Italy’s Role and Policy Practices in Global Refugee Crisis Governance: A Case Study of the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_80How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Italy; European Union; Turkey-EU Refugee Agreement; Responsibility Externalization

Abstract

As a “frontline country” in responding to the Mediterranean refugee crisis, Italy has been actively promoting collective response at the EU level since the outbreak of the European refugee crisis in 2015. It is also a major advocate of the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement. This article systematically reviews the policy practices of the Italian government. These policy practices include tightening the asylum process within Italy, that is, making the asylum process stricter, extending the detention period, increasing the duration of detention, and expanding the scope of “immigration hotspots”. On the external front, the Italian government lobbied the European Union to have countries such as Turkey and Tunisia designated as “safe third countries”, and also funded the establishment of “offshore reception” facilities. Reports indicate that Italy has ensured that the EU assumes shared responsibilities by setting agendas and making financial commitments, thereby strengthening the externalization of borders and the mechanism for the repatriation of refugees. The article holds that the role played by Italy reflects the “middle state” strategy, that is, by using a multi-level governance structure to elevate Italy’s own security concerns to a common norm within the EU. Although this policy has alleviated the short-term pressure from immigrants and reduced the pressure in the short term, it has also deepened the insufficiency in the protection of refugee rights. This has made the issue of refugee rights protection more serious, widened the rifts within the European Union, and intensified the internal conflicts within the EU.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yanan Zhao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/15
TI  - Italy’s Role and Policy Practices in Global Refugee Crisis Governance: A Case Study of the EU-Turkey Refugee Agreement
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities and Arts (SSHA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 784
EP  - 795
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_80
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-577-5_80
ID  - Zhao2026
ER  -