Re-institutionalization and co-planning in the Italian asylum policy: The case study of the development of Humanitarian corridors

In the Mediterranean, the "refugee crisis" has shown the existence of faults in the emergency government of a migratory phenomenon now begun structural. In this context, policymakers are increasingly attempting to identify solutions that can be used to re-institutionalise migration policies, by adapting them to changing circumstances. Italy is one of the countries that most belongs to these attempts: despite various critical issues - starting from 2015 with the Humanitarian Corridors, here various experiments have taken place. They are aimed at activating new – non-governmental mechanisms in the field of reception and integration. If they are the premise for migration policies adapted to a structural phenomenon, only by overcoming the pioneering nature of the first experiences can they be configured as an ordinary mechanism – thus complementary to the governmental one. Therefore, with an interdisciplinary methodological approach to policy studies and an institutionalist thought, the contribution seeks to identify the instruments of institutionalization of Humanitarian corridors. In this sense, the role of participatory policy instruments is clear; and, among others co-production: how can co-planning be the instrument of institutionalization of private sponsorship? How are both a territorial context and a private sponsorship experience prone to institutionalization? How this transition from pioneering experiences to ordinariness happens? What is the nature of the process? First, I propose a model of institutionalization, within which participative instruments can be logically placed. Such model is inspired by empirical institutionalism (Chryssochoou, Lowndes, Roberts). In this sense, I also identify two analytical tools: the propensity to institutionalize, and the institutionalization trajectory. Secondly, I apply such model to the Italian context, in order to deduce how the context is opened to institutionalization (how these experiences are likely to transform into ordinary mechanisms), and how the trajectory is actually achieved. By studying several case studies from 2015, the results show that the process of institutionalization be favoured by the number of actors, by the high territorial rooting and by the reinterpretation of the concept of recipient.