Amid the surge of populism across the globe, migration is very often politicized, and migrants accused of causing the loss of jobs and the underperformance of welfare and health services. Right-wing populists exacerbate these claims and capitalize on thriving racism and xenophobia. So far, the scholarship’s emphasis on global populism has tended to overlook the importance of local experiences in filtering these dynamics and shaping voters’ perceptions. This article examines Southern Italy, arguing that migration plays a relevant role in fostering the appeal of populist platforms, but in relation to socioeconomic inequalities and the history of the local area.

Although migration is usually approached at the macro level as a geopolitical phenomenon and catalyser of social-economic changes (e.g. impact on poverty in home and host countries, impact on economic growth, impact on human capital), the capability approach (Sen, 1987; 1995) suggests that being able to decide where to live is also a key element of human freedom. Starting from 2000, Italy had the highest relative growth of its migrant population (Caritas Italiana, 2019) in the European Union (EU). The number of asylum seekers, holders of international protection, and refugees hosted and assisted by the reception system has significantly increased between 2011 and 2017 (UNHCR, 2020). Consequently, a major challenge emerged: how to structure a reception system able to support migrants by fostering their integration within hosting communities and by promoting their autonomy at the end of the asylum procedure. The aim of this paper is to describe the evolution of the multidimensional well-being and capabilities of migrants along their migration experience with a particular focus on the role played by the reception system. The paper investigates three case studies which have been observed between 2015 and 2019 in two Italian regions, Tuscany and Piedmont. The research adopts innovative participatory methods, including structured focus group discussion and participatory mapping, with the aim to directly engage asylum seekers and holders of international protection.

In the last two decades, European countries, while working for the establishment of a Common European Asylum System (CEAS) to harmonise the legal frameworks of the member states and establish common minimum standards, have rather pursued domestic goals at times, imposing restrictive policies on forced migrants to deter inflows and deflect refugees to fellow countries. Within migration policies, integration programmes in EU countries might affect the well-being and the quality of life, inducing migrants to move from one country to another. We thus investigate the effect of integration policies from 2006 to 2018 on secondary movements of asylum seekers. We argue that integration policies show significant correlations with secondary movements in European countries, while more general migration policies may rather affect first entry flows into EU.

The aim of the paper is to discuss the economic features of Italy’s neo-racism. It contends that neo-racism is a mass phenomenon that emerged over the past twenty years as a result of the degraded quality of life determined by neoliberalism. Neo-racism results from in-group/outgroup dynamics whereby people seek scapegoats that may account for their dismal economic and social conditions. Contrary to extant economic theories, the paper tries to explain the insurgence of discrimination rather than assuming that racism existed from the very beginning. The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 describes neo-racism in Italy and distinguishes it from past racism. The third section discusses existing theoretical outlooks and explains why their assumptions do not fit with the evidence about Italy. The fourth section discusses Italy’s shift to neoliberalism by describing both the change in the balance of power between business and unions and the policies that reinforced this change. The fifth section discusses how these institutional changes affected people’s categorical and relational identities. It stresses that neoliberalism reduces the opportunities both for individual and collective action, thereby increasing the scope for categorical identities at the expense of relational identities. The sixth section provides a few concluding remarks.

Does Europeanisation of borders and migration policies necessarily infringe national sovereignty? This paper proposes to question this commonplace by analysing the entanglement of three internal tactics of bordering promoted by national-populists in the wake of the 2015 “crisis” with the Dublin Regulation – namely, the EU legal framework governing the allocation of asylum seekers across EU Member States (MS). Not only does the biometric database related to Dublin Regulation (the EURODAC) enable national authorities to diminish the number of applicants for whom they are deemed responsible, but it may also be used in a variety of ways for setting administrative traps against other categories of third country nationals (TCN). Thus, against the widespread belief, this paper argues the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) might be, in some respect, highly needed for enacting national sovereignty in the Schengen context. Whereas the policies presented here were publicised in the name of “re-nationalising” the management of asylum flows against the EU leadership, they might have paradoxically relied on the wide usage of dataveillance instruments offered by the EU itself. Thus, this article will finally offer a better understanding of some ambivalences of Eurosceptical parties in their relation to the CEAS.

Responding to growing immigration concerns, European countries have increasingly resorted to restrictive entry policies in recent years. While migration literature tends to support this policy lever, reporting a significant association between restrictive legislation and immigration flows, findings are generally based on measures of regular migration only. This paper complements available evidence using innovative data on irregular flows between 2003 and 2016 on the Central Mediterranean Route (CMR) to provide a critical analysis of the use of restrictive regulations as a migration management tool. It finds that such restrictions, rather than deterring irregular migration, are likely to push more people into the asylum system. Reducing access to legal pathways has no significant effect on the volume of irregular migrants apprehended on the CMR, while it increases the number of those that seek regularization through asylum application.

The goal of this paper is to introduce a new topic into the public policy debate: the policy implications of multicultural and multilingual education have been largely neglected by public policy and administration scholars, despite the multiple interesting research perspectives implied. Discussing the numerous aspects of multilingual education is all the more important in light of the superdiversity generated by migratory waves as well as of the role played by immigrants in the socioeconomic fabric of their host countries. After introducing the subject by framing it within the political and policy debate, the article presents the different angles from which the multilingual education issue should be tackled, starting with an overview of the social, economic, and human right/legal aspects involved and proceeding with a proposal of investigation of the implications for public policy and administration, with a focus on teachers as street-level bureaucrats delivering policies in close contact with target groups.

Referring to migration, two aspects are unquestionable and important to consider: Migrations exist since ever and are an integral aspect of human beings; Globalisation facilitates communication and movements, and these enable people to displace across countries shifting the number of migrants from 150 million in 2000 to 272 million in 2020 (IOM 2020). This essentially means that migration is and will likely always be part of our existence and, regardless of any ideology and belief, finding functional approaches to manage at best this phenomenon is in the interest of every single citizen and nation. The objective of this article is to shed light on the effectiveness of the Systemic Approach to deal with some of the main migration-related issues and develop efficient policies to make societies more resilient, inclusive, and smart. The Systems Theory builds a solid bridge between science and societal life and provides an incredible tool not only to understand and solve problems related to human interactions but also to discover successful ways to rule the common existence of people, in any context.

Vulnerability characterizes different social systems in different ways and these differences are shaped by many factors. These include, for example, the sensitivity of the human being to climate and environmental changes, as well as the ability of the population and the entire socio-economic system to respond and adapt to a new or sudden situation. In presenting and understanding the phenomenon of post-disaster migration, the concept of vulnerability represents a key notion. Furthermore, if the relationship between vulnerability and migration appears very strong, already at an intuitive level, this relationship is strengthened when it adds poverty and health risk. In fact, those who are poor certainly present a greater risk of exposure to various forms of vulnerability, also in relation to various types of harmful events. For example, considering the global coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), they identify them as particularly at risk. Regardless of whether they have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence, or disaster, millions of internally displaced people around the world who live in densely populated areas, are unable to isolate themselves and have no access to water, sanitation, and primary health care (IDMC, 2020) Furthermore, although it is still too early to fully assess the effects of this unprecedented crisis on migrants' lives, cases are already emerging where the pandemic is increasing the vulnerabilities of individuals and creating new ones. It is essential that scholars and policymakers deepen the association between vulnerability and migration in a global perspective since the climate-migration relationship is heterogeneous and critically depends on the differential vulnerability of places and populations. In this essay, therefore, we intend to highlight that also the climatic-environmental aspects, together with other variables, can play a role in determining important population movements.

This article analyses the role of information in shaping potential migrants’ decisions on whether to migrate (irregularly) to Europe, in reference to current globalisation and populist dynamics. At first sight, both the diffusion of information and communication technologies, globally, and the strong emphasis on deterring unauthorised migration, in Europe, would suggest that potential migrants should detain relatively accurate knowledge of the sanctions associated to irregular entry and stay. Yet, available evidence seems to imply otherwise. Building upon primary and secondary sources, this article investigates the degree of information held by migrants aiming to reach European countries, and whether or not it plays a significant role in influencing their decisions.