After the landing: Moral control and surveillance in Italy's asylum seeker camps

Though the recent tragedies in the Strait of Sicily and the daily arrival of refugees on Italy's southern shores, have captured international media attention, institutional silence shrouds what happens after the landing, and the courses asylum seekers follow within the bureaucratic and assistance apparatuses are overshadowed by official data and state regulations. This article sheds light on some aspects of the protection and assistance system in Italy, documenting the experiences of asylum seekers who have reached Italy after crossing the Mediterranean, and now live in the camps run by the Italian government for the detention and control of undocumented migrants. Although these women and men experienced terrible abuses in their journey to Europe, once in Italy, and in particular within the camps, they are subjected to harsh forms of surveillance, as well as to moral and ethical regimes. By referring to research carried out in the reception centres for asylum seekers (CARA - Centri di Accoglienza per Richiedenti Asilo) in western Sicily where men, women and children are held after their arrival on Italy's southern coast, the author shows how the protection and assistance system does not limit itself to recognizing refugees as 'victims' or 'bare life'. Rather, it pursues a more ambitious project in which moral and disciplinary regimes overlap in a systematic, long-term process of subjection. The overlap of care, control and discipline emphasizes the close connection between the humanitarian apparatus and technologies of control. In particular, it is in the daily rules and practices performed by the personnel running the camp and aimed at governing the intimate and social life of women asylum seekers that the overlap between moral project and techniques of control becomes evident.