From political attitudes towards immigrants to migration policies outcomes : results and hostilities in Italy

This paper is a product of a research project aimed to understand the development of\ud Italian migration policies during the last twenty years (1990-2012). In particular it\ud analyzes how the process has been influenced by the ???politicization??? of the immigration\ud in order to shape the actual Italian immigration policies.\ud I will show that Italian policies in the area of immigration have been affected by the\ud internal influences of the political parties such as the Nord league. I consequently\ud examine the media discourse and political speech from 1980 onwards and examine how\ud attitudes translate into a migration policy outcome.\ud Based on these results, I argue that at the beginning of 2000s the policies toward\ud immigrants were increasingly affected by security (securitization) and the Italian\ud government shifted its approach to immigration by introducing restrictive policies against\ud migrants