From Emergency to Integration? The Spatial Controversy of Reception Centres in Italy

Abstract

The Mediterranean migrant/refugee crisis is stressing the capacity and capability of the EU reception system to guarantee adequate standards of living to asylum seekers, as for the provision of housing, threatening the protection provided by the right of asylum. The study analyses the spatial phenomenon of reception centres, formally instituted by host countries to accommodate needy applicants of international protection during the asylum procedure, which are spreading in the European borderscapes to immediately supply “n. places” for the “n. arrivals”. Within the global challenge of housing and integrating migrants and refugees, the topic of reception centres is carried out characterizing the temporary status of the asylum seeker and the controversial nature of hospitality, affecting reception and its spatial practice. The mapping controversies method was used to read the spatiality of reception in the European and Italian contexts, where case studies were selected in the city of Florence. Results depict the heterogeneous spectrum of spatial solutions for reception, which reflects the lack of shared/qualitative standards and of strategic/contingency scenarios able to meet basic human rights and inclusive urban development. Finally, the study collected innovative spaces of reception, raising in the architectural discourse and looking at those directions.