Migrants’ Equal Access to Social Benefits under EU Law: Fragmentation and Exclusion during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy
This paper uses the case of Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic to critically assess the EU legal framework on third-country national migrants’ equal access to social benefits. In Italy, migrants are structurally excluded from core social protections, a situation that during the pandemic led to a wor...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Utrecht University School of Law
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Utrecht Law Review |
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| Online Access: | https://account.utrechtlawreview.org/index.php/up-j-ulr/article/view/897 |
| _version_ | 1797502791529267200 |
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| author | Virginia Passalacqua Lorenzo Grossio |
| author_facet | Virginia Passalacqua Lorenzo Grossio |
| author_sort | Virginia Passalacqua |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper uses the case of Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic to critically assess the EU legal framework on third-country national migrants’ equal access to social benefits. In Italy, migrants are structurally excluded from core social protections, a situation that during the pandemic led to a worsening of existing patterns of inequality; migrants have been more exposed than citizens to poverty, unemployment, and destitution. The first part of the paper looks for the EU legal root of this situation: it examines the EU legal framework in the migration field, showing that it is affected by fragmentation and inconsistencies. These problems become even more acute at the national level, where the Italian legislature mis-transposed the EU migration directives, thus affecting the use of discretionary clauses therein and severely curtailing migrants’ equal treatment rights. Then, the second part of the paper asks whether adopting a mainstreaming approach to enhance equality could improve the situation of migrants. The paper argues that equality mainstreaming in the migration field shows good potential, while also encountering some structural limits. Therefore, it can hardly be considered a silver bullet against the problem of migrants’ discrimination. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:41:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-899da8722782414da7b812ba855fda38 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1871-515X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:41:10Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | Utrecht University School of Law |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Utrecht Law Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-899da8722782414da7b812ba855fda382023-11-23T09:18:53ZengUtrecht University School of LawUtrecht Law Review1871-515X2023-10-0119357–7257–7210.36633/ulr.897885Migrants’ Equal Access to Social Benefits under EU Law: Fragmentation and Exclusion during the Covid-19 Crisis in ItalyVirginia Passalacqua0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3834-6966Lorenzo Grossio1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2672-4299Assistant Professor, University of TurinPhD Researcher, University of Milano-Bicocca, IT; Université Côte d’AzurThis paper uses the case of Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic to critically assess the EU legal framework on third-country national migrants’ equal access to social benefits. In Italy, migrants are structurally excluded from core social protections, a situation that during the pandemic led to a worsening of existing patterns of inequality; migrants have been more exposed than citizens to poverty, unemployment, and destitution. The first part of the paper looks for the EU legal root of this situation: it examines the EU legal framework in the migration field, showing that it is affected by fragmentation and inconsistencies. These problems become even more acute at the national level, where the Italian legislature mis-transposed the EU migration directives, thus affecting the use of discretionary clauses therein and severely curtailing migrants’ equal treatment rights. Then, the second part of the paper asks whether adopting a mainstreaming approach to enhance equality could improve the situation of migrants. The paper argues that equality mainstreaming in the migration field shows good potential, while also encountering some structural limits. Therefore, it can hardly be considered a silver bullet against the problem of migrants’ discrimination.https://account.utrechtlawreview.org/index.php/up-j-ulr/article/view/897equalitymigrationeu lawmainstreamingsocial benefitsitalycovid-19 |
| spellingShingle | Virginia Passalacqua Lorenzo Grossio Migrants’ Equal Access to Social Benefits under EU Law: Fragmentation and Exclusion during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy Utrecht Law Review equality migration eu law mainstreaming social benefits italy covid-19 |
| title | Migrants’ Equal Access to Social Benefits under EU Law: Fragmentation and Exclusion during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy |
| title_full | Migrants’ Equal Access to Social Benefits under EU Law: Fragmentation and Exclusion during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy |
| title_fullStr | Migrants’ Equal Access to Social Benefits under EU Law: Fragmentation and Exclusion during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Migrants’ Equal Access to Social Benefits under EU Law: Fragmentation and Exclusion during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy |
| title_short | Migrants’ Equal Access to Social Benefits under EU Law: Fragmentation and Exclusion during the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy |
| title_sort | migrants equal access to social benefits under eu law fragmentation and exclusion during the covid 19 crisis in italy |
| topic | equality migration eu law mainstreaming social benefits italy covid-19 |
| url | https://account.utrechtlawreview.org/index.php/up-j-ulr/article/view/897 |
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