Italian migratory policies represent a highly controversial policy as opposing, polarised reform proposals are often put forward. There is thus the widespread impression that this matter has been characterised by considerable discontinuity in the last decades. This paper shows how Italian migratory policy choices have been characterised by long term discontinuity focussed on two crucial points: the absence of a realistic policy for entries and of a stabilisation policy for the foreign population already present in the country. From the very beginning Italian migratory policy has been characterised by the systematic use of expost legalisation and the management of the foreign population which protracted the phase of initial precariousness. If reforms of migratory legislation have progressively increased the technical efficacy of repressive norms, such an effort hasn’t produced a greater capacity to manage the phenomenon.only subscribers can see the full article