The reception of asylum seekers in Urban areas: The case of the city of Milan

Abstract

The paper deals with the Italian system of second reception for Asylum Seekers and Refugees from 2013 to 2018, specifically focusing on the case of Milan. The paper addresses the subject from a geographical perspective: first, it focuses on the multi-scalar interaction between international community, national governments, local communities and civil society; secondly, it analyzes the spatial dimension of the reception system at the urban scale. The Municipality of Milan has modified the national approach, developing a specific welcoming system (the so-called “Milan model”) more open and efficient than the national average. The second axis of our research concerns the socio-spatial segregation of asylum seekers within the urban fabric, showing that even a welcoming system that is usually considered as a positive model still presents some relevant weak points.