Much ado about nothing? Giorgia Meloni’s government and immigration

ABSTRACT

Italy as an immigration country has been characterized by high rates of irregular migration due to the weak legal admission channels available and the combination of apowerful internal demand of foreign workers and intense external pressure on itsborders. Despite the growing salience of migration issues in the political arena, the country has shown a marked inertia in addressing the structural causes of the phenomenon. The gap between political grandstanding and effective governance hasbeen highlighted by numerous studies. This article analyses the first year of Giorgia Meloni’s government by assessing the coherence between the highly restrictive electoral promises and the implemented policies, and by weighing the degree of novelty of its approach in relation to migration management over the last twenty years. Results show that, beyond the multiplication of proclamations and emergency interventions with respect to recurring border crises, there has been an overall pragmatic and rather open attitude, far from the radical stances of the opposition years. In addition, the full confirmation of that model of ‘reluctant openness’ that has characterized the Italian approach to immigration, combining irregularity as the main route of access with an almost complete overlook of other important dimensions like migrants’ integration.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration policy
• far-right
• Giorgia Meloni
• migration politics
• Fratelli d’Italia
• irregular migration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See, for example, J. Williams, ‘Italy’s New Prime Minister: Why Immigrants Should Far-Right Giorgia Meloni’, International Business Times, 10 October 2022; ‘Giorgia Meloni: Migrants’ Fear over Italy’s New Far-Right Prime Minister’, BBC News, 22 October 2022.

2. Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, ‘Da governo ancora nessuna posizione’, 26 August 2023.

3. Tesi di Trieste per il movimento dei patrioti, https://www.giorgiameloni.it.

4. Italy is therefore in line with the European average and above some countries with older immigration histories (UN 2023).

5. On 3 October 2013, a boat carrying migrants from Libya sank off the island of Lampedusa.

6. Standard Eurobarometer 86, Autumn 2016, https://europa.eu/eurobarometer/surveys/detail/2137.

7. FdI, Le sfide per l’Italia, https://www.fratelli-italia.it, 2013.

8. FdI, Programma elezioni europee, https://www.fratelli-italia.it, 2014.

9. Trieste thesis for the patriot movement, cit.

10. Programma elezioni europee, https://www.fratelli-italia.it, 2019.

11. Pronti a risollevare l’Italia, https://www.fratelli-italia.it, 2022.

12. At the end of 2023 there had been more than 2,200 deaths at sea in the central Mediterranean (IOM 2024).

13. Gazzetta Ufficiale – Serie generale, n. 52, 2 March 2023.

14. Gazzetta Ufficiale – Serie generale, n. 104, 5 May 2023.

15. Council of ministers, n. 28.

16. The previous state of emergency due to the ‘migration crisis’ had been declared in 2011 by the last Berlusconi government.

17. Gazzetta Ufficiale – Serie generale, n. 268, 16 November 2023.

18. Memorandum of Understanding on a strategic and global partnership between the European Union and Tunisia, Tunis, 16 July 2023.

19. Protocol Ita- Alb 6/2023.

20. Comunicato stampa del Consiglio dei ministri n. 57.

21. Gazzetta Ufficiale – Serie generale, n. 1, 2 January 2023

22. Gazzetta Ufficiale – Serie generale, n. 21, 26 January 2023.

23. Gazzetta Ufficiale – Serie generale, n. 189, 14 August 2023.

24. Gazzetta Ufficiale – Serie generale, n.104, 5 May 2023.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gabriel Echeverría

Gabriel Echeverría is “Maria Zambrano” Research Fellow at the Complutense University of Madrid, Department of Applied Sociology. Claudia Finotelli is Associate Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, Department of Applied Sociology.

Claudia Finotelli

Claudia Finotelli is Associate Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, Department of Applied Sociology.