Vulnerabilities and the Italian Protection System: An ethnographic exploration of the perspectives of protection seekers

The following research is part of the Horizon2020 project “Vulnerabilities under the Global Protection Regime. How does the law assess, address, shape, and produce the vulnerabilities of protection seekers?” (VULNER, GA 870845) and focuses on the Italian context. The first report (Vulnerabilities in the asylum and protection system in Italy), based on the research conducted in 2020, focused on the documentation and analysis of the existing legal and bureau- cratic mechanisms in place, to identify and assess the vulnerabilities among “protection seek- ers”, meaning all migrants seeking protection, regardless of the legal status they have eventually achieved.1 In this first report, we compared the ways in which Italian legislation and case-law approach vulnerabili- ties and how it arranges legal and bureaucratic instruments for recognition and protection, with the di- rect experience of legal experts and of those who, at different levels, make decisions on which situations of vulnerability can find effective legal recognition. On the one hand, our qualitative research deepened our understanding of the vulnerability assessment processes, as well as of the perspective of those who intervene in situations of vulnerability (decision makers, international organizations, legal actors, etc). On the other, the report highlights the effects of the transposition of these measures into concrete practices, both in terms of the most virtuous applications implemented in various territorial contexts and the dis- connect between “law on paper” and “law in practice.” In this second report, based on ethnographic research conducted in 2021, the focus shifts to the direct experiences of protection seekers and of those who work in close contact with them. Throughout the research, we investigated what opinion protection seekers as well as people working in reception and support services had about the protection system in Italy, both in terms of procedures and identification, protection, reception, and support measures provided for people in vulnerable sit- uations. The inclusion of an operational and “bottom-up” point of view made it possible to check, vali- date and integrate what emerged in the previous report. The fieldwork took place between April 2021 and February 2022. We conducted 64 in-depth interviews, ethnographic observations in several reception and support centers for migrant people, as well as multi- ple informal conversations with at least 200 people - including protection seekers and social workers. The work was carried out in two Italian regions (Veneto and Lazio) and it shed light on series of issues that cut across the two contexts – and thus are of national relevance – as much as on issues that were distinct to the local context. The research shows how it is essential to consider the complex issue of vulnerabilities related to migration experiences through qualitative research methods that go beyond quantitative data. The ethnographic approach chosen within the framework of this research made evident the importance of investigating the issue of vulnerabilities through a methodology capable of bringing out the heterogeneity of situa- tions, the social transformations taking place and the intertwining of several factors (personal, social, ge- 1 In line with the conceptual framework that guides the VULNER project, the category ‘protection seekers’ is conceived to also include migrants seeking protection but who do not necessarily fit the definition and requirements for applying for international protection. In the Italian context, we focus on migrants who are asylum seekers or having alternative types of protection (for instance related to human trafficking, gender-based violence, age, social inclusion, etc.), as well as on actual undocumented migrants whose applications on these grounds have been rejected. 4 Carnassale, D., Marchetti, S., 2022 ographic, situational). The qualitative approach shed light, from the perspective of those involved, on the impact of broader issues – such as the functioning of the protection system at the European and national level or the functioning of local services and administrations – on individual experiences. The research brings to light how situations of vulnerability may be understood differently by peo- ple seeking protection than by social workers and other legal and institutional actors, as well as how these situations may be pre-existing or become evident only at a specific moment in the mi- gration journey. The report devotes particular attention to how multiple situations of vulnerability are deeply connected to subjective conditions, migration trajectories, living conditions, and protection seekers’ agency. The research also shows how various situations of vulnerability can take on different meanings and forms depending on whether they are related to the country of origin, to the journey, to the arrival in Italy, to a long stay in the destination context, or to additional problems caused by having moved to other Euro- pean countries. One section of the report investigates how the reforms introduced in Italy between 2017 and 2020 on immigration law addressed protection seekers’ experiences of vulnerability, but also contrib- uted in fostering them. Ethnography made it possible to highlight the daily life experiences of people who live or have lived in highly precarious situations, or who experienced forms of control or institutional abandonment. The report highlights a number of critical issues that need to be addressed in the future. Indeed, the research results made evident how changes in regulations and their effects on procedures and re- ception services have had a profound impact on territories, services and protection seekers themselves. The research documented how regulatory actions have often had a vulnerabilizing effect on protection seekers, while they do not seem to have facilitated the identification, recognition and protection of many situations of vulnerability described by migrants interviewed. The picture that emerges from our work is that several vulnerabilities deemed particularly serious find formal but not necessarily concrete and material recognition, while others tend to be ignored or at least underestimated. This has a negative spillover effect both in the lives of migrant people and on the work of local services and administrations. Furthermore, we found out that, in recent years, several critical issues that already existed in the system worsened, while the inability to intervene adequately in favor of full recognition and protection of situations of fragility increased. In our view, it is therefore necessary to intervene at the institutional level and enhance the point of view of protection seekers and social workers, including those working in the non-profit sector

"Corpi divergenti, discorsi dissonanti. Rappresentazioni della sessualità tra uomini in Senegal."

The goal of this article is to introduce some reflections on the theme of the social construction of bodies and subjectivities that are socially stigmatized, with a specific reference to those moving away from the social norm that consider heterosexuality the only legitimate form of sexuality. Whereby possible, in this article I present this topic in relation to that of homoerotic relations in general (in so doing including also women) and gender relations. I focus mainly on the plurality of discourses circulating in Senegal in the public sphere and on the variety of experiences of men interested in other men living in Senegal or that frequently return there. Dominant attitudes usually tend to depict this country in a homogeneous way, without giving enough space and voice to forms of resistance more or less organized that exist despite the adverse socio-legal climate

Non-heteronormative masculinities and religious attitudes of Senegalesemigrants living in Italy.

The article explores the experiences of some Senegalese Muslim men who have sexual experiences with other men. Drawing on research that took place in some selected urban areas in Senegal and in Northern Italy, I highlight the flexible strategies that Senegalese men enact to maintain or challenge their transnational image of breadwinners living abroad, expressing their intimacy in safe ways while taking into account the dominant social and religious expectations. The article questions whether non-heteronormative genders and sexualities may also influence the engagement in local and transnational networks. Conclusions underline the agency expressed by these highly mobile migrants in managing their bonds and sense of belonging through borders and challenge some dominant discourses that consider non-heteronormative sexualities and religious beliefs inevitably antithetical

Loving More Than One Color: Bisexuals of Color in Italy Between Stigma and Resilience

The present research explored the narratives of Bi\ufepeople of Color living in northern Italy and the strategies they used to deal with multiple identity negotiations, stigma, and discrimination. As previous research suggests, Bi\ufepeople of Color face a double stigma due to the intersection between a nonmonosexual orientation and a nonwhite skin tone. Following an interdisciplinary approach between social psychology and cultural anthropology, we conducted qualitative interviews with bisexual men of Color with different migratory backgrounds (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa and South America). Narratives of stigma and resilience emerged by focusing on the intersections between the axes of sexual orientation and skin tone. Findings illustrate how the double stigma that Bi\ufepeople of Color experience affects their personal and political lives through their relationships with relevant social actors and networks

S-confinamenti dei generi e delle sessualità: possibili travisamenti nel riconoscimento della protezione internazionale.

Intorno al corpo delle e dei migranti si dispiegano politiche di controllo tese ad attivare e ali­mentare processi di stigmatizza­zione e criminalizzazione funzio­nali al paradigma culturale popu­lista e razzista che segna perico­losamente il nostro tempo. In par­ticolare, la figura del richiedente asilo rappresenta oggi un ele­mento chiave per il funzionamen­to delle politiche e delle retoriche sicuritarie: infantilizzato, vittimiz­zato, oppure socialmente costrui­to come individuo pericoloso intorno a cui cristallizzare le pre­occupazioni degli autoctoni; ma anche impiegato in attività lavo­rative segnate da violente logi­che di segregazione e sfruttamen­to. In questo volume, un gruppo di studiose e studiosi - attraverso casi studio e ricerche sul campo - cerca di gettare una luce sul variegato sistema di confinamenti che si riversa sui migranti e, allo stesso tempo, di illuminare le resi­stenze individuali e collettive messe in campo dai soggetti stes­si per la propria libertà e autode­terminazione

S-confinamenti dei generi e delle sessualit\ue0: possibili travisamenti nel riconoscimento della protezione internazionale

Il contributo intende proporre una riflessione antropologica sui molteplici fraintendimenti rispetto alle motivazioni di fuga dei richiedenti protezione internazionale, e quindi sui diversi confini immateriali che si frappongono tra la tutela ed il riconoscimento di diritti e le persone migranti. Il tentativo di ricondurre le traiettorie delle persone migranti all'interno di categorie (giuridiche o comunque intellegibili) riferisce delle molteplici forzature interpretative derivanti sia dall'interazione tra diverse professionalit\ue0, si\ue0 dalle indicazioni rispetto agli indici di credibilit\ue0 imposti dalle procedure