A Place to Live: Views from Protection Seekers and Social Workers on Accommodation Issues in the Italian System

In this chapter we look at the issue of accommodation in government-run shelters for asylum seekers to contend that the management and organization of accommodations have important consequences on asylum seekers’ vulnerability. The opportunity/lack of such accommodation can shape their narratives about the asylum and migration experience, it can define their journeys, and can influence their relationships with other actors. Asylum seekers’ everyday narratives about accommodation provision powerfully illustrate the way in which institutional settings can have a double effect on vulnerable migrants, oscillating between a protective and harmful one. In this respect, the asylum system shows its capacity to tackle some vulnerabilities, whilst overlooking or even fostering other ‘situations of vulnerability’. In conclusion, this chapter will discuss accommodation provision as a key element in both a humanitarian and a restrictive perspective on asylum policies. This will be done thanks to research carried out in Italian reception centers, including interviews with migrants and social workers and 6-months ethnographic observations.