(Re)Shaping Administrative Limbo: The Impact of Vulnerability Narratives on Refugee Reception in Italy

The concept of vulnerability has gained traction in social sciences and political discourse, especially in relation to migration. Critical scholarship has explored how narratives of vulnerability intersect with the racialisation of migrants and function as tools for filtering migration (Fassin, 2005; Turner, 2021). In Italy, these narratives have become central to the asylum system, where access to comprehensive reception and integration services is restricted to those classified as 'vulnerable'. This classification is pivotal in determining migrants' rights and opportunities for integration, reinforcing a hierarchical system that stratifies asylum seekers based on their perceived vulnerabilities (Sozer, 2019).

This paper explores how the emphasis on vulnerability narratives restructures the administrative limbo in which asylum seekers find themselves, particularly those housed in Extraordinary Reception Centres. These centres provide limited services, and only those officially deemed 'vulnerable' gain access to the more comprehensive Reception and Integration System. This institutional practice creates conditions of entrapment, where asylum seekers must navigate a bureaucratic maze to be recognised as deserving of assistance, often finding themselves in prolonged administrative limbos that hinder their integration and exacerbate their precarity.

Drawing on interviews with social workers and project coordinators within the Italian refugee reception system, this paper examines the role of vulnerability narratives from the perspective of frontline workers. It highlights how these professionals both reproduce and resist the dominant policy frameworks that classify asylum seekers. By focusing on the everyday practices within reception centres, the study decentralises the national-level vulnerability discourse and sheds light on how social workers mediate, contest, or comply with these classifications. In doing so, it reveals the deeper implications of vulnerability as a tool of governance, which serves not only to manage migration but also to entrap racialised citizens, ethnic minorities, and migrants within a system that perpetuates their exclusion.