Externalisation and Security: The Italia-Albania Protocol and the Evolution of the Italian Migration Policy.

Italy plays a pivotal role in international migration policy nowadays. Meloni’s government has implemented sophisticated policies facing illegal migration that have granted her and her establishment appreciation from European leaders, such as the UK PM Stramer, despite controversies on the protection of the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Acknowledging securitisation as the dominant trend in the Italian migration policy for over three decades, this paper examines its evolution across the period preceding and following the 2015 migration crisis through the analysis of two crucial migration policies, the Legislative Decree 142/2015 and the Italia-Albania Protocol from 2023 (respectively, from before and after the crisis). The comparative analysis unfolds new strategies for migration policy which rely on nuanced security strategies, such as the externalisation of reception centres and security controls (out of national borders), and the centralisation of jurisdictional procedures. Furthermore, the rigorous document analysis reveals how the rhetorics and practices of securitisation in migration policy change over time. On the one hand, this work highlights a shift in migration policies towards more securitised terms and discourses. The language used has shifted from technical and bureaucratic vocabulary addressing migrants, such as ‘applicant(s)’ and ‘seeker(s)’, to more generic and charged terms like ‘immigrant(s)’ and ‘foreigner(s)’. On the other hand, this paper elucidates a nuanced change in practices, emphasising the discrepancies between the rhetorics and actual procedures in migration policy. The contextual framework complements the analysis of the two migration policies, effectively supporting it with inherent characteristics of the Italian socioeconomic and political system.