The vulnerability of undocumented migrant workers under Italian immigration law. An insight on the Italian legal framework after 2020: a change of course?

Abstract

This paper shows how migrants’ vulnerability to abuse and exploitation is partly caused by Italian immigration policies and, particularly, by marginalisation and criminalisation of immigrants, as the Italian legal framework shows. The “special” protection, as reformed in 2020, might have been a valuable tool not just in the fight and prevention of explotation, by introducing a form of protection of one's private and family life. Neverthless, the actual access to special protection has been reduced by the latest reform of 2023.