The Salvini Immigration-Security Decree-Law and its Regional Socio-economic Effects: the Case of Tuscany

In Italy, the phenomenon of migration has reached the dimension of an emergency in the internal public debate (Carta 2018) with the Decree-Law on Immigration and Security (Law 1.12.2018, n.132) representing a major downturn in the architecture of the Italian system of protection. This paper is a tentative to explore the Salvini Security- Immigration Decree-Law and its regional socio-economic effects. The Salvini’s reform has been decried by civil society organisations for lowering protection standards, infringing constitutional and human rights guarantees and exacerbating social tension on migration (AIDA 2018). Composed by forty articles, fifteen of which are dedicated to immigration, international protection and citizenship, the so called ‘Salvini Decree-Law’ is leading, and it will lead, some relevant effects on Italian regional and local contexts. Indeed, even if an important role is played by national government in defining comprehensive solutions to migration phenomenon, in Italy activities and measures for migrants are planned and implemented through coordinated actions at national, regional and local level. On the grounds of this complex context, a conceptual framework is introduced to analyse the Salvini Decree-Law’s effects on regional contexts and to generate hypothesis on the strategies that local and regional policy makers (but also non-state actors) should follow. In particular, this tool analyses challenges the implementation of the new Law is leading in the two specific domains of reception and integration of asylum seekers and refugees. The case study of Tuscany Region has been chosen due to its well-known welfare model and strong social capital structure. The study results are reported and systematised in an ex-post SWOT analysis.