Registration as a Border: Shaping the Population at the Local Level in Italy

Abstract

The article explores the use and misuse of population registers in Italy. These are statistical and administrative tools historically introduced to monitor the territory and the people who live in it. Currently, however, they are often used as devices for selecting the “deserving” members of the local community by municipal authorities which decide, albeit illegitimately, to tighten the requirements for registration. Municipalities which act in this way pervert the function of registers and establish a special kind of border, an administrative border that excludes individuals from status and rights. By analysing how registration is used as a border in Italy, this article aims to contribute to critical border studies and the debate on urban borders. Registration is framed as a membership status which shapes and designs the population as it produces administrative invisibilisation, increases civic stratification and fosters differential inclusion. By denying enrolment in population registers, a precarisation of local membership is obtained. This causes not only symbolic but also material exclusion, preventing those who are not registered from exercising their rights and, in some cases, putting them at risk of being deported.