ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a more systematic assessment of how the Italian public debate over the refugee crisis developed between August 2015 and April 2016. The ‘European refugee crisis’ has particularly affected Italy because this country is positioned at the centre of several migration routes in the Mediterranean Sea and, hence, is one of the key entry points to the EU. The increased inflow of refugees from Syria and other regions affected by war, and the hesitancies of the EU institutions and EU member states in establishing a coordinated system of admission and integration, put solidarity under enormous pressure, increasing press attention on the refugee situation with daily media coverage. The strong polarisation of the public debate on Facebook is confirmed when looking at the way commenters justified their public interventions, and the type of values or justifications they used to defend, qualify or oppose solidarity. Indeed, the three most frequent justifications were ‘human rights/humanitarian crisis’, ‘political capacities’ and ‘welfare chauvinism’.
