ABSTRACT
Research on the politics of migration in Europe has overwhelmingly devoted itself to traditional immigration destinations like Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and France, which have experienced large-scale migration since the 1950s and 1960s. The regionally-differentiated set of pull factors identified in this chapter plays a key role in determining the ethnic composition of Italy's immigrant population. The chapter investigates the role of local authorities in developing and implementing immigration policy in Italy. It discusses the context in which local politics takes place. For each city the chapter describes how and why the immigration issue has entered public agendas, focusing on migratory patterns and discussing its implications in terms of cultural and economic integration, territorial development, security and welfare. It shows that the immigration profiles and models of integration of Rome, Milan and Prato are substantially different, which results in distinct opportunities for the politicization of migration.
