“It will kill your dreams, your goals, your everything”—Humanitarian migrants, governance through containment and the Italian accommodation system

Lumley-Sapanski, Audrey

Abstract

While asylum seekers await the outcome of their claims to protection in Italy, they are dispersed to accommodation centers administered by subcontracted non-governmental agencies where they receive reception and integration services. In addition, in line with guidelines from the regional government, social operators regulate migrant behavior and mobility through the use of the use of behavioral regulation, deployed temporalities, and various forms of surveillance. Using the lens of migration governmentality and specifically, containment (Tazzioli and Garelli, 2018), this research explores the impact of these forms of governance on migrant settlement outcomes. I do so through a case study of accommodation centers and migrant experiences within accommodation centers in Turin (Italy) conducted in the winter of 2018 and 2019. Findings suggest that migrants are infantilized through the process, one which provides few opportunities to exert autonomy over self-direction and preferred settlement outcomes. Contained within reception centers without opportunities for external engagement, migrants are prevented from developing social ties or place attachment more generally. Migrants reject their subordinated status, and, exhibit a familiar form of autonomy in the post-reception period—migration, including circular and cross border mobility.

Citation

Lumley-Sapanski, A. (2022). “It will kill your dreams, your goals, your everything”—Humanitarian migrants, governance through containment and the Italian accommodation system. Political Geography, 94, Article 102573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102573

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 18, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Dec 23, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-04
• Deposit Date: Mar 10, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 24, 2023
• Journal: Political Geography
• Print ISSN: 0962-6298
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-5096
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 94
• Article Number: 102573
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102573
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science; History; Geography, Planning and Development
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/7569668
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096262982100233X?via%3Dihub
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: “It will kill your dreams, your goals, your everything”—Humanitarian migrants, governance through containment and the Italian accommodation system; Journal Title: Political Geography; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102573; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.