Up-scaling social innovation in asylum adjudication: the case of the Migrantes project in Sicily

Abstract

Italy, as other European countries, saw a dramatic increase in international protection claims, heavily impacting the workload of Italian lower courts entitled to re-examine refusal decisions on asylum. The Court of Catania, in Sicily, was the most affected by this situation due to its geographical position, so that in 2016 it registered an increase of 514% in its new proceedings related to international protection. This surge in asylum claims affected the proper functioning of the judiciary and the whole asylum policy, as claims remained unsolved for a long time. In order to face these challenges, from 2015 to 2017 the project Migrantes, funded by the European Social Fund, was developed in the Court of Catania with the aim to better organise and speed up judicial procedures concerning asylum claims, the first and crucial stage of the refugee’s integration process. The present article offers an analysis of the project through the lens of the Social Innovation framework, adopting a multi-scalar perspective. In particular, it shows the innovative solutions adopted by the local court, the opportunity structures existing at local, regional, national and EU levels. Moreover, it focuses on the consolidation process that followed up-scaling dynamics and on the factors facilitating it.