LIVIA SAPERE
To: Giorgia Meloni
Palazzo Chigi
Piazza Colonna, 370
00187 Roma (RM), Italy
Dear Giorgia Meloni,
I am writing to address the decision of your government to cut funding for assisting refugees and people looking for asylum in Italy and to allocate them for border enforcement and national security, transferring from 50 million to 25 million euros by 2027 (Camilloni 2023). As an anthropology student, I keep reflecting on the collective processes and political discourses that polarised the migration debate in Italy between humanitarian emergencies and border enforcement. Through anthropological evidence, I would like to show you how this decision will not improve the migration situation in Italy.
Crossing the border from one country to another is no easy task. Analysing the agreements between Italy and Libya that saw Italian funds used to build detention centres on the Libyan coasts, Andrijasevic (2010) debunked the linearity by which migrants’ journeys are usually described in public discourses. Instead, they are full of discontinuities, such as hiding, waiting, unforeseen detours, settlements, stops, escapes, and returns. Lucht (2011) described how his West African informants were forced to come back to Libya and attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea multiple times on overcrowded boats. Holmes (2013) joined a group of Triqui men from Oaxaca in crossing the US-Mexico border and described their constant anxiety and fear of death. Their journey abruptly came to an end after being stopped by the border patrol, which often treats migrants as if they were nothing more than animals (Duncan 2015). Holmes also challenged the categories of “forced refugees” and “voluntary migrants”. His informants crossed the border “voluntarily” but also perceived their migration as an obligation. Willen et al. (2011) observed that crossing the border is not just a simple “choice” for many migrants. Instead, it is a carefully planned move to reduce political-economic disparities and earn money to improve their lives and those of their loved ones. Horton (2009) described the difficulties faced by mothers who decided to leave San Salvador for the US and not to bring their children with them. They experienced an ongoing conflict in which the necessity to provide for them clashed with the fact that they could not physically be around to take care of them. Framing “illegal” migration as an individual choice for economic reasons overlooks structural forces at play that influence their decision. Quesada et al. (2011) defined these processes as “structural vulnerability”, that is, a result of economic exploitation based on class and discrimination based on culture, gender, sexual orientation, and race. However, host countries overlook structural vulnerability and frame this “choice” as an attack on the nation-state and an attempt to rob citizens of their jobs (Willen et al. 2011). These arguments are used in media discourses to justify not grieving for those who lose their lives at the border and not taking steps towards real change and equality (Holmes 2013). These reflections are particularly relevant in the Italian context. Your government has often discussed migration in racist and xenophobic ways (Poli 2023), symptoms of a country that never fully came to terms with its fascist past (Lucht 2011).
The impact of migration on people’s health is significant. It might affect them long after the immediate assistance they receive, for instance, on NGO ships. We need to start to think about the border as “a site of vulnerability, stress, and danger where mental health problems can begin” (Duncan 2015:32). Duncan coined the term “transnational disorders” to talk about the effects that migrants experience on both sides of the border. She linked psychological problems among migrants returning to Oaxaca to their structural vulnerability before, during, and following migration to the US. Disorders might also acquire unique traits because of migrants’ “illegality”. De Genova (2002) noted how “illegality” is not a given status of a person. Instead, it is created legally through specific anti-immigration policies like those of your government. Willen et al. (2011) argued that “illegality” increases sensitivity to disease, injury, and violence exposure through a synergetic interaction with other risk factors known as “syndemics” (Singer 2009). Politicians, legislators, and voters often perceive “illegal” migrants as being outside the boundaries of their country and their moral community. However, they depend on them as migrant bodies provide inexpensive labour (De Genova 2002; Holmes 2007). The creation of “illegality” does not exclude “illegal” migrants. Instead, it deliberately includes them in a spiral of enforced and protracted vulnerability (De Genova 2002). Lucht (2011) pointed out how many jobs in Naples would not exist if not done by “illegal” migrants, highlighting how the Italian economy relies on their exploitation. He described how his Ghanaian informants, forced to work off the books, had to be extremely careful not to get injured. They worked in precarious situations but were not entitled to the healthcare system. He also mentioned the constant state of anxiety, humiliation, and uncertainty of migrants as they waited on the side of the road for day labour, not knowing who would pick them up and with what intentions, often ending up as victims of physical and sexual violence. Willen (2007) observed how Filipino and West African migrants living in Tel Aviv internalised fears of deportation in their bodies after the introduction of anti-immigration policies and how that affected their daily lives through anxiety and insomnia. One of her informants cried, “We are not criminals, we are human beings!” (quote from Willen 2007:25). The new legislation was incredibly humiliating as it made her “illegal” after having lived for more than a decade in Israel. However, when discussing migrants’ rights and health needs, the popular narrative is that they are stealing resources from a system already struggling. Castañeda (2011) described how undocumented immigrants in Germany must rely on informal and short-term treatments by charities and NGOs in the absence of clear policies. According to her analysis, it is the consequence of a country which condemns “illegal” migration but depends on it. These insights show how migrants are used as scapegoats in health discourses but often represent the most vulnerable ones in the story.
Unlike other borders within Italy, the Mediterranean space is unique as different laws apply at sea and on land. Despite critiques of your government towards the activities of NGO ships, captains must rescue those in need, regardless of their nationality, status, or circumstances (UNCLOS 1982). However, when migrants leave the ships, national laws specific to each country apply. In Italy, they are split between “illegal immigrants” and “asylum seekers”. The former are brought to CPR (Centri di Permanenza e Rimpatrio, transl. Centres of Detention and Deportation), whereas the latter begin an asylum application. However, people seeking asylum face challenges as the psychological, social, and linguistic support provided throughout the application process has been eliminated following your cuts in funding. Besides, the categories of “illegal” migrants and asylum seekers often overlap because of agreements between countries (for example, EU and Tunisia) and because many migrants who are eligible to seek asylum do not know they can. Therefore, many end up indiscriminately in CPR that are, de facto, prisons. Here, they enter a “state of exception” (Agamben 1998), in which they are deprived of their rights as they fall outside the category of citizens. To highlight the fallacies of this system, most of the people detained in CPR do not know where they are and why, including migrants who “legally” entered Italy and whose residence permits have expired. According to Fassin (2004), undocumented migrants are not recognized as complete human beings and members of the community, and they are left to social and political isolation. This pattern emerges clearly from the treatments migrants undergo while in CPR, where many instances of abuse and suicide have been reported (Ahmed 2022; Poli 2023).
These anthropological insights show the concrete consequences that policies like those of your government can create. Migrants put their lives at risk when crossing the border. They deal with adverse health outcomes before, during, and after their stay in host countries, often exacerbated by their “illegality” status, while being exploited for their labour. Like other anthropologists before me have pointed out (Willen 2007), I am aware that convincing political leaders in charge of deciding what it means to be “illegal” that they should be concerned about the dangerous effects of their policies, especially when those effects are more or less explicitly deliberate, is incredibly challenging. However, this is no excuse for not addressing this complex and nuanced issue, given how much migration is affecting our country and how much our country’s policies are affecting migrants. Tensions and possible outbreaks of violence are only going to worsen without any network assisting undocumented migrants, especially when they lack other connections (for instance, their families). Re-establishing support services for refugees and people seeking asylum is crucial. They need to be extended to “illegal” migrants held in CPR as well. We have seen how they are made “illegal” through policies like yours, and their “illegality” does not make them less deserving of social, psychological, and linguistic support. Instead of arming more and more of the Italian police and introducing higher fines for starting riots in CPR, a much more effective way to use those funds would be to offer better wages and train those who routinely work in contexts of migration, especially in CPR, given the many tensions between migrants and working staff (Ahmed 2022). Anthropologists like Willen et al. (2011) noted how care providers working in difficult environments are often neglected, as well as mayors of comuni (municipalities), border patrol and law enforcement officers who are increasingly asked to implement immigration policies. Raising awareness of the difficulties migrants face and the impact on their health is crucial among all stakeholders as they act in the migration discourse and witness many changes within their communities. This intervention would be an efficient way to address the flow of undocumented migration since safe and “legal” routes like human corridors are still too limited for many to be considered an option (Camilli 2022). I know your policies go in the opposite direction, with the EU closely looking at your government’s course of action. However, defunding essential services will not make Italy safer. In fact, it is precisely through funding them that you might simultaneously reduce occurrences of violence and meet the EU’s indications towards migrants. Reinforcing borders will not stop their journeys but only make them more dangerous. Instead, the best thing to do is to create safer spaces for those arriving in Italy, those whose “illegality” is treated as a given but who are already part of the Italian social fabric and economy, and those working with them.
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