Mediterranean Institute Seminars
What is 'integration'? Forms of reception of asylum seekers in Italy
Speaker: Dr Barbara Sorgoni (University of Turin)
Tuesday 23 May
at 17:30
at the Mediterranean Institute (Ir-Razzett tal-Ħursun)
Abstract
Drawing from field-research carried out in the years 2008-2011 in two different Centres for asylum seekers in Italy, the Seminar aims to question policies of 'integration' by showing how this ever-present term hides implicit assumptions about what it means to be a good citizen, which vary in different parts of Italy. The analysis of such assumptions allows to uncover the pervasive and strategic role played by social workers and volunteers in different types of Centres, and the productivity of what in the end appear as highly arbitrary bureaucratic decisions which strongly impact on the lives of those hosted in the Centres.