Refugees' reception in Italy : past and present of a humanitarian crisis

The surge of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in search of protection has been widely described as a 'Refugee Crisis'. If there is a 'crisis' however, this is not in the numbers, but in the responses at international, national and local level. Building on the findings from an international research project (EVI-MED), this paper focuses on the Italian reception system, and in particular on the case of Sicily, the main point of arrival for mixed-migration flows in the central Mediterranean. This system is extremely complex, involving a number of state and non-governmental actors and a multi-tier classification of centres and structures. In spite of ambitious national regulations, local variations, interim solutions and an overall 'emergency approach' are the norm, rather than the exception. At the same time, a ground-level analysis reveals mechanisms which have become part and parcel of the social and economic reality of Sicily. By comparing the theory and discourses of refugee accommodation in Italy with its practices at local level, this paper examines the tensions between declared and undeclared objectives, the links with national and international processes, the impact on individual migrants and local communities and, crucially, the sustainability and likely effects of the Italian system in the long term, with important lessons to be learned for other national contexts