Della Puppa, Francesco and Sano, Giuliana (eds). 2021. Stuck and Exploited: Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Italy Between Exclusion, Discrimination and Struggles. Edizioni Ca'Foscari: Venezia. pp. 364.
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Angela Maria Toffanin |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13059 |
Who are those actually living the conditions of immigrants in Italy, namely refugees and asylum seekers? Are their
rights guaranteed in the different spheres of daily life, in terms of law, administration, policy, economy, education
and health care? What are the obstacles for migrant people to take part fully to society and labour market? How do
racism, classism and sexism interact in defining the relations among these people and the public institutions as well
as private ones and, last, the whole of society? Who has access to reception system, and what happen after entering
in it? And what about those excluded? All along the sixteen chapters of this book, edited by Della Puppa and Sanò,
several researchers try to answer these questions in order to allow academics, policy makers, as well as nonspecialis-
tic readers, to understand and contextualize migratory policies in Italy.
One important point to understand the approach of the book is to consider the editors' standpoint in the schol-
arly debate about migration and citizenship: following Sayad's lesson (1999, 2006), studying the migration is a way to
reveal the unveiled global changes and social transformations in the whole Italian (and European) society. Della Puppa
and Sanò refer to criminalization of both migrants and third-sectors actors who support and aid refugees and asylum
seekers in their travel to enter the so-called ‘‘fortress Europe’’. Editors emphasize the loss of fundamental rights of
those who move or stay, as well as the repression and disavowal of freedoms when migrants enter into Italy and
Europe. At the same time, they point out some problems embedded within the system of reception in Italy: the
reception centres are often overcrowded, characterized by forced cohabitation in tiny spaces among people that do
not know each other before and who might live multiple forms of vulnerabilities and pain. Many chapters analyse, too,
the policies adopted in the last four years, since the Legislative Decrees 113/2018, 130/2018, 132/2018, 53/2019,
and stress their role in reiterating the security based, and actually discriminatory and racist approaches of the Italian
migration policies. Italian policies were oriented at dismantling the system of the small reception centers, that were
often well integrated at local level, to support big centres (during the pandemic also in the form of ‘‘quarantine ships’’).
This strategy seems to be guided by the principle of cost reductions, without considering the capacity to implement
inclusion programs. Further research could clarify the similarity of such management and organizational approach and
the ones that guided the transformations in health and social sectors in Italy.
The book proposes to re-discuss the conceptual and empirical categories generally used to describe and analyse
migration processes, namely the distinction among ‘forced’, ‘voluntary’, ‘economic’ migration. This is a necessary step
in a debate that does not only involve academic circles but also a point of concern in media and politics. Facing the
BOOK REVIEW
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13059
Received: 19 August 2022 Accepted: 27 August 2022
321
Int Migr. 2023;61:321–323. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Della Puppa, Francesco and Sano, Giuliana (eds).
2021. Stuck and Exploited: Refugees and Asylum
Seekers in Italy between Exclusion, Discrimination
and Struggles. Edizioni Ca’Foscari: Venezia. pp. 364.
Angela Maria Toffanin
University of Padova – Fisppa Department, via Cesarotti 10/12, Padova 35123, Italy
Email: angela.toffanin@gmail.com
© 2022 International Organization for Migration.
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