The Community of Sant'Egidio and the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, that have been following the immigration phenomenon and implementing concrete responses, such as the well-established Humanitarian Corridors, express all their concern about the latest measures on the subject, currently being examined by Parliament, and launch an appeal to the Government and Parliament.
The set of new rules proposed actually risks undermining a model that, albeit amidst lights and shadows, has allowed fundamental rights to be protected, real integration processes to be guaranteed, and irregularity and deviance phenomena to be contained.
In particular, the effects that a restriction on so-called 'special protection' would have should be reconsidered. This, it must be stressed, is not an exclusively Italian measure because it is practised, in different forms, by many other EU countries.
Serious consequences would first of all affect the persons requesting it. In fact, they would no longer be protected if they were at risk of inhuman treatment in their countries of origin, nor would they receive any more care essential for their survival, nor would they have the possibility of being taken in when fleeing natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes.
These are rights - it should be remembered - guaranteed by our Constitution, in the face of which the judicial commissions and the judiciary can hardly close their eyes.
Finally, the non-conversion of special protection into a residence permit for employment reasons would increase the irregularity area - and therefore also insecurity- to a worrying extent, right when all the productive forces of the country are calling for a consistent introduction of foreign workers into the market
This appeal is based on the concrete experience of integration carried out since 2016 through the 'Humanitarian Corridors': an experience based on legality, which has received important institutional recognition, and which is cited as an example by all political forces, majority and opposition alike.
The risk of restricting special protection is that of producing an effect opposite to the one desired and publicised. The paths of integration and 'good immigration' that the country acutely needs, also in light of the data on the employment deficit in various sectors, would not be favoured or stopped.
.
