Immigration Policies: Are They Really Restrictive? Italy, 1990-2013

Elena Ambrosetti, Sapienza Università di Roma
Angela Paparusso, Sapienza Università di Roma

Two approaches can be followed to analyze immigration policies in the context of the EU. The first approach, known as the “policy failure" highlights the limited success of immigration policies in regulating migration; the second, the “securitization” approach sees immigration policies more effective in limiting migration since they have become stricter. Both approaches are essential to evaluate the effectiveness of immigration policies. Our study focuses on Italy over the period 1990-2013, as one of the EU member states with the largest immigration inflows. In particular, we empirically measure if Italian immigration policies are restrictive or not and how much Italian immigration policies, among other factors, such as economic and demographic factors, have an impact on migration inflows or net migration. We use a composite policy index. Our research hypothesis is that the restrictiveness of Italian immigration policies is in part ascribable to the increasing securitization of the EU immigration measures.