Migrants’ Paths in the Italian Labour Market and in the Migrant Regulatory Frameworks: Precariousness as a Constant Factor

Even though every development of Italian migration policy has included aspects of discontinuity, often presented as remedies for the failure of previous laws, it is possible to trace a strong line of continuity, both in terms of its policy elaboration and of its effectiveness. Recent studies on the origins of Italian migration policies have pointed to a steady presence of a demand for “pragmatic functionalism” from employers and the persistence of a powerful alignment between this and attitudes of solidarity, represented by the advocacy coalition (Zincone, 2006). Other studies have highlighted the presence of a high level of discretionary power that has distinguished all Italian migration policy (Triandafyllidou, 2003; Dell’Olio, 2004). This chapter will try to identify some common themes across different Italian migration policies, to relate them to the way in which migrants have been inserted into the labour market. The aim is not to demonstrate that migration policies are the only factor determining the migrant labour market experience. Nevertheless it seems legitimate to argue that, on the one hand migrant policies have nourished chronic problems within the Italian labour market (such as the widespread and structural persistency of irregular employment) and on the other hand have played a role in encouraging transformations in labour conditions (as evidenced by the increasing demand for flexible work conditions) by ignoring the specific situation of migrant workers. We then move our focus on two recurrent factors in migration policies: the extended use of mass legalizations, as the principle device for regularizing migrants’ residency; and the continuing development, within the legal dimension, of a hierarchical integration model for migrants. In a second section of the chapter, based on some results of survey, conducted in 2003, on 1.654 migrant workers living in a prosperous region in the North East, we highlight the specifics of migrants’ working conditions. Finally in the last section we explore the relationship between the labour market and migration, using the Marxian theory of a reserve army of labour, which we view, in its most authentic interpretation, as a core or functional element (rather than a marginal or dysfunctional one) in the processes of the reproduction of capital and at the same time as a component of the supply of labour, not solely reducible to the categories of unemployment, secondary labour market or marginal mass, as it has often been characterised.