The “Double Emergency” and the Securitization of the Humanitarian Approach in the Italian Reception System within the Pandemic Crisis

Abstract

The Coronavirus outbreak has revealed the critical situation that can emerge when isolation and quarantine measures are applied to migrants living in reception and detention centers and overcrowded contexts. The paper focuses on events that affected two Extraordinary Reception Centres (CASs) and a Hotspot, located in Northern and Southern Italy. Although the humanitarian paradigm still represents the most functional form of government, this historical moment’s particularity led the authors to reflect on the continuity and change it brings. They hypothesize that the health crisis has downsized the action of care within humanitarian spaces favoring the strengthening of traditional securitarian solutions.