The Urban Governance of Asylum as a “Battleground”: Policies of Exclusion and Efforts of Inclusion in Italian Towns

Abstract

The article argues that the governance of immigration, especially at local level, can be considered a “battleground” involving diverse actors. Beyond the idea of a “negotiated order” as the result of the interaction among actors (mainly institutional) in the multilevel governance framework, the management of asylum at a local level is the outcome of conflict and cooperation, of alternative views and political actions, of official policies and practical help, of formal statements and informal practices. The practical governance of immigration and asylum is not only determined at an institutional level; it is also influenced by this mobilization on the part of civil society. In order to reconstruct the dynamics of this “battleground”, the article first analyses the different attitudes of Italian municipalities to asylum seekers, and in particular the mobilization of local governments against refugees’ reception. It then shows by contrast how civil society actors mobilize either in favour of the reception of refugees and immigrants with dubious legal status or against them. Thereafter, among civil society actors, it focuses in particular on “supporters” acting on behalf of asylum seekers in various ways, for moral, political or religious reasons, and on the issue of their political engagement.