Abstract
This Comment explores, using a framework of international human rights, how discrimination affected the passing of the Bossi Fini amendment to the Italian immigration law. Part I of this Comment discusses the international human rights norms established by several significant fundamental human rights treaties relevant to immigration issues. Part I also briefly discusses the history of Italian immigration legislation, and examines the radicalization of the immigration discourse in Italy. Part II surveys some important provisions of the new Bossi Fini amendment. Part III argues that the Bossi Fini amendment violates the asylum, expulsion, and non-discrimination human rights provisions discussed in Part I. Part III also posits that the underlying basis for the increase in restrictive immigration legislation lies in Italy's prevalent racist and xenophobic attitudes, and argues that though facially neutral, the Bossi Fini law has a disparate impact on immigrants of color.
Recommended Citation
Michele Totah,
Fortress Italy: Racial Politics and the New Immigration Amendment in Italy,
26 Fordham Int'l L.J. 1438
(2002).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ilj/vol26/iss5/2