The moral economy of migrants’ invisibility: why certain migrants are tolerated and regularised, while others are rejected and persecuted

Italy is a case in point of this more general social and political process. Migrants and asylum seekers landing on the Southern shores are highly visible and have become the target of hostile policies, at national and local level: they are depicted as “illegal immigrants”, although actually they receive a provisional stay permit. Other irregular immigrants are widely tolerated and preserved from disputes on the danger of irregular immigration and even from the same label of irregular immigrants. Women employed by local households as domestic and care workers are the most widespread and typical example of this selective attitude. In many countries, included the USA and Germany, the domestic sector is similarly considered a kind of safe harbour for irregular immigrants, although implying exploitation and other abuses. For the same reasons, immigrant workers and especially workers informally employed in the domestic sector are the main beneficiaries of recurrent regularization programmes enacted by Italian governments (eight in 34 years, the most recent in 2020, in which 85 percent of application were referred to this sector). I will discuss the relation between visions of irregular immigration and policies to govern the issue through the concept of “moral economy of immigration policy”: the perception of deservingness of certain irregular immigrants not only fosters tolerance and makes “invisible” these immigrants, but can shape political attitudes and influence political decisions. Indeed, when a large share of public opinion accepts these immigrants, this attitude paves the way for a different definition of their social and legal condition.