Invisible Borders. Administrative Barriers and Citizenship in the Italian Municipalities

This book analyses residency, a form of municipal membership that plays a strategic role in administrative processes in Italy. Residency is a two-faced juridical status: a means for exercising rights and moving freely within a state territory and, at the same time, a tool of control that operates through identification and registration. Gargiulo investigates residency both historically and theoretically, showing that the status of resident is a special kind of border, namely, a status border, which draws the lines of local citizenship. By explaining that the mechanisms of exclusion from residency work as administrative barriers, and showing their aims and effects in terms of civic stratification and differential inclusion, this book contributes to the debates on local citizenship, borders, and discretionary power.