Borders within. An Ethnographic Take on the Reception Policies of Asylum Seekers in Alto Adige/South Tyrol

Abstract

The “processual turn” in the study of borders has opened up to the analysis of how borders and border regimes, conceived of as social practices, are created/recreated in many ways, for many actors, at any place and time; however, this perspective still coexists with traditional approaches to borders, characterized by a fixation with the notion of border only as a tangible entity, the physical outcome of political, social and/or economic processes. These studies develop through sophisticated and erudite conceptual analysis, not always balanced by equal empirical anchorage. Conversely, based on an ethnographic account of asylum seekers’ reception policies in Alto Adige/Sudtirol, the article empirically frames the concept of “border” by retracing the experiences of the so-called “out-of-quota” asylum seekers (profughi fuori quota/Asylbewerber fuori quota) in light of their categorization prompted by local policy and media discourses. The author unveils the performative dimension of labelling practices by arguing that these not only fuel misrepresentation but translate into bordering practices that exacerbate juridical and social vulnerability and hinder access to reception facilities and welfare services.