ABSTRACT
Italy and Australia are two highly relevant illustrations of destination countries with a history of significant – and often controversial – foreign policies on irregular migration. However, they have rarely been the object of comparative analyses. Starting from these premises, this chapter probes into Rome’s and Canberra’s irregular migration governance from 2000 to 2024 inclusive, prior to assessing key similarities (including the resemblance of both restrictive and non-restrictive approaches) and differences. In doing so, it mentions domestic (type of government) and international (regional landscape, number of irregular maritime arrivals) elements in order to better interpret the two countries’ resulting foreign policy on irregular migration. It finds that there is a growing convergence in terms of specific foreign policy measures and that as states’ security increased, migrants’ security decreased. Moreover, Rome and Canberra have had different outcomes when trying to stem irregular flows, due to a number of geographical, regional, migratory, and constitutional reasons. In conclusion, this chapter’s comparative analysis also warrants an investigation of related security, policy, and theoretical implications, which is carried out in the book’s following chapters.
