Religious associations are a very relevant actor in immigration policymaking in Italy, both at national and local level. But it is in the latter that they prove to be fundamental for the management of migratory presence and the implementation of public policies addressed to migrants, because they often can make available more facilities, resources and volunteers than other private and public actors.
Religious associations usually work in networks with institutions and other actors from the nonprofit and voluntary sector in order to implement projects and services for migrants. However, the collaboration might cause the emergence of disagreement on which is the best way to face social problems related to immigration.
The paper will focus on the case study of the province of Foggia, in Southern Italy, where every summer thousands of migrants gather to work as seasonal workers in the tomato harvesting. The reports on the precarious conditions of life and work of these migrants led to the development of a lot of projects and services for improving their status and fighting the gang-master system (a form of illegal mediation to work known as “caporalato”, where mediators exploit the workers).
Through several interviews to exponents of local administrations, public offices and nonprofit associations, it has been pointed out that, while an issue network on migration has risen and is efficient for what concerns the receipt and the first assistance for migrants, there is no agreement on further and deeper interventions. The disagreement is between associations which want to provide help for migrants in actual situations of precariousness and associations committed to face the causes of these situations. The tension between these two conceptions of the third sector role in public policies doesn't divide only the religious actors from the secular ones, but it's also divisive inside the religious associationism.
