After the emergency: Tensions and connections between COVID-19 and ‘migrant crisis’ representation in Italy

This Anthology is the result of an interdisciplinary, international collaboration that has begun to explore the impact of COVID -19 on people seeking asylum, through an analysis of government policies which have sought to securitise the public health response and restrict who crosses its borders. The project – of which this Anthology is a product – contributes to interdisciplinary debates on the significance of borders; belonging; humanitarian responsibility; and the right to refugee protection. Through a comparative analysis of these shifts and challenges within Australia and Europe, the articles in this Anthology explore how borders are maintained in new and untested ways during pandemics and how they contribute to the ongoing marginalization of those most in need of protection. It seeks to contribute to national, regional and international knowledge creation and public debate on the social, political and legal impact of COVID -19 on borders and belonging. In particular, the chapter "After the emergency: Tensions and connections between COVID-19 and ‘migrant crisis’ representation in Italy" examines how the COVID-19 pandemic and the fear of ‘the other’ has shifted migration discourses, revealing how the news has become polarised during the pandemic: on the one hand, border closures due to the link between migration and illness; on the other hand, the regularisation of migrants working in the informal economy.