"In order to understand the socio-territorial impact of asylum legislation and policies in the EU, several different research tools were deliberately used during the project. Firstly, the researcher analysed the European legislative texts on asylum and the Italian parliamentary debates on the Ddl. Security and immigration 840/2018; the most recent act amending the Italian asylum system. Focusing on the “law-spatial-nexus” (Bennett & Layard, 2015, cited p. 418, see Blomley and Clark) allows us to move ""from the visual and political order of representation to the spatial transformations they generate"" (Tazzioli, 2015, p. 6). Laws and policies implemented by the Member States provide the basis for the establishment of specific subjects’ categories (e.g. asylum-seekers/irregular/refugees) as well as for the structure of asylum procedures, by defining temporal and spatial structures (different types of centres and their location).
Secondly, different ethnographic fieldworks were carried out with the aim of more closely understanding the socio-territorial impact of the legislation and, above all, its implementation on the ground. To this end, the researcher interviewed both migrants and individuals involved in the asylum and reception system in Italy and in the Netherlands, including NGO workers, public officials, and political representatives. During the fieldwork research, the researcher tried to understand - in connection with the previous discursive analysis - the impact of the law and the reception system on migrants with different legal status, as well as the autonomous actions carried out by migrants in (more or less stark) contrast with policies at EU and/or national level.
Given the project topic and aims, the most important achievements reached by the Project are represented by 1. scientific results; 2. dissemination results set up in order to meet a broad and non-academic audience; 3. data and analysis useful for policy-makers. In particular:
1. Wide academic dissemination of the results was ensured through conferences and guest lectures held in different countries (Italy, the Netherland, Britain, USA) as well as via different papers. The scientific quality of the results is certificated by their inclusion in peer-reviewed journals and books [see the “Publication list” included in the webdoc].
2. The fellow took different actions in order to reach a broad and non-academic audience. In collaboration with the University of Genoa, the researcher was involved in the scientific committee of an exhibition of migrants’ drawings, held in Genoa in May 2019. Furthermore, she set up a website - the PASS web-doc - which contains data, information, links, bibliography, the researcher’s scientific publications as well as the illustration of the fieldwork in Italy (the Graphic Novel “Diary from the border”).
3. A map of the Italian reception centres and the explanation of the Italian Asylum System was included in the XIII Annual Report of the Italian Geographical Society (2018), presented in Rome at the Chamber of Deputies on the 22 October 2018 [D 4.1]. Moreover, a list of recommendations was included in the PASS web-doc for policy-makers involved in migration management."
