Countryside Ghettoes? Immigrants' Settlement Patterns in Italy Outside Gateway Cities

Italy has been -- and continues to be, notwithstanding the effects of the crisis -- an important destination country for immigration to Europe in the last decades. It is also characterized by plural and diversified settlement patterns, that mirror local and regional differences in competitivity and position in the global markets. From the tough conditions of seasonal workers in Mezzogiorno agriculture, to the relatively smooth inclusion in Industrial district; from the quite welcomed re-population of shrinking mountain and hill towns to the hostile reception in the politics of fear in small municipalities in Northern Regions, these settlement patterns have in common a challenge posed to small- and medium-sized towns.

After a review of these Italian patterns, based on the literature on State rescaling and superdiversity of post-Fordist migration, this paper will focus on some relevant cases of settlment in Northern and Central Italy: it will be shown that a widespread distribution in small towns doesn't prevent the risk of territorial segregation, with peculiar forms of micro-ghettoization. Abandoned farmsteads, isolated and declining industrial or residential buildings are reused by migrants, producing also concentrations that -- not so large in general terms -- assume a focal role in setting local agendas on immigration. Here, the right to signify space in small communities is under debate.

Though, it will be shown also that these settlements are constitutive part of the development strategies enacted at local level, particularly consistent with the failures of the "growth machine" strategy enacted at local level.