92591 - POLITICHE LOCALI DELL'ACCOGLIENZA E DELL'INTEGRAZIONE

Learning outcomes

This course aims at analysing the policies for the inclusion (or the exclusion) of immigrants at the local level by focusing on the notion of residency. By the end of the course, students will be expected to have developed the capacity to: employ the most relevant concepts and theoretical tools in the field of immigrants' reception and integration; understand the reception and integration policies carried out by the local Italian governments and assess their functioning and their effects; analyse the consequences on the paths of integration of the political and administrative actions of local administrations in fields such as civil registration; critically reason on the diverse styles of municipal government and the compatibility between local choices and state laws.

Course contents

The course focuses on immigrant integration policies carried out by the Italian municipalities. The main objects of analysis are the formal and informal tools through which local administrations pursue their purposes, and whether these tools are oriented toward the full inclusion of newcomers or, on the contrary, toward their more or less explicit exclusion. The political goals of local governments and the administrative devices they adopt will be inspected in parallel to assessment of the consequences of their actions. The Italian case will be particularly stressed, but other countries will be analysed as well.


The first part of the course is devoted to defining the policies of inclusion and retracing their institutional history. Particular attention will be paid to certain keywords such as "reception" and "integration": their different meanings and their diverse uses will be deeply stressed.

The second part is more specifically focused on the issue of residency and civil registration. Residency will be framed as a form of local territorial membership, and its functions and implications will be compared to the territorial memberships of other levels. Moreover, the historical development of demographic tools and their use as devices of monitoring and controlling the territory as well as administering welfare provisions will be retraced. Through this analysis, the course will focus on the differences among the diverse municipalities in terms of political orientation, kinds of administrative tools employed, and effects produced.

Readings/Bibliography

The mandatory examination texts are as follows:


1) Accorinti M., 2015, Centri di accoglienza: varietà tipologica e dibattito collegato, in "La rivista delle politiche sociali", n. 2-3;


2) Campesi G., 2016, Chiedere asilo in tempo di crisi. Accoglienza, confinamento e detenzione ai margini d’Europa, in Marchetti C. e Pinelli B. (a cura di), Confini d’Europa. Modelli di controllo e inclusioni informali, Milano, Raffaello Cortina;


3) Gargiulo E., 2014, Dall’inclusione programmata alla selezione degli immigrati. Le visioni dell’integrazione nei Documenti di programmazione del Governo italiano, in “Polis”, n. 2;


4) Gargiulo E., 2018, Integrati ma subordinati, in i confini dell’inclusione. La civic integration tra selezione e disciplinamento dei corpi migranti, Roma, DeriveApprodi;


5) Marchetti C., 2016, Le sfide dell’accoglienza. Passato e presente dei sistemi istituzionali di accoglienza per richiedenti asilo e rifugiati in Italia, in "Meridiana", n. 86;

6) Giovannetti M., 2021, La riforma del sistema di accoglienza e integrazione per richiedenti e titolari di protezione internazionale, in "Diritto, immigrazione e cittadinanza", n. 1.

7) Gargiulo E., 2019, Appartenenze precarie. La residenza tra inclusione ed esclusione, Torino, Utet.

Teaching methods

The first half of the total classes will be composed of lectures, in which the contents described above will be explored. Within these lessons, the participation of students, in the form of asking questions and making remarks and contributions, will be strongly encouraged.


The second half of the total classes will comprise seminars, in which the core topics of the course will be collectively discussed. Students will be required to carefully read the assigned material before the session, and will be expected to actively participate by means of powerpoint presentations or public discussions.

Assessment methods

Learning outcomes will be evaluated through an open-ended written exam. Questions will aim at testing students' learning on the crucial concepts related to the main issues of the course, and at asking the students to link different topics, in order to evaluate their skill in activating an overall approach and understanding, related to the various themes.

Teaching tools

The course uses slides in powerpoint, which will be made available to the students at the beginning of each lesson.

Office hours

See the website of Enrico Gargiulo