The economic, social and cultural crisis that is conditioning negatively relations between people and an open attitude to diversity, along with the political delay in tackling immigration pragmatically and not as an emergency, are driving significant numbers of migrants into conditions of marginalization and institutionalization. Methodological approaches that lead to local policies that resist the definitive stabilization of situations of exclusion for the migrant population see inclusion policies as a strategy for improving the life of the whole community and suggest interventions on various levels, from actions that would affect the social representation of immigration to more integrated services, which are necessary if we are to fully grasp their complexity.only subscribers can see the full article

The emergence of populisms in Europe in the 1980s reveals a particular socio-political context that is the background of the crisis of modernity. Contemporary democracies manifest problems and contradictions that touch various levels, from the economic to the specifically political. In this scenario various movements and populist parties arise and propagate themselves, with similar characteristics and specific features linked to their national contexts. J.M. Le Pen’s Front National is an emblematic example for its importance, support and duration. It plays on some basic concepts: appeal to the people, both as a means of protest and as a badge of identity, hostility to immigration, fiery nationalism tending to xenophobia, and the celebration of French purity and grandeur. Sarkozy’s Presidency, which is now coming to an end, has used several themes of the populist discourse on the problems of security, immigration and national identity, thus achieving a sort of institutionalization of populism, cleansed of its more extreme and unacceptable features.only subscribers can see the full article

The essay gives a critical account of the subject of institutionalization, particularly in its present new forms, or apparent such, compared with those that attracted attention and cultural, intellectual and political mobilization in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Starting from an «operative» interpretation of Martha Nussbaum’s conception of capabilities, and considers the link between discrimination, segregation and institutionalization, proposes an epidemiology of citizenship as a methodological basis for giving visibility to these phenomena, analyses the lack of information available and finally suggests a framework of proof-rights-experimentation for social workers and all those involved, to summarize today the liberating effect of the de-institutionalizing movements in the so-called reform period.only subscribers can see the full article