The Signs of Progress in CAS and the Hidden Disciplinary Mechanism in Humanitarian Support: Ethnography in the refugee reception centers in Padua, Italy.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the function of Italian refugee reception centers operated by the private sector, using the ethnographic method, to reveal the situation of the centers, which called as "confusing and opaque model of control" of asylum seekers (Pinelli 2017). In 2015, because of the mass inflow of asylum seekers, known as the European refugee crisis, the Italian asylum acceptance system had radically changed. The accommodation and reception services are provided mainly by the private sector. There were concerns about the operation of the CAS because the new refugee acceptance system does not provide the monitoring of the centers. Indeed, several problems of CAS have been pointed out, and the privatization of asylum has criticized. However, through participant observation in the CAS at Padua, the author observed the signs of progress. The paper reports the private organizations and operators, who work at the CAS, have improved their capacity to provide efficient supports for asylum seekers to overcome criticism. The operators are not the subject who devoid of the agency; instead, they are actively working for asylum seekers to provide humanitarian supports to asylum seekers. Sometimes, the operators abandon their role as the sentinels of the center, to respect the agency of asylum seekers. Therefore, the situation of the CAS depends on the daily negotiation between the operators and the internees. Despite the signs of progress that we could observe in the CAS, there is 'hidden disciplinary power' in humanitarian support. The operators discipline asylum seeker unconsciously, transmitting the image of 'ideal refugee' through the selective mechanism of support and daily interaction. This incorporated image affects the behavior of asylum seekers. They try to show that they are 'ideal refugee' to be chosen by the operators, believing that would help them to have permission to stay and job. Through the paper, the author shows that the situation of CAS from the practical and theoretical points of view, to argue that the reasonable choice of operators to help asylum seeker contains disciplinary power.