The Persistence of Marginality and Poverty Among Refugees in Italy: Insights from a New Survey

This paper examines the persistence of marginality and poverty among refugees in Italy, drawing on a recent UNHCR-promoted study that incorporates an unprecedentedly large survey (N=1200) and rich qualitative data, including focus groups with refugees and interviews with key stakeholders. Within this rich fieldwork, our analysis focuses in particular on three categories of protection beneficiaries in Italy and their potential civic stratification: (a) refugees, (b) recipients of subsidiary protection, and (c) Ukrainian war refugees with temporary protection status.

We argue that legal status interacts with a range of individual and social conditions in shaping economic well-being. Crucially, our findings reveal alarmingly high levels of both relative and absolute poverty, as well as significant material and social deprivation, across all three groups. By comparing these categories, we explore the mechanisms behind protracted exclusion despite the presence of a regular legal status.

A central finding is that legal regularity alone is insufficient to guarantee decent living conditions or socio-economic integration, a conclusion supported by previous research (Finotelli & Ponzo 2018; Hinger & Schweitzer 2020). The misalignment between legal status and the implementation of effective integration measures, particularly in the areas of employment and housing, is evident. Most subgroups of protection holders face precarious living conditions, underscoring a state of "protracted displacement," a phenomenon described in the literature as occurring independently of legal status (Cingolani et al. 2022; Papatzani et al. 2022).

In sum, our data point to troubling patterns of persistent marginalization and differential inclusion for forced migrants with international protection status.