European integration, political resentment, and migration into Italy

Migration has become a hot topic in the European Union and Italian politics. Since the European Union migration crisis, more and more migrants, especially to Italy, have been arriving in the region. In 2023, over 150,000 migrants arrived in Italy and had to be processed there. Many issues, events, and tragedies occurred because of the lack of infrastructure for migrants and refugees.(Amante Italy says migrant pact with Albania isn’t comparable to UK-Rwanda plan) There has been a growth of political resentment towards migrants in Italy, which will be defined later in this text. There has been a rise of far-right political movements in Italy leading up to the election of the prime minister of Italy with Giorgia Meloni, who at the time was the head of the Fratelli Italia, which is the far-right party of Italy and their ideology and origins began with Mussolini. There has been an intersection of the political resentment of the general population. Then, the politicians use the resentment of the migrants to gain more votes with the xenophobic rhetoric and policy ideas. The other issue is that the far-right parties are often Eurosceptic, which is a problem for the European Union and Italy in regards to integration as migration and movement of people is one of the central tenets of the European Union, and that has been rife with controversy as Italy wants stronger borders but due to asylum law in the EU that has been difficult, to say the least. This creates a very tense environment between Italy and the EU. Migration has been one of the most significant issues in European politics since the growth of the EU. I chose Italy to examine political resentment and European Integration as Italy has a fascinating position in the European hierarchy. Italy has a position as a peripheral and main nation-state in the European context as they were one of the original countries in the EU. It is geographically peripheral as it receives many migrants due to being a portion of the southern border. This creates a complicated and dynamic situation in Italy and the European Union.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

European Union Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Sandora, Angelina

Contributors dc:contributor

• Greenberg, Jessica
• Dobczansky, Markian

• Migration
• Political Resentment
• Italy
• European Integration

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2024 Angelina Sandora

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124430

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F124430