ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the Italian management of the refugee crisis through the lens of two competing arguments: a security and a humanitarian approach. It discusses Italian refugee policy in the last three decades and argues that, since 2013, Italy has partially changed its approach on this topic, moving from a full "securitization" paradigm to one that is based on the notion of "human security." The chapter focuses on the emergence of a "refugee issue" in Italy and on the Italian response. It shows that the relevance of the European Union's (EU's) migration and refugee policy to Italy, and the implications of the developing EU migration regime for Italian policy. The chapter also analyzes the transformation of Italian migration policy from one of security to a humanitarian approach, which was the result of tragedy, specifically, the migrant shipwreck that occurred near the Italian island of Lampedusa in 2013.
