The «invisible enemy» and the usual suspects. How Covid-19 re-framed migration in Italian media representations

Abstract

The last decade has been characterized by an intense inflow of people into borders of what has been called the "Fortress Europe". Italian governments, from Gentiloni-Minniti to Conte-Salvini, have implemented restrictive border management and migration control measures, fueled also by an over mediatization of the issue in and by public discourses. However, from February 2020 public debates and narratives have been dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic, a health emergency often described as a war against an invisible enemy. Through a qualitative analysis of Italian media representations, this paper analyses how Covid-19 overshadowed and reframed migration narratives and discourses. Moving within the concept of (in)visibility, this paper explores the two macrodiscourses around migration during the lockdown: on one side, the link between migration and illness (fear of infection) that led to strict border security measures; on the other, the utilitaristic x\regularization of migrants working in informal economy. The conclusion reflects on long-term implications of the pandemic on mobility justice (Sheller 2018) and what Mbembe (2020) has defined the "right to breath".

Quarantine Ships as Spaces of Bordering: The Securitization of Migration Policy in Italy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…They learned, with surprise, that, after being rescued or landing on Italian shores, they would be put on a quarantine ship (Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull'Immigrazione 2021). Only once on board were they informed by the operators, without any formal written communication, that for health reasons related to COVID-19's spread, they had to stay in isolation, without any contact with the outside world and without being able to disembark, thus being deprived of their personal freedom, for an indefinite number of days (Giacomelli 2020). In the operation's first few months, Many didn't even know what COVID was or what quarantine was, as we did in the first weeks of the pandemic.…”

“…The pandemic has also been used to deter mobility through hygienic-sanitary border enforcements in the name of humanitarianism and migrants’ health protection (Tazzioli and Stierl 2021b). As Meer et al (2020) note, measures that would not otherwise be viewed as legitimate have been taken in the name of public health, in breach of humanitarian laws, some EU member-states ceased asylum procedures, thus stranding asylum-seekers, forced boats carrying refugees out of their territorial waters (Cyprus), and closed their ports and suspended SAR operations at sea (Italy and Malta). While these measures are not “explicit and overt refoulement actions, they have prevented potential asylum seekers from registering at the border” (Meer et al 2020, 3, see also Della Puppa and Sanò 2021; Guadagno 2020).…”

“…As Meer et al (2020) note, measures that would not otherwise be viewed as legitimate have been taken in the name of public health, in breach of humanitarian laws, some EU member-states ceased asylum procedures, thus stranding asylum-seekers, forced boats carrying refugees out of their territorial waters (Cyprus), and closed their ports and suspended SAR operations at sea (Italy and Malta). While these measures are not “explicit and overt refoulement actions, they have prevented potential asylum seekers from registering at the border” (Meer et al 2020, 3, see also Della Puppa and Sanò 2021; Guadagno 2020). Far from completely halting people's movement (Tazzioli 2021), these measures have produced a shift from a “hostile Europe” to an “unsafe Europe” (Tazzioli and Stierl 2021a, 2), where migrants’ health, particularly the undocumented or those living in camps and informal settlements, is put at greater risk (Cordova 2021; Guadagno 2020) and the differences between foreign nationals and citizens are exacerbated (Perocco 2021; Roksandic, Mamic and Mikac 2021).…”

“…Through the use of primary sources including interviews with Red Cross volunteers and key informants from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), media, and grassroots associations, I show that quarantine ships were used as "floating hotspots," creating a precedent for a previously rejected idea 2 to take concrete shape. Similarly to so-called hotspots centers located in proximity to ports of arrival in the EU member-states in the Mediterranean designed by the 2015 European Agenda on Migration (European Commission 2015, 5), quarantine ships' function was to identify and register arriving migrants, and, by doing so, operate a preventive and differential filtering (Giacomelli 2020;Queirolo and Rahola 2020;Tazzioli and Garelli 2018).…”

Concerns over COVID-19 and prejudice: Pre- and during-pandemic in Italy

“…The interest of the present study is to investigate whether the concerns about the contagion and the spread of COVID-19 are related to attitudes of prejudice toward immigrants. As some studies have remarked (e.g., Bianco et al., 2021 ; Clissold et al, 2020 ; Giacomelli et al, 2020 ; Gordils et al, 2021 ; Hartman et al, 2021 ), concerns about an invisible enemy, such as a virus, can indeed lead to the emergence of feelings and behaviors of social exclusion by the political world, the media, and by people in their daily lives. In recent decades, Italy has been a destination, both temporary and permanent, for immigrants coming mainly from Africa and this has led to a re-surfacing of feelings, attitudes, and behaviors openly hostile toward these minorities ( Barisione, 2020 ; Passini & Villano, 2018 ).…”