Prenotafacile ? the Naples Prefecture Website, Administrative Limbos and “Paper Careers”

The legal status of an immigrant, regulated by national laws, results from a "bureaucratic domination relationship" (Spire, 2005), that often leads to administrative limbos in the contemporary context of tightening immigration policies in Europe and in Italy in this case. Over the long term, these "paper careers" (op.cit.) are also urban journeys, influenced by mobility, spatial centralization, and distance dynamics. Through this doctoral research, I aim to analyze these regularization paths in their urban and spatial dimensions, focusing on the prefecture of Naples (Italy).

The Neapolitan context offers a particular lens: most rental and employment relationships in Naples are not formalized by contracts. This informality affects all residents of Naples, yet foreign individuals are required to provide multiple official documents, such as work contracts or residency status, to obtain a residence permit. Is informality a producer of administrative limbos? Yet, how do foreigners navigate their "paper careers" in Naples? Following one of my hypotheses, I will focus on the effects of digital tools on the urban trajectories of rights holders in Naples. The rise of digital tools and telecommunications has transformed social relations and people’s interaction with distance. As more administrations require online appointments for accessing services, how does the digitalization of administrative procedures reshape the spatiality of paper careers? This research will confront the universality of social benefits with the socio-spatial constraints that govern access to rights. How do digital tools contribute to administrative limbos in a context of urban informality?

These questions emerged after several months of volunteer work in a legal aid association in Naples and this paper will present the initial results of the fieldwork carried out in the spring of 2025, including in-depth interviews with right-holders on their ordinary practices with administrative counters, participant observation and interviews with private and public actors involved in Naples.