Liza Schuster, Nuovi paradigmi di asilo: cosa sta accadendo sul campo? / New Asylum Paradigms: What’s happening on the ground?, pp. 267-285

In recent years, forced migration scholars have begun to ask whether we are seeing the emergence of a New Asylum Paradigm around the current (or resurgent) debate on “in-region asylum processing”, “regional protection zones” and “transit processing centres”. Although similar ideas have been around in various forms for some time, there appears currently to be a convergence of thinking, seen in debates within the EU, the UNHCR’s Convention Plus, the British government’s proposal on “new” approaches to asylum seekers and related proposals from the German and Italian governments. This article looks briefly at the discussions around processing centres, which seem to focus attention on whether a New Asylum Paradigm is emerging, and to explore developments on the ground, asking to what extent alleged novelties constitute a new, or a single, paradigm. We suggest that although there are apparently competing, conflicting and contradictory proposals and projects on the table, in fact a common logic underpins all of them. Following a sketch of the different proposals we consider the positions of some of the states involved in these developments. We then examine what’s happening on the ground in two states targeted as potential partners in the proposals – Libya and Morocco. In the last section of the paper, the significance, novelty and dangers of the proposals are evaluated.

Enrica Rigo, Nuove pratiche di territorializzazione del diritto d’asilo e governo della circolazione nell’Unione Europea. Le frontiere esterne dell’Unione Europea / New practices in territorialization of asylum policy and governance of circulation in the European space, pp. 287-307

This article analyses asylum policies in the wider context of management of the European space of circulation. The process of transformation which the EU’s borders have undergone during the last years reveals a broader goal than the one commonly expressed through the “European fortress” metaphor. Borders function not only to keep outside unwanted trespassers. Instead, new mechanisms of “territorialisation” of rights – including asylum rights – are implemented by the growing externalization and communitarization of border management. These phenomena are investigated through the legislations recently approved in new EU member states and candidate countries, and through the recent tendencies implemented in the concept of a “wider Europe”.

Nando Sigona, L’integrazione e i rifugiati: retoriche, politiche e prassi nell’Unione Europea / Integration and refugees: rhetoric, politics and practice in the European Union, pp. 309-322

This article outlines the current debate on integration in refugee studies and discusses the policy relevance of the concept in the ongoing process of asylum policy harmonisation at the European Union level. It questions the essentialist approach behind most comparative research on refugee and migrant integration and argues for a nebula-concept of integration which regards the ambiguity of the concept of integration, widely recognised in the literature, as a structural, constitutive and unavoidable element, to be taken into account when researching the processes of settlement of refugees in their new society. The discourses of integration, as well as the philosophies of integration, reflects the broader national identity politics framework of each country and are deeply rooted into the national order of things. This can help to explain the difficulties of the current EU harmonisation process. However, the article suggests, while a common EU refugee integration policy is still a very contested field, upon open negotiation, it appears, that a new EU vocabulary of integration is emerging in the EU political arena.

Alice Szczepanikova, Bringing life into the “states of exception”: Chechen asylum seekers in a Czech refugee camp, pp. 323-340

This article aims to critically discuss selected approaches to conceptualizing the institutions of a refugee camp in the academic literature with particular focus on the works of Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben. It is empirically grounded in the analysis of the situation of Chechen asylum seekers living in a refugee camp in the Czech Republic (based on the author’s research conducted in 2004). Three aspects of the camp environment are highlighted and the camp is analysed as: 1) a gendered space, 2) a violent space, and 3) a space of subversion, both on the part of refugees and the camp workers. Thus, the article sheds light on the multiplicity of social relations in the camp and illustrates how the camp environment produces certain types of subjectivities through relations of power. It also stresses that refugees employ various strategies to respond to and to subvert these forces. Finally, the author emphasizes the need to forge connections between general analyses of socioeconomic and political mechanisms underlying spatial and social exclusion of migrants with micro-level accounts of material conditions and the complex webs of social interactions in particular institutional settings that are designed to “manage” and control people’s movements across national borders.

Olga Jubany-Baucells, Refugees? – What refugees? The case of Spain, pp. 341-358

The subject of refugees and asylum seekers in Spain is one that has been overlooked, both academically and politically, or rather has been blurred by the debate on immigration, especially amongst Spanish academics. This article argues that a key reason for such neglect is the way the asylum screening system operates in Spain. The vast majority of asylum seekers are classified as immigrants, regardless of their specific circumstances, due to the application of the so-called “inadmissibility” procedure. This procedure is at the core of the Spanish asylum process and places asylum seekers completely “out of sight” – if there are no refugees, there is no need for debate on the issue. In addition, it transmits the impression that the Spanish system aims to deny access rather than protect refugees. Furthermore, by hiding the real numbers the Government justifies not only the lack of protection for asylum seekers but also the lack of resources devoted to them. This essay explains how in order to gain a realistic picture about asylum seekers in Spain, we must consider all those individuals that aim to apply for refuge, and undertake an essentially qualitative approach, exploring the issues behind the official figures. This will unravel many issues that require compelling attention in Spain, such as widening the acceptance criteria and simplifying the procedures of asylum seeking. It will also highlight the need to change the focus of the system in Spain to concentrate on protecting asylum seekers, rather than preventing their entrance into the country, or even denying their existence.

Anaele Diala Iroh, Famiglie migranti tra Nigeria e Irlanda: dimensione transnazionale e nuove relazioni di genere e di classe / Nigerian migrant families in Ireland: transnational dimensions and new relations of gender and class, pp. 359-378

During the past decade Nigerian families have established a presence in Ireland, underlying a discernable contrast to previous patterns of male or single migration from Nigeria. Using the family photo album as a means of data elicitation in social research, this paper will argue that new familial and communal formations of Nigerian transnationalism in Ireland, attest to the reconfiguration of class and gendered politics in the domestic sphere, both in the sending context of Nigeria itself and in the receiving country. This tangible process forms an integral part of a broader change in traditional Nigerian family structures allied to the ongoing consequences of Nigerian modernity and the contingencies of transnational migration.  A crucial effect of the peripheral position of the Nigerian community in Ireland, alongside its evolving everyday socioeconomic and cultural practices in the context of its interaction with the dominant host society as well as the sending country, is the political transformation of the community’s transnational family dynamics. This paper will present three case studies highlighting the research potential of photographic images of the Nigerian family – mediated through spoken narrative and processes of remembering – as an archival and visually constitutive site of its structural transformation.

Maja Cederberg, Institutional perceptions of “the refugee” and refugees’ experiences of Swedish society, pp. 379-396

This article is about refugees’ experiences of Swedish society, and particularly how perceptions of (different groups of) refugees function to condition their access to or exclusion from the Swedish labour market. It is based on biographical interviews with refugees that came to Sweden from Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina mainly during the first half of the 1990s, and discusses some of the differences and similarities in experiences that emerged through those interviews. I argue that differences in experience and position of the two groups can to some extent be explained by the popular production of difference, through which certain “ethnic” groups come to be regarded as “culturally alien”, while similarities can be understood through an image (explicit or implicit) of “the refugee” as inferior. I suggest that both perceptions are institutionalized in the public services and at work amongst the civil servants with which the refugees come in contact at various stages in their lives in Sweden, and therefore they play a part in wider processes of inclusion and exclusion, as well as in setting the conditions inclusion entails.

David Griffiths, Refugee integration policies in the United Kingdom and Germany: Towards a Common Agenda?, pp. 397-416

Dating from the Tampere Conclusions of 1999 there has been a growing consensus on the importance of integrating third country nationals, including recognised refugees, into the nation states of the European Union. This paper presents a comparative overview of the refugee integration policies in two core EU member states: the United Kingdom and Germany. Although they are the two largest recipients of asylum seekers in the EU throughout the 1990s, they have only recently begun to formulate integration policies which directly impact upon refugees. The analysis focuses on the ways in which national migration frameworks have influenced the development of refugee integration policies in the two states. While noting crucial differences between the two countries, based upon distinct political structures and histories of migration, it is argued that a significant degree of convergence in policy formulation has occurred: firstly, in relation to the institutional arrangements for integration; secondly, concerning the rhetoric of the policy discourses and thirdly, in relation to the security and control underpinnings of integration policies. The limitations of the policies are noted, specifically relating to questions of eligibility and access, their assimilationist character and lastly, imbalances in the power relations between the different actors involved in the integration frameworks. The significance of civil society and in particular the importance of the reception phase to the integration process, is also addressed. The paper concludes by addressing the proposed development of a common approach to refugee integration policies across the EU.

Katia Amore, L’opzione “rimpatrio volontario” per i kossovari albanesi rifugiati nel Regno Unito e in Italia / The “voluntary repatriation” choice for Kosovar Albanian refugees in the United Kingdom and Italy, pp. 417-436

In 1999, repatriation was considered the most appropriate solution to the Kosovo refugee crisis. After the conflict, an impressive number of refugees returned to Kosovo from neighbouring countries and the participation of refugees in EU governments’ return schemes was without precedents. These considerations are still used to support the claim that all refugees wish to return and is used by politicians to argue in favour of their own repatriation policies. Therefore, the analysis of the complexities surrounding this specific case can be helpful when studying the role of repatriation as the best solution to refugee crisis in the European context and the impact of asylum policies on refugees’ decision vis-à-vis return which are currently questioning its “voluntary” nature. In light of that, this paper analyses the case of Kosovar refugees in the UK and Italy and puts into context the relative repatriation programmes developed in both countries. The first part of the paper looks at the international community’s response to the refugee crisis and deals with the specific reception policies adopted in the UK and Italy. The second part considers the repatriation programmes set up in both countries for Kosovars and explores refugees attitudes towards the schemes focusing on the reasons of those who decided to remain in the country of exile.

Claudia Mantovan, Le diverse anime dell’islam. Alcuni esempi in Veneto / The Different Essences of Islam: Some Examples in Veneto, pp. 445-465

If we adopt in a web style an including method, looking at the sense that a social actor assigns to his own action, we are going to point out the pluralism inside Islam, focusing on how Muslims positively understand and live their own religiousness in daily life. More precisely the subject of the article is how Muslims of some areas in Veneto feel their religiousness and their action in the public space and what kind of self organizing practices put into action in the local society. The analysis mainly focuses on two national groups: Senegalese and Bangladeshi. For every national group also some features of the society and religion of the country of origin are outlined. The article shows that both the Senegalese Muslims and the Bangladeshi Muslims have characteristics that keep partly at distance from the other Muslims of the umma reflecting also into a religious self organization mostly separate, also as for space. After having observed how these different essences of Islam could be considered remarkable challenges to the local administration, called to handle very serous problems linked to the unrest of getting spaces or representation, the author concludes suggesting how it is important to take note of this complexity inside Islam, instead of looking for reducing it trying to better manage it, as well as creating places and meeting occasions among “different” inside the town.

Stefano Luconi, Italians’ Global Migration: A Diaspora?, pp. 467-482

In the last few years, an ever-growing number of scholars have used the term diaspora to define Italian emigration. This article reviews the theoretical debate on the notion of diaspora in the field of migration studies and examines whether such a category can aptly describe people’s exodus from the Italian peninsula. It concludes that the concept of diaspora can hardly be applied to the Italian case because Italian emigration has had characteristics of its own that are at odds even with the most comprehensive redefinition of diaspora in current literature.

Jean Conteh, “Multilingual and diverse” or “English-speaking and homogeneous”? A case study of migration and settlement in a British city and the implications for language education and the wider society, pp. 483-494

In this article, I discuss responses to migration and settlement in education policy in Britain, with particular reference to language diversity and achievement. I begin by presenting a brief case study of one northern, post-industrial city that has had a long and fascinating, but at times troubled history of immigration and settlement. To illustrate the connections between the local and the global in matters of identity formation and language and cultural diversity, I describe how recent events in the city have influenced language ideologies in British politics. The city, Bradford in West Yorkshire, has one of the largest ethnic minority populations in Britain outside London. About 30% of pupils in schools in the city are classed as ethnic minority, most of them third generation Pakistani Muslim heritage. While its history has many distinctive features, there are clear parallels between Bradford and other similar cities in Britain and Europe. Following this, I briefly trace the history of national education policy related to language diversity over the past 30 years, showing how it connects to wider societal events and issues. Education policy in the UK is constructed by separate legislatures in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, so my discussion relates to England only. I argue that responses to language diversity have been contradictory and reactive rather than proactive, leading to the current situation where a “monolingual” ethos prevails, though there are signs of hope. I suggest that a key factor for progress is the rôle of teachers but, because of the lack of any real focus on language and cultural diversity in their training, they are currently ill-equipped to prepare their pupils to live in a multilingual, linguistically conscious nation.