The phases of immigrants’ reception in Italy

As soon as you open a newspaper or turn on the television to hear the news, we can’t help but find an article or a service dedicated to the theme “Immigration”. It has now become a workhorse for many political discussions. Most of us have never been interested in investigating the matter and comparing the news with official data.

How does the reception in Italy work

In this article we will try to provide a scheme of the phases of reception of immigrants in Italy. The legislation on the matter has changed over the years and quite frequently lately.

Currently, we refer to the decree-law 130, converted into law in December of last year regarding: “Urgent provisions on immigration, international and complementary protection”

The first phase involves rescue, health care and identification. In these centres, also recognized as “Hotspots” located at the disembarkation points, the first health assistance service and the collection of information are provided. Practically, in this phase there is a “sorting” between asylum seekers and those who immigrate for economic reasons.

How can reside legally

The latter are not granted the possibility of being able to stay legally, therefore they are transferred to the detention centres for repatriation (CPR) pending the expulsion order.

Asylum seekers, on the other hand, are transferred to the First Reception Centres (Cpa) where they receive assistance in starting the asylum application procedure.

The third phase has a mainly assistance and supplementary function aimed at asylum seekers, refugees, and holders of international protection. During this phase, the beneficiaries benefit from assistance in legal and health matters but not only. Projects are also implemented that aim at linguistic integration and job orientation.

As for the rest, we have already dealt with the issue of the regularization of asylum seekers in a previous article. Once the request has been accepted, immigrants are legally resident in all respects and enjoy all the rights provided for by law.