Research: The migratory route of the Sicily Channel after Schengen. An historical and legal interpretation.
This project fits in history of migration policy studies in Italy and analyses, with an interdisciplinary method, the consequences of the mobility regime change in the Sicily Channel due to the entry of Italy into the Schengen free movement area. Through the juridical comparative analysis of previous and immediately following migration policies, the pre-Schengen system of free and circular mobility will be pieced together. In order to highlight the existence of possible political and policy alternatives in a still close timeframe, the legal description will be enriched by the historical perspective and sociological evidence. The underlying research question aims at inquire if is possible to state that the closure of the Mediterranean border, imposed by the Italian entry into the Schengen area, has itself caused the dynamic of irregular immigration problematized in the following years, through the analysis of the same mobility corridor in an opposite and immediately prior legal context. The work will be based on the collection of normative, institutional and monitoring data, the conduction of interviews to the institutional and private actors involved, and the comparative systematization of the local historiographic on the issue.