00:00Welcome to a new episode of the podcast Integration or Re-Immigration.
00:04My name is attorney Fabio Lo Cerbo and I practice immigration law in Italy.
00:09In today's episode, I want to address a concept that is increasingly circulating in European debates, remigration.
00:17But more importantly, I want to explain why, from a legal perspective, that concept is insufficient
00:23and why a different framework is needed.
00:26To understand this, we need to start from a structural point.
00:30The current European immigration model is not simply under pressure.
00:34It is showing signs of systemic failure.
00:37And this failure is often misunderstood, especially outside Europe.
00:42The issue is not primarily about border control or the volume of incoming flows.
00:47The real issue lies in what happens after entry, how legal systems manage or fail to manage long-term integration.
00:55For decades, European immigration policies have been built on an essentially economic assumption.
01:02Migrants are viewed primarily as labour, as contributors to the workforce, as a response to demographic decline,
01:09or as a tool to sustain economic growth.
01:12Within this framework, integration has been treated as a secondary outcome,
01:17something expected to occur automatically through employment.
01:21This assumption has proven to be incorrect.
01:24Work alone does not produce integration.
01:27And when integration is not actively structured, it does not happen spontaneously.
01:33What we are witnessing today, across several European countries, is the consequence of that gap.
01:39Growing social tensions not driven by migration itself, but by the failure to govern integration processes effectively.
01:46This becomes particularly evident when we look at second-generation populations,
01:52individuals born or raised in Europe who are formerly part of society, yet often lack full linguistic, cultural, or normative
02:00integration.
02:01This is where the deepest fracture emerges.
02:04The mistake of the current model has been to treat integration as a natural process.
02:09But integration is not natural.
02:11It is a legal and institutional objective that requires clear rules, measurable criteria, and enforceable consequences.
02:19It is precisely from this realisation that the paradigm of integration or re-immigration is developed.
02:26This is not a political slogan.
02:28It is a legal framework.
02:30At its core lies a simple principle.
02:33The right to remain in a country cannot be entirely disconnected from the duty to integrate into that country's legal
02:40and social system.
02:41Integration becomes the central, selective criterion.
02:46Now, this is where the distinction with remigration becomes crucial.
02:50Remigration, as it appears in some European, particularly German, debates, is largely a political construct.
02:58It tends to operate through broad categories, potentially questioning the presence even of legally residing or partially integrated individuals.
03:07From a legal standpoint, this raises significant concerns.
03:12It risks conflicting with constitutional guarantees, due process, and fundamental rights protections embedded in European and international law.
03:23The paradigm of integration or re-immigration moves in a completely different direction.
03:29It does not question the presence of individuals based on origin.
03:34Instead, it conditions long-term residents on an objective and verifiable parameter, the level of integration achieved.
03:43This is not an expulsion-based model.
03:45It is a selective, rule-based system.
03:48Re-immigration, in this framework, is not a generalised policy.
03:52It is the legal consequence of a failure to meet minimum integration standards.
03:57It is individualised, not categorical.
04:00And most importantly, it operates within the legal system, not outside it.
04:06The real challenge, however, is not defining the paradigm, but implementing it.
04:11And this requires a structural legal shift.
04:13The first axis concerns what Italian law defines as complementary protection.
04:18Today, it is treated as a residual instrument.
04:21But in reality, it already contains the legal elements necessary to become the core of an integration-based system.
04:28Under Article 19 of the Italian Immigration Act, courts already assess factors such as social integration, employment stability, and family
04:36ties.
04:37These elements can be systematised and transformed into the primary legal criteria for residents.
04:43In other words, complementary protection can evolve from an exceptional safeguard into a general regulatory mechanism, a legal tool to
04:52recognise integration.
04:53The second axis concerns the integration agreement.
04:56At present, it exists largely as a formal requirement with limited practical impact.
05:02It must instead become a binding legal framework structured around measurable indicators such as language proficiency, employment, and compliance with
05:11the legal system.
05:12Integration cannot be presumed.
05:14It must be verified.
05:16The third axis is the most critical and often the most politically avoided enforcement capacity.
05:22Any system that conditions residents on integration must also be capable of enforcing return decisions where integration fails.
05:30This implies not only strengthening detention and return infrastructure, but also establishing a dedicated immigration enforcement body, a specialised immigration
05:41police with operational autonomy and clear competencies.
05:45Without enforcement, the law loses credibility.
05:48The paradigm of integration or re-immigration is therefore built on a clear equilibrium.
05:55Inclusion for those who integrate, return for those who do not.
05:59There are no shortcuts.
06:00Ultimately, this is not an ideological proposal.
06:03It is an attempt to restore coherence to a system that, in its current form, risks generating precisely the tensions
06:11it claims to manage.
06:13The real choice is not between openness and closure.
06:17The real choice is between a chaotic system and a regulated one.
06:21And today, more than ever, ambiguity is no longer sustainable.
06:25See you in the next episode.
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