Migration as new social risk? Deservingness in integration policies

After the federal reform of 2001, Italian regions have gained greater autonomy in matters of social policy, immigrants’ integration included. Through a diachronic analysis of official documents on immigrants’ integration approved in the period 2000-2010, in this paper we shall unfold different conceptions of immigration as a new social risk and of migrants deservingness in eight regions representative of different areas of the country: Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna in the North, Umbria, Marche and Abruzzo in the Centre, Basilicata and Calabria in the South.

The analysis points out how immigrant deservingness is constructed accordingly to different  geographies of immigrant social inclusion emerging at the intersection of diverging political orientations (more leftwing or rightwing oriented), consolidated welfare systems (more or less generous and responsive towards the emerging of new social risks) and local economic structures (in terms of prevailing sectors of immigrant employment, diffusion of the informal economy etc.). Local conditions play a crucial role in shaping different framings of migrant deservingness, constraining immigrants’ access to welfare provisions and influencing their paths of social integration.