Guest Article: "Italian mayors and migration: How have things changed under Meloni?" By Federico Alagna

Since migration rose to the top of the EU policy agenda in 2013, Italy has been on the frontline, both geographically, as a first entry point for hundreds of thousands of people, and politically, within EU debates. While national governments and prime ministers have often taken the spotlight, sub-national authorities have also played an increasingly important role.

This is especially true of mayors and local governments, who have been tasked with varying responsibilities in frontline reception, full responsibility for unaccompanied minors and shifting degrees of involvement in second-line reception. In several cases, they have also become visible advocates at the national and EU levels. Some mayors and cities in particular have become champions of an active and critical stance towards restrictive and inhumane EU and national policies – for example, Leoluca Orlando, mayor of Palermo from 2012 to 2022, or Domenico “Mimmo” Lucano, mayor of the small Calabrian village of Riace from 2004 to 2018 (and again from 2024 to date).

Over the past three years, however, much has changed: from the right-wing turn in Italy – and, more broadly, across Europe and the global North – to the end of the mandates of some of these mayors, as well as the transformation of several of the most significant local initiatives in the migration field. This brief offers an up-to-date overview of how Italian mayors are navigating the migration field since Giorgia Meloni’s government took office in late 2022.