In the early 1990s, in front of the exponential increase of migratory flows, Italy declares state of emergency to deal with the phenomenon, adopting increasingly restrictive laws to enter and remain in the country and building spaces of exception to confine irregular migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. After nearly 20 years, the state of emergency is still in force and detention centers are mushrooming on the events resulting from the Arab Spring. The purpose of this article is to analyze how exceptional measures have become the rule in Italy and the impact of the existence of these spaces of exception for civil coexistence.
detention centers for immigrants; State of exception; racism; Italy