Between declared rigour and actual precariousness: rhetorical profiles of legislation

Abstract

This essay aims to highlight how some portions of legislation regarding the condition of foreigners reveal, behind aspects of declared rigour, a detachment from the reality of migratory dynamics, with the consequence of giving rise to a context of uncertainty that ends up favouring situations of illegality, as well as the violation of fundamental rights. Order, security, lawfulness, the fight against irregular immigration: these words have been bandied about to justify the legislative policy choices of the past few decades, but in an ideological and abstract manner, relying on the rigidity of rules to uphold logics of political rhetoric rather than of good government. The rules governing entry for work reasons and the rules governing the asylum are emblematic examples of the contradictions pervading immigration policies.