Chapter 3 Reforms of asylum seekers’ reception during the 2010s

"This book provides a comparative overview of asylum seekers’ reception throughout Europe by adopting a theoretical framework based on an analytical approach to the notion of multilevel governance. It challenges the tendency of the multilevel governance literature to overlook political controversies and conflicts and questions the assumption that it represents the best policymaking arrangement for promoting policy convergence. In doing so, it explores the functioning of the reception component of the Common European Asylum System in centralised states and federal/regional states and analyses its implementation at both national and local levels. The book reveals the heterogeneous development of reception policies not only across Member States but also within each country where solutions adopted at the local level generally diverge substantially. Furthermore, the overall centralization of policymaking on reception regardless the institutional structure, seems to leave little room for MLG arrangements tailored to specific localities and triggers tensions between central governments and local authorities. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of migration and asylum studies, immigration, (multilevel) global governance and more broadly to comparative politics, European studies/politics, and public policy.

Chapter 10 Conclusion

"This book provides a comparative overview of asylum seekers’ reception throughout Europe by adopting a theoretical framework based on an analytical approach to the notion of multilevel governance. It challenges the tendency of the multilevel governance literature to overlook political controversies and conflicts and questions the assumption that it represents the best policymaking arrangement for promoting policy convergence. In doing so, it explores the functioning of the reception component of the Common European Asylum System in centralised states and federal/regional states and analyses its implementation at both national and local levels. The book reveals the heterogeneous development of reception policies not only across Member States but also within each country where solutions adopted at the local level generally diverge substantially. Furthermore, the overall centralization of policymaking on reception regardless the institutional structure, seems to leave little room for MLG arrangements tailored to specific localities and triggers tensions between central governments and local authorities. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of migration and asylum studies, immigration, (multilevel) global governance and more broadly to comparative politics, European studies/politics, and public policy.

The variance in multilevel governance of asylum seekers’ reception in Italy : the key roles of policy legacy, politics and civil society

It is common knowledge that asylum seekers’ reception in Italy has been and still is a contentious matter. Under the pressure generated by the rapid succession of the “migration crisis” of 2011, triggered by the collapse of the Tunisian and Libyan regimes, and the “refugee crisis” of 2015, following the Syrian war, the Italian reception system has undergone profound changes. By using multilevel governance (MLG) as an analytical concept, this chapter analyses the Italian reception system focusing on the relationship between the national and local levels of government, and on the interactions the 2011–2018 period. The chapter compares and contrasts two local case studies in northern Italy—Torino in the Piedmont region and Treviso in the Veneto region—characterised by different political backgrounds and socio-political legacies. The purpose of this chapter is, first, to analyse the specific configuration of MLG in the field of asylum seekers’ reception in Italy and the factors that account for it, and second, to explore whether and how it relates to policy convergence dynamics as defined in the Introduction to the volume. In doing so, we assess the level of homogeneity or heterogeneity in the reception system, which may result respectively in policy convergence or divergence. In addition, we investigate the main factors influencing homogeneity or heterogeneity and determining converging or diverging trends in the reception policy field. Based on empirical findings from the local case studies, we consider in particular the role of the following factors: socio-political legacies in the local community; the level of involvement of local institutions in the coordination of reception; the level of organisation of civil society; the relationships among local institutions and between local institutions and civil society organisations (CSOs); and politics (in terms of governing parties at the regional and municipal levels).The funder for this chapter is FIERI, Ital

Disulfide-linked allosteric modulators for multi-cycle kinetic control of DNA-based nanodevices

Nature employs sulfur switches, that is, redox-active disulfides, to kinetically control biological pathways in a highly efficient and reversible way. Inspired by this mechanism, we describe herein a DNA-based synthetic nanodevice that acts as a sulfur switch and can be temporally controlled though redox regulation. To do this, we rationally designed disulfide DNA strands (modulators) that hybridize to a ligand-binding DNA nanodevice and act as redox-active allosteric regulators inducing the nanodevice to release or load its ligand. Upon reduction, the allosteric modulator spontaneously de-hybridizes from the nanodevice and, as a result, its effect is transient. The system is reversible and has an unprecedented high tolerance to waste products and displays transient behavior for over 40 cycles without significant loss of efficiency. Kinetic control of DNA-based ligand-binding nanodevices through purely chemical reactions paves the way for temporal regulation of more complex chemical pathways

Mycobiota composition and changes across pregnancy in patients with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM)

The gut mycobiota has never been studied either during pregnancy or in patients with gestational diabetes (GDM). This study aimed to analyze the fecal mycobiota of GDM patients during the second (T2) and third (T3) trimester of pregnancy and to compare it with the mycobiota of pregnant normoglycemic women (controls). Forty-one GDM patients and 121 normoglycemic women were studied. GDM mycobiota was composed almost exclusively by the Ascomycota phylum; Basidiomicota accounted for 43% of the relative frequency of the controls. Kluyveromyces (p < 0.001), Metschnikowia (p < 0.001), and Pichia (p < 0.001) showed a significantly higher frequency in GDM patients, while Saccharomyces (p = 0.019), were more prevalent in controls. From T2 to T3, a reduction in fungal alpha diversity was found in GDM patients, with an increase of the relative frequency of Candida, and the reduction of some pro-inflammatory taxa. Many associations between fungi and foods and nutrients were detected. Finally, several fungi and bacteria showed competition or co-occurrence. Patients with GDM showed a predominance of fungal taxa with potential inflammatory effects when compared to normoglycemic pregnant women, with a marked shift in their mycobiota during pregnancy, and complex bacteria-fungi interactions

Chapter 3 Reforms of asylum seekers’ reception during the 2010s

"This book provides a comparative overview of asylum seekers’ reception throughout Europe by adopting a theoretical framework based on an analytical approach to the notion of multilevel governance. It challenges the tendency of the multilevel governance literature to overlook political controversies and conflicts and questions the assumption that it represents the best policymaking arrangement for promoting policy convergence. In doing so, it explores the functioning of the reception component of the Common European Asylum System in centralised states and federal/regional states and analyses its implementation at both national and local levels. The book reveals the heterogeneous development of reception policies not only across Member States but also within each country where solutions adopted at the local level generally diverge substantially. Furthermore, the overall centralization of policymaking on reception regardless the institutional structure, seems to leave little room for MLG arrangements tailored to specific localities and triggers tensions between central governments and local authorities. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of migration and asylum studies, immigration, (multilevel) global governance and more broadly to comparative politics, European studies/politics, and public policy.