EUKN - European Urban Knowledge Network - IMISCOE Working Paper. Italian immigrants and immigration policy-making: Structures, actors and practices.

IMISCOE Working Paper. Italian immigrants and immigration policy-making: Structures, actors and practices.

Introduction

This paper reports some of the outcomes of the activity of the cluster of research ‘The multilevel governance of migration’ within the IMISCOE European Network of Excellence, and of the research ‘Policy making.

Between periphery and centre, between Member States and the EU, between formal and informal actors’, financed by MIUR (Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca), the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research).

It includes results that have already been presented in the part written by G. Zincone in M. Arena, B. Nascimbene and G. Zincone, Italy, ‘The acquisition of nationality in EU member states.

Rules, practices and quantitative developments’, and in Zincone (2006a). The country profile of Italy by the author gives more information on the evolution and the specific political and statistical features of Italian immigration, see www.fieri.it

Description

In this paper the author describes immigration and immigrants’ rights decision-making processes in Italy and how these are embedded in the general multilevel public decision-making machinery. Italy is a relative late-comer among immigration countries. Inflows started after the 1973-74 oil shock, when Britain, Germany, and, in particular, neighbouring France closed their borders.

Two significant features of migration processes in Italy can be singled out:

rapid flows with substantial volumes;
high proportion of undocumented immigrants.

The authors tries to links these features to Italy's immigration policies and to reconstruct the evolution of nationality laws,2 and of immigration and immigrant incorporation policies. The analysis of this policy sector confirms the role of some factors and stresses the role of others, like: Network factors and the role of experts and top-level civil servants. The analysis of immigrants and immigration policies underlines also the relevance of rational and quasi-rational actions.

Background information

This title is published within the IMISCOE publication programme as part of the Working Papers. These Working Papers are the products of ongoing work by IMISCOE members that are not (yet) ready for publication within the IMISCOE-AUP Book series.

They may range from State of the Art Reports (SoAR) on worldwide research within a particular domain to more specific products of ongoing work. The Working Papers are evaluated by the editorial committee for quality and completeness before being published on the website.

Peer-reviewed publications can be found in the IMISCOE_AUP Book Series developed in co-operation with the Amsterdam University Press (AUP).

EU involvement

The IMISCOE Working Papers are part of IMISCOE which is an EU funded Network of Excellence in the Sixth Framework Programme.

Contact info

IMISCOE Network of Excellence
Karen Kraal (Communication Officer), tel. +31 (0)20 525 3659

Publication date

Project finished

//2006

Researcher

Giovanna Zincone, FIERI

Links

Visit the Imiscoe Publication Index website

Download the 'Italian immigrants and immigration policy-making: Structures, actors and practices' Report (PDF, Eng, 291 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy

Keywords

Social inclusion & integration