Immigration and social inequalities. Italian integration policies revisited

After the federal reform of 2001, Italian regions have gained greater autonomy in matters of social policy, immigrants’ integration included. In this paper we intend to highlight if immigration has been framed as a “new social risk” by considering nine Italian regions: Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia Romagna in the North, Tuscany, Umbria and Marche in the Centre and Abruzzo, Basilicata and Calabria in the South. Through a diachronic analysis of the regions’ official documents on immigrants’ integration approved in the period 2000-2009, we shall consider: 1) the policy priorities identified and the measures funded; 2) the implementing structures. From the study, different local models of integration emerge. Whereas regions such as Veneto and Marche show a highly interventionist stance, promoting a specific definition of immigration as a social risk, linked essentially to employment and housing, and assign to local administrations clear implementation tasks, other regions as Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Umbria and Abruzzo seem to prefer a more vague definition, thus leaving to local governments the identification of more specific priorities. Even looser is the approach pursued by Basilicata and Calabria, where just general goals are set and funding is distributed through a call for projects.