Guest Lecture on Legal Recognition of Forced Displacement and Reception in Italy

As of March 2025, 136,803 people are being hosted in the Italian reception system: not all of them fall under the same legal category or receive the same form of protection. The presentation gives a broad overview of the main protection statuses that can be granted in Italy, and how they translate into a single reception system.

The presentation starts from the 1951 Refugee Convention: its definition of refugee status, the criteria used to assess it, and its limits. It then covers the European instruments that apply to those outside the Convention's scope: subsidiary protection and temporary protection, with particular attention to the application of the temporary protection directive in the context of Ukrainian displacement. The second part focuses on Italy specifically: how the reception and integration system is structured, what facilities exist, and how the different protection statuses coexist within the system.

Link to join the lecture: bbb.lu.lv/mai-hpw-jxn-dii

Laura Zagarella is a migration and integration professional with over four years of experience working within Italy's reception system, with additional field experience in emergency contexts in Italy and Greece. I have worked as a Refugee Case Manager in the SAI project in Bologna (Italy), where my work focused on needs assessment, service mapping, and socio-economic inclusion of forcibly displaced people. I hold an MSc in International Humanitarian Action (NOHA+ Erasmus Mundus) from University College Dublin, with a specialisation in Forced Migration and Human Security, and a BA in Political Science and International Relations from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. My background sits at the intersection of policy and practice, combining direct experience in reception facilities with a broader knowledge of the legal and institutional frameworks governing forced displacement in Italy and Europe.