Dialogue with policy actors: The Feedback Experience and New Findings.

The aim of this report is to compare and discuss our earlier findings on policy implementation and discretionary practices (Triandafyllidou & Veikou, 2001; Kosic & Triandafyllidou, 2002) with the institutional and non-governmental actors involved in the application of immigration policy, with the aim of developing proposals for the improvement of the law and implementation procedures. More specifically, the purpose was to provide feedback on our findings as well as, through this, to elicit further information on implementation. We also wish to compare the main points of our results on implementation practices in the Florentine FO with the implementation practices in Rome. Although the FO of Florence is not necessarily a representative example of Foreigners’ Offices across Italy, there are good reasons to believe that it is not an exceptional case either. Our objective is to focus once again on the implementation of the Law 40/98 and to discuss aspects of discretion in the application of the regulations on the issuing and renewal of stay permits which emerged as more problematic and controversial. Here, with regard to this, a reflection on our experience of providing feedback to policy actors and of their availability to interact with researchers is also given.