The arrival of north African migrants in the south of Italy: Practices of sustainable welfare within a non-welcoming system”

The arrival of migrants from North Africa has given Italy a further tightening of control policies. Tunisian refugees have become “economic migrants”, those who can not attain the status of humanitary protection. Asylum seekers are those for whom a sort of reception has been created with the aim of defining situations of abandonment. On the other hand, different municipalities in Italy have spontaneously offered their assistance, so establishing a network of solidarity. Something which is particularly worthy of attention is the “request for immigrants” on the part of small Calabrian towns which were experiencing a declining population. In these towns, which have generally been severely affected by emigration, the experience of hospitality has become an exercise in democracy through which “old” and “new” residents alike claim their rights to exist. The aim of this research was to find those social factors which have permitted experimentation with advanced forms of migrant inclusion within a context of deep economic degradation; to analyse the network between local institutions and socio-cultural actors within the realisation of such an assistance project becomes a part of the logic of sustainable territorial development; to explore the production of new knowledge which matures with the social operators in the construction of an alternative system of relations between refugees and Italians.