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Children and Forced Migration pp 79–102Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Turning the Invisible into the Visible: Stateless Children in Italy

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Abstract

This chapter highlights a number of concerns embedded in the hybrid nature of statelessness and quasi-statelessness as experienced by children in Italy. Children in many instances have legitimate claims to citizenship but are often unable to demonstrate it; for example, because of a lack of official identity documentation (e.g., birth records). Although it is rather challenging to enumerate people who are legally excluded, most recent estimates indicate that almost 15,000 Roma children born in Italy find themselves in a limbo of legal invisibility. By examining the international and national legal structures that seek to classify stateless children, this chapter contextualizes some key problems encountered by them, and it identifies the promises of durable solutions put in place by current legislation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, in particular, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNHCR Recommendations on the Relevant Aspects of the Protection of Statelessness Persons in Italy, October 2014.

  2. 2.

    Article 11, paragraph 1, letter (c) of the Presidential Decree no. 394/1999 states that, during the SDP, applicants are issued a permit of stay lasting until the finalization of the recognition procedure. However, in order to be granted the right of regular stay, this person has to be entitled already to another type of permit of stay.

  3. 3.

    Article 1, paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Unified Code on Immigration, approved by Legislative Decree no. 286/1998, indicate stateless people as beneficiaries of the laws regulating the juridical condition of the foreigner. Therefore, the stateless person should receive the same treatment as any other non-EU national, unless a different or better treatment is foreseen by laws or international conventions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Conflict and Migration, Edinburgh, UK

    Nicoletta Policek

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  1. Nicoletta Policek
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Marisa O. Ensor

  2. Institute for the Study of International Migration, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Elżbieta M. Goździak

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Policek, N. (2016). Turning the Invisible into the Visible: Stateless Children in Italy. In: Ensor, M., Goździak, E. (eds) Children and Forced Migration. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40691-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40691-6_4

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