Irregular migration and healthcare in times of pandemic. Bottom-up claims and policy responses in (increasingly diverging) Italy and Spain

The importance of protecting migrants’ health has been widely recognised as a necessary condition for responding effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the need to ensure that all migrants, including migrants with irregular status, have access to public health measures has been largely stressed by international organisations and by the EU. After reviewing the exceptional measures adopted by several EU Member States on the residency and health entitlements of migrants with irregular status in 2020, the paper will focus on the Spanish and Italian cases, two EU Member States that have been heavily affected by the pandemic since its very initial spread in the European region. Drawing on the analysis of the policy measures adopted in both countries from March to December 2020 in response to similar bottom-up mobilisations, the paper will highlight the increasing divergence between these two countries in dealing with irregular migration, thus challenging the enduring concept of a “South European model of immigration”. Accordingly, the Italian central government took advantage of the exceptional situation originated by the pandemic to adopt a regularisation measure (limited to the agriculture, domestic and care sectors), yet invoking public health principles to justify it. Contrary to that, the Spanish government openly discarded social and political requests to apply similar measures, while it implicitly allowed sub-national governments to extend the health entitlements and coverage of migrants with irregular status during to the pandemic.