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Over the last twenty years, the management of a series of complex questions raised by the growing presence of foreign immigrants in Italy has been carried out via the "invention" of specific social problems and their accompanying discourse categories. From its first appearance the term "clandestino" (or irregular immigrant) has assumed a dual significance as a concept widely adopted in public discourse and as the pillar of an ideology that comprises a very specific set of political positions regarding the management of immigration. Moreover, to the extent that the clandestino was interpreted as a threat or problem to be eliminated or solved, it very rapidly became a discursive and practical focal point for the institutions that play a crucial role in immigration management and control. Drawing on my research from late 1990s on immigration policies and control in Italy, I show how and to what extent some institutional everyday activities of the police have been reshaped by discourses and practice that focus on dealing with irregular immigrants. This reorganization contributed to generating a complex web of knowledge, discourses and practices that produced the essential vocabulary and the hegemonic frameworks for public debates about immigration in Italy. It also makes the need and urgency to cope with irregular immigration both a political centre of gravity and a basic strategy to reproduce social order. Adapted from the source document.

Over the last twenty years, the management of a series of complex questions raised by the growing presence of foreign immigrants in Italy has been carried out via the "invention" of specific social problems and their accompanying discourse categories. From its first appearance the term "clandestino" (or irregular immigrant) has assumed a dual significance as a concept widely adopted in public discourse and as the pillar of an ideology that comprises a very specific set of political positions regarding the management of immigration. Moreover, to the extent that theclandestinowas interpreted as a threat or problem to be eliminated or solved, it very rapidly became a discursive and practical focal point for the institutions that play a crucial role in immigration management and control. Drawing on my research from late 1990s on immigration policies and control in Italy, I show how and to what extent some institutional everyday activities of the police have been reshaped by discourses and practice that focus on dealing with irregular immigrants. This reorganization contributed to generating a complex web of knowledge, discourses and practices that produced the essential vocabulary and the hegemonic frameworks for public debates about immigration in Italy. It also makes the need and urgency to cope with irregular immigration both a political centre of gravity and a basic strategy to reproduce social order.

An examination of the judicial treatment of migrant criminality focuses on the complex interaction between immigrants & the receiving society. Formal & informal procedures related to migrant crime are described, along with the cognitive & moral dimensions that impact both court life & the social construction of migrant crime. Empirical findings regarding petty crimes & drug-dealing cases in Italy are presented to illustrate the structural weakness of the legal position of migrants, ways in which the judicial system uses its discretionary power to contribute to definitions of what is criminal, & how migrant criminality as a social fact helps to explain various social, legal, psychological, cultural, & political aspects of migrant criminality. Special attention is given to the role played by law enforcement & prosecution practices in defining the boundaries between informal & criminal, as well as how institutional & political decisions involved in the social construction of immigrants' criminality lead to perceptions of immigrant crime as a cause for social insecurity. 4 Tables, 40 References. J. Lindroth

This paper focuses on the typical paths of migrants' insertion in the informal economy in Italy. It begins with a review of the international debate on the informal economy and ethnic business in order to evaluate the extent to which the current descriptive and explanatory models fit the specificity of the Italian case. When applied to the Italian context they overemphasize the relationship between the informal sector – characterized mainly by self‐employment and ethnic business – and the transformation of the formal labour market due to economic changes – the crisis of the fordist way of production, global restructuring of the manufacturing sector and so on. On the contrary, the underground economy is a long‐standing characteristic in Italy. It is an overall structural element of the Italian economy and a much more complex phenomenon than in other countries. For many reasons, migrants' insertion in the informal economy in Italy does not produce a new trend but represents an element of continuity in the economic organization and involves documented and undocumented migrants as well as many types of Italian workers. On the other hand, this paper highlights the central role of the institutional framework – immigration policies and their implementation – in the context of the formal and actual constraints which inform immigrants' strategies of incorporation into the formal/informal labour market. The implementation of the institutional framework, by different branches of the public administration and by the judicial system, interacts with immigrants' economic strategies and generates mobile borders between different types of informal arrangements, as well as between the informal and illegal economy. Taking into account the structural and geographical characteristics of each economic sector, the economic institutional framework, the legal framework and the decision‐making processes that produce them, it is possible to reconsider the concept of the informal economy and to re‐evaluate its role in the most important explanatory models.Cet article concerne les voies habituelles d'insertion des migrants dans l'économie informelle en Italie. Afin d'évaluer jusqu'à quel point les modèles descriptifs et explicatifs actuels peuvent être appliqués aux spécificités du cas italien, l'auteur passe en revue les débats internationaux sur l'économie informelle et sur le commerce ethnique. Dans le contexte italien, ils accordent trop d'importance aux relations entre le secteur informel – caractérisé principalement par le travail indépendant et par le commerce ethnique – et la transformation du marché du travail officiel due aux changements économiques – la crise de la production de type fordiste, la restructuration globale de l'industrie, etc. Au contraire, le marché parallèle est une caractéristique de longue durée en Italie. C'est un élément de la structure générale de l'économie italienne et un phénomène beaucoup plus complexe que dans d'autres pays. Pour de nombreuses raisons, l'insertion du migrant dans l'économie informelle en Italie ne produit pas une nouvelle tendance mais représente un élément de continuité dans l'organisation économique et inclut des migrants déclarés et non déclarés ainsi que de nombreux types de travailleurs italiens. D'un autre côté, cet article souligne le rôle central des structures institutionelles – les politiques de l'immigration et leur application – dans le contexte des contraintes formelles et informelles, qui informent les stratégies d'incorporation des immigrants dans le marché du travail formel et informel. L'application des structures institutionnelles par les différentes branches de l'administration publique et par le système judiciaire et les stratégies économiques des immigants s'influencent mutuellement, et elle produit des frontières mobiles entre les différents types d'arrangements informels ainsi qu'entre l'économie informelle et l'économie illégale. Si l'on considère les caractéristiques structurelles et géographiques de chacun des secteurs économiques, la structure économique institutionnelle, la structure légale et les processus décisionnels qui les produisent, il est possible de repenser le concept d'économie informelle et de réévaluer son rôle dans les modèles explicatifs les plus importants.

In 1991, Philomena Essed highlighted the importance of studying contemporary racism, focusing on the interplay between the macro‐social dimension and its constant reactivation in everyday interactions. Later, psychologists redefined the pervasive experience of racism in everyday encounters in terms of racial microaggressions. Migrants and asylum seekers today constitute "ideal" candidates for this kind of experience. This is due to the persistent historical processes that harken back to Western colonialism and imperialism, as well as the growing hostility towards people migrating from the Global South. This hostility has been brewing for several decades in Western countries, and it manifests in both everyday informal interactions and institutional contexts, where migrants and asylum seekers constantly face racist attitudes.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue "The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process," based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the 'lived' experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.

Whilst most of the research on intra-EU mobility has mainly focused on the reasons behind young Southern Europeans leaving their home countries, and secondly on their experiences within the new context, little is known about their sense of belonging and identities. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring Italian and Spanish migrants' social identity repositioning and the cultural change characterising their existential trajectories. Drawing on 69 semi-structured interviews with Italians and Spaniards living in London and Berlin, this article shows that the sense of belonging to one or more political communities and boundary work are related to individual experiences and can change due to structural eventualities such as the Brexit referendum. While identification with the host society is rare, attachment to the home country is quite common as a result of people's everyday experiences. Cultural changes and European/cosmopolitan identification are linked to exposure to new environments and interaction with new cultures, mostly concerning those with previous mobility experience, as well as to a sentiment of non-acceptance in the UK. However, such categories are not rigid, but many times self-identification and attachments are rather blurred also due to the uncertainty around the duration of the mobility project. This makes individual factors (gender, age, family status, employment, education) that are often considered as determinants of identification patterns all but relevant.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue "The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process," based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the 'lived' experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.

This editorial presents a general overview of the thematic issue "The Lived Experiences of Migration: Individual Strategies, Institutional Settings and Destination Effects in the European Mobility Process," based on the rich qualitative data produced in the Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project. The qualitative component of the project focused on the 'lived' experiences of migration. The main contribution of the articles in this issue is to demonstrate the multiplicity of actors and structures involved in the migration process, and to recognize the important role that space plays in the life-trajectories of people on the move. Perceiving the migration process as a learning experience allows for a deeper look into the complex renegotiation of cultural and political boundaries that migrants experience in the destination.