Towards a common European immigration policy: A view from Italy

Coping with legal and illegal immigration has become an issue of prime concern for the EU and its individual member states. During the late 1980s and 1990s, immigration pressures increased (due in part to the fall of communism). Simultaneously, the EU was following an internal integration and expansion strategy. The need to provide internal security, a properly functioning labour market as well as obligations to humanitarian values (and their fulfillment by respecting international commitments), were challenges to be reconciled with the changing nature of governing within the EU. This thesis thus seeks to address whether the policy is set by EU level institutions or through member state institutions.The methodological approach is an institutional rather than a political-sociological one. The aim of the thesis is to determine the measures required for the effective functioning of the current hybrid of competencies in policy formation and implementation. The thesis uncovers that at the EU and member state level (Italy) the economic and demographic need for immigrants is not effectively managed due to socio-political forces that oppose immigration. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...