the mediterranean model: homeless immigrants and informal housing in italy

EUROPEAN RESEARCH CONFERENCEHomelessness, Migration and Demographic Change in Europe

Pisa, 16th September 2011

Interdisciplinary Center 'Sciences

for peace’

The Mediterranean model: homeless immigrants, informal housing, illegal

immigration in Italy

Antonio Tosi

Politecnico di Milano



Outline

1. The importance of informal housing

2. The frame

3. Living in informal settlements

4. Three questions starting from informal settlements



1.1. The importance of informal housing

Immigrants in informal housing arrangements: an important and representative form of homelessness

informal housing arrangements: numerous and significant of the conditions of inclusion for immigrants in Italy better than the roofless, the inhabitants of informal settlements throw light on the dynamics of immigrant homelessness

Living in informal settlements: an extreme form of homelessness

a challenge for homelessness classification systems



1.2. Informal settlements: a substantial and growing phenomenon Tuscany: 1,700 persons living in these settlements in 2010. At least 2,000 individuals in the last 2 years. 52 municipalities involved Milan: inhabitants of informal settlements estimated (2002-2008) at between 2,000 and 4,000 persons Informal settlements house the majority of adults with no home (the literally homeless)

- Milan (2003-2008): 60% of the homeless live in shanty towns or abandoned buildings

Informal settlements house the vast majority of foreigners with no home (the literally homeless)

- Milan: around 70% of homeless foreigners in these settlements



2.1. The background The Mediterranean model

– a substantial proportion of undocumented immigrants, a large size of the informal sector in the national economy – the Mediterranean welfare regime– the immigration policies (access to citizenship rights and the conditions required to stay in a country)

Widespread housing hardship among immigrants Structural limitations to inclusion

– the area of marginal housing: substantial and stable– the polarisation of housing conditions: a system which systematically excludes a part of the immigrant population



2.2. The informal at the centre of exclusion processes and immigrant strategies The key role of legal status in determining the homelessness of immigrants The combination between irregular legal status, work in the informal sector of the economy and accommodation in the informal housing sector The involvement of many immigrants in informal housing

– informal housing: the intervention of community networks and reciprocal arrangements in providing a place to live; accommodation in unregulated segments of marginal housing markets – a wide range of forms of homelessness other than rooflessness



3.1. Living in informal settlements.A heterogeneous population

Around 90% immigrants and Roma populations A high presence of newcomers, including:

immigrants from Eastern Europe and Roma from Romania asylum seekers and refugees

But also immigrants who have been in Italy for years undocumented migrants marginalised immigrants (difficulties of insertion)

And also groups of Italian homeless



3.2. Living in informal settlements.Mainly but not exclusively newcomers and undocumented migrants

Milan 2000 – 2004: around 70% of immigrants living in these areas have been in Italy for a year or less

But a substantial proportion of immigrants from Morocco and Albania have been here for over three years: over 20%

Milan 2000-2006: over 70% of irregular immigrants had been in Italy for less than three years, over 30% for less than one year

But the length of time has increased progressively: between 2003 and 2008 the percentage in the country for less than a year fell from 53 to 25%, the percentage for four years or longer increased from 10 to 30%

The majority of the inhabitants are in situations of irregularity Nevertheless persons with documents are also found.



3.3. Living in informal settlements.Persons with resources, persons who work

The majority of the inhabitants of informal settlements have a job and an income Milan 2008:

around 80% were in employment, of these, 60% worked in the informal economy

Milan 2006:

the employment rate after three years of stay in Italy was 77%: higher than that for both the Italian population (58%) and the Lombard population (67%)



3.4. Living in informal settlements.Long stay in homelessness

An immigrant population which: may remain in a condition of homelessness for a long time (Milan: average length of time spent in shanty towns of 8-10 years) and at the same time has a profile which would imply a relatively easy progression towards inclusion: well equipped with personal and motivational resources; good participation in the labour market, etc.



3.5. Two different homelessness careers

Two different paths in homelessness, two different functions of informal settlements

homelessness as a first stage in the inclusion process. Life in an informal settlement: a short period, left behind (fairly) quickly homelessness as a condition that can be prolonged or occur again. Obstacles to inclusion: mainly the impossibility of acquiring regular status. Living in informal settlements prolonged indefinitely.

The long-term temporary homeless: a common figure among homeless immigrants



3.6. The responsibility of policies

The homelessness of immigrants involves different policies: The fact that homelessness and informal housing affects people who have been here for years, people with income and also regular immigrants indicates the limitations of welfare and housing policies and the system for the acceptance of immigrants The fact that undocumented immigrants suffer severely from homelessness and informal housing indicates the fundamental role played by regulatory policies (management of legal status and irregularity)



The majority of those living in informal settlements experience dramatic conditions of housing deprivation. Nevertheless there is strong resistance to classifying them as “literally homeless”. Often they are not even considered as homeless persons, but persons in conditions of “housing exclusion”

4.1.1. The place of informal settlements in the representation of homelessness: are the inhabitants of informal settlements homeless?



The inhabitants of informal settlements in Italy: separate identifications, incompatible representations Traditionally, persons who live in informal settlements have not been considered as people of no abode (persone senza dimora): the emblematic figure for homelessness in this country The reason: these settlements are inhabited by immigrants and gypsies, foreigners and gypsies do not correspond to the image of the no abode

informal settlements have been out of estimates of no abode the size of homelessness: severely underestimated



The ETHOS typology and informal settlements: shortcoming of the conceptual model?

ETHOS does not classify the inhabitants of these settlements as homeless persons, but as people living in insecure accommodation and/or people living in temporary/inadequate accommodation – both being categories of “housing exclusion” At issue:

the rationale for the threshold between homelessness and housing exclusion the internal consistency of the model



4.1.2. The place of immigrants and gypsies in the social construction of homelessness: aren’t these immigrants homeless?

Immigrants and Roma: a substantial proportion of the homeless population in Italy. Despite this, they are on the margins of representations of homelessness: the homeless is still the local “no abode”

The lack of recognition and the separation reflect the current organisation of services and policies help to legitimise of policies for the “no abode” represent the relative exclusion of homeless immigrants from welfare opportunities, and a tendency to shift the balance of policies from recognition of the citizenship rights to priority given to control and regulatory measures



4. 2.1. Illegality, security and urban order: the overpowering impact of regulatory policies

Irregular legal status is the most important single factor in the determination of homelessness

Regulatory policies play an overwhelming role in determining the immigration question and the immigrant condition

Regulatory policies: the policies that regulate the condition for entry and staying in the country and policies for controlling immigrants and Roma in the community



4.2.2. Regulatory policies in Italy: security and urban order

a negative ideological-political situation (xenophobic attitudes, crime and security rhetoric) widely supported by local administrations and central government

two emblematic figures: the “irregular immigrant” and the gypsy. Both function as scapegoats, within a logic of increased security and an idea of urban order



4.2.3. Security policies at work The irregular immigrants

Regular immigrants vs. irregular immigrants: the rhetorical device to legitimise the security approach to immigration More stringent conditions for access to and residence in the country; criminalisation of undocumented immigrants

The Gypsies The stake: the regularity of the settlement, the control over their presence in the community: Local policy: dismantling authorized nomad camps and driving inhabitants out of town; eviction of persons living in informal settlements The rise and fall of the Città sottili project in Pisa



4.3.1. Living undocumented in the immigration societyA long time spent as homeless and as an irregular immigrant, long term exclusion from acceptable housing arrangements, from official recognition and from citizenship rights. Two defining frameworks:

a “growing polarisation” between “residents with full rights of citizenship and a marginalised class of aliens compelled to work on the periphery, within a shadow economy”, “confined to menial jobs and relegated to the worst housing” [Daly 1996]. Undocumented migrants are part of this “marginalised class of aliens”. undocumented migrants have the possibility for permanent inclusion (no matter how unfairly and not infrequently in violation of human rights) in European labour markets and societies. Numerous mechanisms (especially those offered by the informal economy) allow a large irregular population to live and work in the community in the absence of an official identity [Sciortino 2011].



4.3.2. A new scenario for relations between immigrants and their host society A new scenario: a society in which:

illegal immigration is a long term structural phenomenon illegal immigration has assumed growing importance and the divide between regular and irregular has become deeper it has become difficult to address irregularity positively

The long-term temporary homeless immigrant: the key to interpreting the relationship between immigrants and their host societies.

the mediterranean model: homeless immigrants and informal housing in italy

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