The article aims to illustrate and explore the rhetoric and institutional approach toward migrants – asylum seekers in particular – undertaken by Italy following the COVID-19 crisis. Through the account of the different “narrative phases” and the consequent institutional action undertaken, this article intends to demonstrate how the health crisis has sharpened and even intensified pre-existing attitudes and practices. The actions taken in the last year can be understood as a further step in the process of externalizing the borders. Through the instrumental use of rhetoric and illegitimate practices, a sort of de-territorialization has been implemented through the use of quarantine ships.
KEYWORDS: asylum seekers, COVID-19, quarantine ships, rhetoric, externalization

The article aims to illustrate and explore the rhetoric and institutional approach toward migrants – asylum seekers in particular – undertaken by Italy following the COVID-19 crisis. Through the account of the different “narrative phases” and the consequent institutional action undertaken, this article intends to demonstrate how the health crisis has sharpened and even intensified pre-existing attitudes and practices. The actions taken in the last year can be understood as a further step in the process of externalizing the borders. Through the instrumental use of rhetoric and illegitimate practices, a sort of de-territorialization has been implemented through the use of quarantine ships.
KEYWORDS: asylum seekers, COVID-19, quarantine ships, rhetoric, externalization

The article analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the management of reception centers for refugees and asylum seekers in Italy. By analyzing the transformation of Italian reception policies in the last years, the article shows the relationship between these changes and the condition of refugees and asylum seekers in these centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overcrowded housing, the absence of institutional guidance on managing the situation, and the interruption of many migrants’ migratory projects are the main findings that emerged. The article is based on digital ethnographic techniques, in addition to phone interviews with key speakers of the social contexts monitored online.
KEYWORDS: asylum seekers, refugees, reception system, COVID-19 pandemic, Italy

The article analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the management of reception centers for refugees and asylum seekers in Italy. By analyzing the transformation of Italian reception policies in the last years, the article shows the relationship between these changes and the condition of refugees and asylum seekers in these centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overcrowded housing, the absence of institutional guidance on managing the situation, and the interruption of many migrants’ migratory projects are the main findings that emerged. The article is based on digital ethnographic techniques, in addition to phone interviews with key speakers of the social contexts monitored online.
KEYWORDS: asylum seekers, refugees, reception system, COVID-19 pandemic, Italy

The COVID-19 pandemic has unequally impacted the lives of Italian subjects. The article uses evidence from forty-seven semi-structured interviews with various migrant groups to illuminate how temporalities embedded in Italy’s migration governance shape migrants’ precarious legal status and access to welfare. The authors show that whereas migrants with secure legal status or citizenship have not engaged significantly with Italian bureaucracies, they have no easy access to welfare as it is contingent on their employment and financial status. Migrants with precarious status have been the worst hit by the pandemic’s secondary effects across several fronts. These findings have implications for policy and future research.
KEYWORDS: COVID-19, legal precarity, migration, temporality, welfare services, Italy

The COVID-19 pandemic has unequally impacted the lives of Italian subjects. The article uses evidence from forty-seven semi-structured interviews with various migrant groups to illuminate how temporalities embedded in Italy’s migration governance shape migrants’ precarious legal status and access to welfare. The authors show that whereas migrants with secure legal status or citizenship have not engaged significantly with Italian bureaucracies, they have no easy access to welfare as it is contingent on their employment and financial status. Migrants with precarious status have been the worst hit by the pandemic’s secondary effects across several fronts. These findings have implications for policy and future research.
KEYWORDS: COVID-19, legal precarity, migration, temporality, welfare services, Italy

The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly interrupted the traditional education process and imposed the need to switch to online education. Children living in poverty without proper IT infrastructure have been substantially excluded from the educational process amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. During this challenging pandemic, education has been placed in quarantine. This research paper aims to qualitatively investigate the potential social exclusion and further marginalization within remote learning during the pandemic in a very particular local context, focusing on the areas of Bitola (North Macedonia) and Treviso (Italy).
KEYWORDS: migrant children, children living in poverty, marginalization, COVID-19 online education, North Macedonia, Italy

The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly interrupted the traditional education process and imposed the need to switch to online education. Children living in poverty without proper IT infrastructure have been substantially excluded from the educational process amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. During this challenging pandemic, education has been placed in quarantine. This research paper aims to qualitatively investigate the potential social exclusion and further marginalization within remote learning during the pandemic in a very particular local context, focusing on the areas of Bitola (North Macedonia) and Treviso (Italy).
KEYWORDS: migrant children, children living in poverty, marginalization, COVID-19 online education, North Macedonia, Italy

This article uses the example of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants in the strawberry sector of Greece to highlight how racial capitalism heightens the health vulnerabilities of racialized low-class migrant workers and exposes them to a greater risk of COVID-19 transmission. Race-based devaluation of workers intersects with migrant illegality and culturally-specific masculine norms to normalize a discourse of healthcare “undeservingness” for undocumented racialized migrants. Unfree labor is legislated through restrictive migrant labor laws and selective detention and deportation of “illegal” migrants. Structural and systemic discriminations increase health precarities for undocumented agricultural workers.
KEYWORDS: Greece, migrant agricultural workers, COVID-19, racial capitalism, migrant illegality

This article uses the example of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants in the strawberry sector of Greece to highlight how racial capitalism heightens the health vulnerabilities of racialized low-class migrant workers and exposes them to a greater risk of COVID-19 transmission. Race-based devaluation of workers intersects with migrant illegality and culturally-specific masculine norms to normalize a discourse of healthcare “undeservingness” for undocumented racialized migrants. Unfree labor is legislated through restrictive migrant labor laws and selective detention and deportation of “illegal” migrants. Structural and systemic discriminations increase health precarities for undocumented agricultural workers.
KEYWORDS: Greece, migrant agricultural workers, COVID-19, racial capitalism, migrant illegality