Neoliberismo e Controllo Dell’Immigrazione : Il Fallimento Della 'Tolleranza Zero' e I Paradossali Esiti Dell’Informalità (Neoliberalism and Immigration Control: The Failure of 'Zero Tolerance' and the Paradoxical Outcomes of Informality)

This article discusses immigration flows to Italy in the framework of the neoliberal restructuring process of welfare state and the security policies. The author argues that Italy is witnessing the crisis of “zero tolerance” as a means of managing social problems, and proposes the subversion of the common perspectives. On the bases of the outcomes of some ethnographic studies previously conducted by the author himself, a few reflections on the virtues of “informality” are proposed. Informality is here intended as the whole of the non-orthodox subsistence practices, and the modes of negotiation between “deviants” and institutions. In the light of empirical evidences, it is suggested that such informal practices should not be repressed, but encouraged