Da «clandestini» a «falsi profughi». Migrazioni forzate e politiche migratorie italiane dopo le Primavere arabe

The distinction between economic immigrants and refugees is produced by the institutions dealing with migratory ows: the laws of the destination countries, the bureaucratic practices, the work of legal practitioners and of the experts impose (or adapt) these legal de nitions to the concerned communities. The recent history of Italian migration policies is a good example of this process: in 2011, after the Arab Spring and the failure of bilateral agreements on undocumented ows, Italy could neither push back nor deport the immigrants landed in Sicily: this led to a change on the status of immigrants, who became asylum seekers and displaced persons.

Keywords: Refugees; Italy; Migration ows;