Italy – Legal and Policy Framework of Migration Governance

The report aims at presenting the legal and policy framework of migration governance in Italy, with a specific emphasis on the period between 2011 and 2017, so as to shed light on the series of implemented changes and responses given to the recent migration crisis. In the last few decades, Italy — traditionally an emigration country — has gradually turned also into an immigration country. Since 2014, Italy is receiving the highest number of non-EU citizens looking for economic opportunities and for international protection in its history. The Constitutional Court has represented a fundamental anchor in promoting the legal entitlements of foreigners and in preventing standards downgrading. At domestic level, the national policy on migration has been featured with a structural lack of organic, coherent and effective instruments of planning and management. Concerning the asylum and migration management structure, the responsibility to enact the various procedures does not belong to a single governmental body. Rather, it is scattered among different institutional entities emanating from different tiers of government (from national to local), and it also involves the third sector. After having presented the legal process of granting the international protection in Italy, and the status of asylum applicants and beneficiaries of international protection, the report illustrates the legal status related to the permit to stay for “humanitarian reasons”, a specific feature of the Italian legal system. In addition, the report examines legal status related to the following permits to stay: work, family, study, EU long-term residence permit and unaccompanied minors. Finally, the report illustrates the legal status connected to the condition of the so-called ‘undocumented migrants’, which in Italy are excluded from a number of rights. Section 6 focuses on the time-span 2011–2017, when a number of legislative reforms have been issued with the aim to manage the growing arrival of migrants to Italian shores.