Cohesion without participation: immigration and migrants' associations in Italy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Italian migration and citizenship policies tend to deny the fact that immigration in Italy is now a structural phenomenon embedded in the labour market and Italian society. The first part of Mantovan's article examines this denial in terms of the apparent difficulty many in Italian society have in accepting the social changes caused by Italy's rapid transition from a country of emigration to one of immigration. She argues that this reluctance to accept the fact of immigration is exacerbated by Italy's fragile national social cohesion, which has led to policy attempts to buttress social cohesion with respect to immigrants' relationship to Italian society. The Italian version of social cohesion is based on an ‘implicit model’ of immigrant integration and a citizenship regime defined by jus sanguinis. The second part of her paper evaluates Italian social cohesion as to how it manages the social changes caused by immigration, and looks at the evolution and characteristics of immigrants' participation in migrant associations. The principal measure adopted, that is, to include selected, co-opted migrant representatives from immigrant groups in consultative and advisory bodies, remained too dependent on the Italian authorities and voluntary organizations. These political migrants' associations ultimately failed, and led immigrants to withdraw and form their own cultural associations that better met their needs. Accordingly, the measures taken to promote migrants' participation through immigrants' associations functioned more as a mechanism to reduce ethnic complexity and the Otherness represented by migrants rather than as a viable, long-term means of facilitating their access to Italian citizenship. Overall, Italian policies have weakened social cohesion by reproducing and reinforcing structural inequalities among immigrants.