer an overview of how the refugee crisis has been represented by the Italian press and I examine the speech that Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi posted on his Facebook page after delivering the speech at the Italian Parliament the day before the special summit of the European Council called by Donald Tusk in the aftermath of the drowning tragedy that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea on April 18, 2015.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugee crisis
• domopolitics
• securitization
• humanitarian discourses
• center-left, Renzi

Notes

1. Overall, of the refugees who managed to cross the Mediterranean Sea, 48% were Syrian, 21% were Afghans, 9% were Iraqis, and 4% were Eritreans. Most refugees arriving in Greece in 2015 were Syrian or Afghan, while Italy received proportionally more people from Eritrea, Nigeria, and Somalia.

Arrivals to Italy by month (January 2015–February 2016)

Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb

3,528 4,354 2,283 16,063 21,235 22,891 23,186 22,609 15,922 8,916 3,218 9,637 5,273 3,827

Italy has seen a sharp increase in its asylum applications in recent years. According to UNHCR, the number of asylum claims received in 2014 (approximately 65,000) was more than twice that in 2013 (approximately 28,000) and four times the level of that seen in 2012 (17,350).

2. The research examines how the press in five EU states reported on the refugee and migration crisis in 2014 and 2015 in two major samples of news coverage. The first sample examines a broad cross-section of reporting across 2014 and early 2015. The second sample focuses on a case study of a week's reporting in the wake of the April 18, 2015, boat disaster in the Mediterranean. The states chosen for the study were the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Sweden. The chapter on Italy is written by Marina Morani, Cardiff University.