Power and The "Everyday Politics" of Refugee Protection in the Case Study of Gioiosa-Ionica, Italy

The way in which a norm is legally codified in laws and treaties is often very different from what that norm actually accomplishes in practice. This thesis analyzes the “everyday politics” of protection implementation through the case study of the SPRAR refugee hosting project in Gioiosa-Ionica, Italy. I illustrate how productive and structural power work through the intimate relationship of care; between frontline workers who are mandated to implement protection, and the refugees who are the beneficiaries of said protection. Through patterned behaviour frontline workers create new local norms that condition legal protection and the provision of services. Refugees resist these practices and the way their protection is received in commonplace and concerted ways. As such the “everyday politics” of refugee protection in the hosting project in Gioiosa-Ionica is fertile ground for how power, resistance and contestation play into norm implementation.