Italy and EU’s Co-constitutive Bordering Effort

(Re)bordering practices seems to be inescapable for states and more so in times of crisis when uncertainty crumbles core belief systems and tests institutional capacity and preparedness (‘resilience’ even, to use a recurrent jargon). They are key to actors’ aim to discover, uncover, or even reproduce ontological security. Italy is no exception, having been shaken hard by multiple and concurrent crises over the last years. The economic crisis first, the ‘refugee crisis’ then and lastly the COVID pandemic have repeatedly questioned the country’s ontological security, its priorities, its alignments, and resoluteness along with main values. This chapter specifically looks at the fallout of the ‘refugee crisis’ on Italy’s bordering process.