Building the Wall Around Southern Europe! A Look into Italy’s Future With the Recent Election of An Extreme Anti-Immigrant Far-Right Party

By William T. McAndrews III

Immigration policy has become an increasingly contested subject of debate in modern-day western politics.[1] This debate increased, specifically in Europe, due to the start of the migration crisis that saw the “largest mass arrival of refugees and emigrants to the Old Continent since World War II.”[2] Although researchers agree that the crisis started in 2015, the trend began to form in the 1990s with the changing of the European Union’s (EU) asylum standards to conform to a uniform system that all the EU countries adhere too. Additionally, amendments strengthening rights guaranteed to asylum seekers followed suit.[3] As a result of the policy changes, the number of immigrants and refugees in Europe began to consistently increase every year, finally coming to a head in 2014, which forced a lot of European nations to question current policies.[4]  The 2015 “migration crisis” caused major realignment and configuration within Europe’s political parties, specifically Italy.[5] 

However, anti-immigration policies are not new to Italy and have been a consistent point of debate within the country since the end of the Second World War.[6] Additionally, other factors specific to Italy play a unique role in the success of the Brothers of Italy outside of global events.[7] The factors of history and existing laws combined with global events appears to have created the perfect storm of right-wing extremism in Italy leading to the election of its most far right politician since Benito Mussolini.[8] However, this shift towards extremism is not exclusive to Italy with far-right trends taking place in most if not all western nations.[9] This article will look to see if this recent shift towards populism and far-right politics is a grim trend for the future or a mere reaction to recent global events by looking at existing immigration and refugee policies in Italy along with laws, history, and other factors to compare with fellow western nations to see if this global trend is here to stay or will be a short lived phenomenon. The solution Italy seeks in order to end the migrant crisis will not be found by adopting an anti-immigrant policy similar to that of the United States and the United Kingdom, but rather working with the European Union and coastal nations within the Mediterranean to adopt a co-operative solution that will help both Italy and the thousands of people flocking to European shores.

The recent victory by the Giorgia Meloni and the Brothers of Italy created uncertainty for the future of Italy and for the future of Europe.[10] While far-right anti-immigration victories in the United States and the United Kingdom are concerning, Italy poses a larger threat due to its impact on mainland Europe as a whole.[11] Italy, due to its geography, has a major role in the flow of migrants into Europe. While no significant policy change has been made, such as a ban or blockade, a change would have a detrimental impact on the immigration policies of the surrounding nations.[12] Meloni and her party have yet to suggest a significant legislative change to the Consolidated Immigration Act, with most of her rhetoric proposing new temporary changes or policies previously implemented before.[13] Additionally, other European nations have continuously resisted and rejected the rise of far-right anti-immigration parties, such as the National Front in France and the Alternative for Germany suffering multiple political defeats since the migrant crisis in 2015.[14] Finally, when looking at the political and legislative history of the nations in which the far-right anti-immigrant platform won, they all share a common history of hardline immigration laws and policies while other nations do not.[15]

Anti-Immigration protest in Italy. Image courtesy of Sylvia Poggioli/NPR.

Although concerning, the election of the Brothers of Italy and the appointment of Giorgia Meloni as prime minister will most likely maintain the current status quo Italy has had since the 1990s.[16] The willingness of Meloni and the party to work with the European Union on solving the migrant crisis is a significant improvement from the hardline anti-Europe stance taken by the United Kingdom in 2016.[17] Only time will tell what impact this election will have on the continent. The new proposal in Parliament is an extreme policy shift with an emphasis on denying human rights to migrants for simply landing on Britain’s shores.[18] Meloni’s willingness to work with Europe, however, creates the pathway to a solution that would benefit all parties involved: Italy, Europe, North Africa, and, importantly, the people fleeing to European shores.[19] The willingness of Meloni to work with Europe and Italy’s African neighbors to solve the problem before it starts is a huge shift in the rhetoric that Meloni and other members of the Brothers of Italy spouted during the election.[20] A good start for Italy would be to address the concept of intake camps and work with Mediterranean neighbors to establish a system of information sharing to allow for relocation and faster intake processing of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers to find their families and rebuild in Europe.[21] This would allow for Italy to help address the issues their nations faces without taking the hardline stances that the United Kingdom is heading towards.[22] The world is in a tense place with the rise of extremist politics, but there is hope that these policies are not here to stay. As history has shown us, with the election of Giorgia Meloni and her extreme Brothers of Italy party, a wave of problems could be facing Europe.[23] Only time will tell which direction Meloni and the Brothers of Italy take, and history will judge them accordingly.

[1] Ronald Brownstein, The Blind Spot in the Immigration Debate, CNN (Feb. 23, 2021, 1:29 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/23/politics/immigration-policy-us-economy/index.html.

[2] Stanislaw Rabiej, Migration crisis in Europe – myths and reality, Studia Oecumenica vol. 19 413, 414 (2019),  https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=831365.

[3] Id.

[4] Victoria Metcalfe-Hough, The migration crisis? Facts, challenges and possible solutions, ODI 1 (2015), https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/51840409/9913-libre.pdf?1487354271=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DThe_migration_crisis_Facts_challenges_an.pdf&Expires=1677093383&Signature=NDxLks6ylnwI4-N2cX-Q2RbmOlNi6pnJXjD1dydG2jwVZHiTlfGQ3vtOizv8Oc3KRLHqzlALnATUGbhfj1oeXrFXy76QC~IST4N0rUivZnHGJZWhLAifegvDq~wSrkLtOisjq~t1Hed~h6o1oq2vIutH8MwvyXeE9~VFpu5Bn2nDQBA7W4iEmv6r4xc8yP1Nka5HkU1DHct~C6LQB3SRQpqmmfgdm6ruvznw8dCUaPt41GqitgfEBQgodU7VplhNMk74Riui-Mu5VNCmIPn3q0E2G4pl7LBeRjfqnv4SAoKYLt8-F0NfAmnKRxkBZb4J~nxqXD6FuqQrM9MbgVWMWw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA.

[5] See James Dennison & Andrew Geddes, The centre no longer holds: the Lega, Matteo Salvini and the remaking of Italian immigration politics, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (Feb. 09, 2021) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1853907

[6] Michael Marrus, The Unwanted: European Refugees from the First World War Through the Cold War 37 (2002).

[7] See Dennison, supra note 5.

[8] Marrus, supra note 6.

[9] Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Caterina Froio & Andrea L. P. Pirro, Far-right protest mobilization in Europe: Grievances, opportunities and resources, European Journal of Political Research (Oct. 04, 2021) https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/1475-6765.12484

[10] Caterina Paolucci, Brothers of Italy, Giorgia Meloni and the Future of Italian Politics, JAMES MADISON UNIV., https://www.jmu.edu/news/eupolicystudies/2022/10/future-of-italian-politics.shtml (last visited Oct. 26, 2022).

[11] Armstrong Williams, A look at the similarities between Brexit and the MAGA movement, ABC (Jan. 29, 2020), https://abc3340.com/news/armstrong-army-strong/a-look-at-the-similarities-between-brexit-and-the-maga-movement.

[12] Marrus, supra note 6.

[13] Paolucci, supra note 10.

[14] Rafaela Dancygier, Germany’s far-right party lost seats in last week’s election. Here’s why., The Washington Post, (Oct. 5, 2021), https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/05/germanys-far-right-party-lost-seats-last-weeks-election-heres-why/.

[15] Paolucci, supra note 10.

[16] Id.

[17] Id.

[18] Betsy Reed, Gary Lineker responds to critics of his immigration policy comments, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/mar/08/gary-lineker-bbc-uk-asylum-policy-nazi-germany-match-of-the-day-presenter (last visited 10:58 PM March 19, 2023).

[19] Paolucci, supra note 10.

[20] Chico Harlan & Stefano Pitrelli, Right-wing victory in Italy expected to bring swift changes to migration, Washington Post, (Sep. 26, 2022, 4:12 pm), https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/26/italy-meloni-right-wing-migration/.

[21] Id.

[22] Id.

[23] Paolucci, supra note 10.