An informal way to social protection: the case of eritrean refugees in Rome

Most Eritrean refugees come to Europe through illegal immigration channels. They are usually accepted as political refugees or they obtain a visa for "humanitarian reasons," because the Eritrean Government is known to be one of the harshest violators of human rights in the world. The Italian institutions do not have in place an adequate reception system for refugees and often the refugees are forced to help themselves by adopting tactics2, such as living in squats3, created by local socio-political movements. The case of Eritrean refugees falls within this dimension even though it has some particular characteristics and dynamics that I would like to shed light on. Eritrean refugees, with the backing of local political movements, have occupied two big buildings in suburban districts of Rome. Each building hosts about eight hundred people. This paper focuses on the encounter between the refugees and members of the movements, as representing the broader power dynamics in microcosm. In other words, I argue that the wider struggle is played out at this local level. Furthermore, I would like to stress how each player in this relationship (Italian institutions, local socio-political movements and Eritrean refugees), while starting out having different tactics and purposes, gain something from the situation, but remain in the same power structure. In this context, the Eritrean refugees connect to the "local" and the "global"; using their subordinate situation within the Italian system, they act out a specific political and cultural role pertaining to their country in order to subvert the Eritrean regime. They actually act to subtract, through immigration, the main force of the regime, its young men.