The migratory phenomena: physiological
and conditional forces

The migratory phenomena are contemporarily and essentially animated by different motivating forces which we can, for analytical synthesis, define the first as a physiological type and the second as conditional. Both are propulsive forces which move and delineate the quantity and typology of the migratory flows at a planetary level, as well as in the reality of the national territory.
The physiological-type force is natural consequence of social, cultural, professional and economic evolution, and usually moves a mass of people whose motivation for the migratory movement is normally traceable to reasons correlated to specialized professional activities, cultural, religious, study, simple training, educative and human interchange. In the physiological-type force, there exists no tension of social contingency or particular aspects of traumatization.
Instead, the conditional-type force is correlated to particularly indigent human conditions and of the suffering of individuals within the social fabric of their own Country of origin.
The conditional-type force is, therefore, consequence of social and economic involutions or of situations of racial or religious persecution or of existential decline, and usually moves a mass of people whose motivation, in undertaking the migratory displacement, is essentially traced to hope and prospects of improvement of their socio-economic and human conditions.
Hence, there is no doubt that in the conditional-type force, there can exist tension of social contingency or aspects of traumatization in the integration of the migratory flows in the collectivistic fabrics of the Countries of destination.
The migratory flows which are motivated by the physiological-type force are almost always of a normal kind.
Instead, the conditional force motivates two typologies of migratory flows: a normal migration, therefore, subject to the juridical prerequisites of entrance into the single Countries of destination, and a clandestine migration, for which a multitude of foreign citizens, very often driven by economic and human desperation, attempt to enter illegally through the various national borders.


The migratory phenomena:
impact on the host communities

An important aspect of the migratory flows is, however, their socio-cultural impact on the host community.
While verified problems do not exist in the cases of migratory flows motivated by the physiological force, the situation is different for those motivated by the conditional-type force: the problems arising from the very quality of such immigration.
In fact, in the presence of such flows, ideological barriers are frequently met, which are usually raised by the western realities against these typologies of immigration.
The creation of these barriers are not frequent. Nevertheless, they are unilateral. In fact, on the one side, if the destination Countries do not frequently offer to the migratory flows, a real and proper policy regarding the integration and the social reception, then on the other side, certain migrant subjects proceed to create a strategy of protection for their cultural and religious positions to the point of total refusal of the civil reality in which they live. Furthermore, many host communities have a natural diffidence towards large numbers of people of different social, religious and cultural extraction, who are very often animated by the necessity to improve, as rapidly as possible, their own social conditions.
There is no doubt, however, that the legal migratory flows furnish a cultural, demographic and economic enrichment.
To the legal migrants who come to Italy to improve their economic conditions, the State, by means of every single institution, has the moral and juridical obligation to adopt measures which permit furnishing to same, assurances and solutions with regard to both administrative procedures and social integration.


The legal migratory flows:
their relations with the Public Administration

The relations of the immigrant citizen with the Public Administration are fundamental to his/her integration into the social fabric of the host country.
The common efforts of the institutional subjects involved are realized in the rapidity and simplification of the bureaucratic red tape.
The Immigration Office represents a fundamental crossroads between the various administrative procedures which mark the daily existence of the foreign citizen. The immigrants associate this office with the consolidation of their administrative position: the issue of their residence permit.
Furthermore, the same Office, having a specific juridical competence in immigration matters, represents a firm point of reference for the foreign citizen and for all public and private subjects, of an individual or associative nature, involved in various ways in the management of the immigration phenomena.
The Department of the Interior, aware of the distinctive importance of the Immigration Offices on national territory, have undertaken, for some time now, a path which leads the aforementioned offices to develop a concept of nearness and solidarity with the immigrant citizens, identifying four principal objectives:
- eliminate useless bureaucratic procedures for the foreign citizen and make relations with the Service as easy as possible;
- computerization of the administrative procedures;
- speed up the administrative procedures of the requests and drastically decrease the waiting time of the various permits;
- synergy and collaboration with the realities and social forces which are involved with immigration.


The illegal migratory flows:
prevention of and counteraction to the
clandestine immigration

With equal firmness and determination a legally constituted State must realize and carry out the best solutions whereby it is able to control, prevent and counteract the illegal migratory flows and repress any criminal activity correlated to them.
In fact, the illegal migratory flows in the host community diffuse a sense of territorial violation, insecurity and fear.
To eliminate such sensations of social insecurity in the public opinion, together with the fundamental interventions of assistance towards the clandestine foreign citizen, which protect physical integrity and moral dignity , an effective activity of prevention and counteraction to the illegal immigration is necessary.
Essentially, this activity is carried out by the Political and Governmental Authorities, through specially provided policies of international cooperation with the Countries of origin of the illegal migratory flows.
In essence, the cooperation consists of five principal elements:
1) actions of social prevention, until socially better conditions can be provided for the foreign citizens in their own national reality;
2) procedural actions, until formal agreements can be stipulated for the effective speed-up of repatriation in the Country of origin for any person found illegally in Italy;
3) actions of preventive security, until the training, sensitization and help to the local police can be carried out, in counteracting the illegal migratory flows;
4) actions of juridical normalization, until the situation of national regulations can simplify the procedures of obtaining from the Italian Embassy, the visas of entry on the territory of the State;
5) Community actions, until the interventions regarding the prevention of clandestine immigration can be harmonized and coordinated between all the Countries of the European Union.
The counteractive activity to illegal immigration is, essentially, carried out by the Forces of Law and Order, with the control of the frontier and the individuation of illegal citizens on the National territory. Such activity is naturally directed by the Political and Governmental Authorities, in relation to the norms in force.

The prevention and counteractive activity to illegal immigration has, as objectives, to:
a) make sure that the standard regulations in force on the subject of entry onto the National territory are respected);
b) eliminate sensations of social insecurity in the community;
c) avoid that the aforementioned sensations of social insecurity, if exasperated, lead to the affirmation of violent actions which might be carried out by ideological extremists;
d) counteract the activities of manpower exploitation, sexual exploitation, of unskilled labour enrolment by organized crime, which, within the catchment area of clandestine immigration, they can usually find subjects habitually given to criminal behaviour and, therefore, are exploitable.


DPCM of the 30/10/2007 – Transitory Programming
of the flows of entrance of the non-EC non-seasonal workers
into the State territory for the year 2007.

The regulations presently in force on immigration provide that for proceeding to the hiring of a foreign worker from abroad, it is necessary to request authorization for a dependent worker. The request for authorization must be presented by the employer who proposes the hiring, only when the governmental measures have come into force: measures which evaluate the needs and work possibilities in the Country, sets the maximum quota of foreigners to be admitted in the territory of the State for subordinate work. With the decree, known as Flows Decree, quotas of admittance are provided for, which are sub-divided between the Italian regions, by Nations and for the typology of workers.
For the hiring of highly specialized workers, no specific quotas of admittance are foreseen. Therefore, the requests for authorizations, by the employers, can be presented at any time of the year.
For the year 2007, the issue of 170,000, authorized permits has been foreseen for subordinate work and autonomous work, and the conversion of the residence permit from study permit to work permit. In 2006, the quotas were in total, 520,000, of which 170,000 in DPCM of February, 2006, and 350,000 of additional quotas of the October, 2006. In 2005 and 2004, the available quotas were 79,500.
Generally, together with the Flows Decree, a circular is published with: the operative indications for the presentation of the requests, the conditions and the criteria of admission for the acceptance of same, and the subsequent phases and modality of the procedure. The Flows Decree circulars in recent years have set down modalities which have changed in various ways from year to year. To assist users, with the 2007 Flows Decree, an informatics system was set up, which allows the compilation an telematic forwarding to the Immigration Office, with the possibility of assistance from the appropriate sectors. The application forms have been simplified with respect to previous years. At the time of requests for permits, the employer has simply to auto-certify the existing requirements. Only at the moment of convocation to the Immigration Office for the issue of the hiring permit, he will need to show the required documentation. The decree under examination has provided for the transmission of the requests in three time-periods:
- from 8.00 of last 15th December, the requests for workers of Countries with reserved quotas;
- from 8:00 of last 18th December, those for domestic workers and carers;
- from 8:00 of last 21st December, for all the other sectors.
The quotas foreseen for the 15th December, 2007, were 47,000 workers of Countries which undersigned or are about to undersign specific agreements of cooperation in migratory matters. The quota foreseen for the 18th December, 2007, was 65,000 entry permits for reasons of domestic work or care work for workers from Countries which have not undersigned bilateral agreements for domestic workers or carers.
Finally, for the 21st December, 2007, a total of 57,900 entry permits for all the others sectors was foreseen.


Article 18 of the Unified Code,
and the counteraction to organized crime

As already discussed, the illegal migration flows, besides bringing situations of indigence and humanly complex stories, transfer to the national territory also a multitude of people animated by hopes and illusions which very soon are transformed into situations of deception and trickery and lead these same people to be victims of real physical violence and moral abuse, as well as, in certain cases, to be reduced to a regime of slavery.
A new aspect of the modern illegal migration is just this: the return of a system of slavery exercised by criminal organizations, very often foreign, which invade the territory owned by the legally constituted State. Organizations which, exercising control on certain urban zones of the great metropolis and on the relative connected human network, institute a vast illegal business which exploits the very migratory phenomena of the conditional-type force which, by its nature, presents particular social situations of suffering and indigence.
These people, exploited and oppressed like ‘modern slaves’, represent today, for the economy of the criminal organizations, the fundamental pawns for the increment of those proceeds which derive from illicit activities: proceeds that frequently finance other criminal activities.
Therefore, the principal objective of all the European Governments has become just this – to liberate these immigrants from the chains of this new type of slavery.
And, in fact, in the implementation of the recommendations which emerged in the European seat and, upon the urgings of the associations more active in the sector, Italy – with the introduction of the regulatory discipline: Article 18. D.lgs. (urgent measure decree) No. 286/98.T.U., (Unified code of the provisions concerning the regulatory discipline of the immigration and norms on the condition of the foreigner) and of its implementation regulations D.P.R. (Decree of the President of the Republic) 31.8.99 No.394 – has responded with effectiveness to the growing alarm constituted by the trade in human beings.

The Article No. 18 of the Unified Code provides for the issue of residence permits ‘for reasons of social protection’, with an end to “allowing the foreigner to free him/herself from the violence and influences of the criminal organizations and to participate in a programme of assistance and social integration “(Art. 18, Para 1).
The residence permit for reasons of social protection is issued, (taking into account the requisites foreseen in Para 1, of Article 18, and the acquisition of the programme and social assistance), in the following cases:
- autonomous decision of the Questore (Officer in charge of the Police Force, public order and relative administrative services)
- proposal of the Judicial Authority;
- proposal of the Local Authority or authorized subject, according to the regulations in force.



Article 18 of the Unified Code: the social
recuperation of the victim

The most relevant characteristic of this type of permit lies in the precise will of the Legislator to help the victim of the trade in human beings. In this perspective it allows the victim to cut the tie that binds him/her to his/her persecutor and permits him/her, at the same time, to undertake a path of integration which can be durable and definitive.
And this same path, formalized through the participation and a programme of social integration and assistance, is of great importance in the implementation of the juridical case in point.
It is not coincidental that the Legislator considers as an absolutely essential element for the issue of a residence permit for reasons of social protection, the participation of the foreign citizen in the aforementioned programme, as is established by Article 18 of the Unified Code, and then clarified and reasserted by the regulation of implementation, in Art. 27, c.2, lett. b of the DPR 394/99, mod. DPR 334/2004, (“[…] Received the proposal of Para 1 and verified the existence of the conditions provided for by the Unified Code, the Questore provides for the issue of residence permits for humanitarian reasons, valid for the activities, reference Article 18,Para 5, of the Unified Code, admits:
[…]
b) the programme of social assistance and integration relative to the foreigner, conforms to the prescriptions of the Inter-Ministerial Commission, reference Article 25;[…]”.
The precise will of the Legislator is to emphasize this particular aspect by punishing the violation, the interruption or inattention to the obligations deriving from the programme itself, with the obligation for the Questore to refuse or revoke the residence permit.
Therefore, it can, without a doubt, be affirmed that the legal institution originates starting from an activity of counteraction to and liberation from these phenomena of modern slavery and finishes through the true finality of the aforesaid institution; that is, with the social reintegration of the victim. This means that the collaboration of the victim with the Judicial Authority is, undoubtedly, important, but is not the principal scope of the course of social protection, which is directed to the physical, moral and psychological recuperation of the exploited subject.
In this sense is incorporated also the prot. Note No. 3139/2006/Gab of the 18/1/2006 of the Prefecture of Rome – Territorial Office of the Government and the Circular of the Ministry of the Interior of 28th May, 2007.
It is, however, necessary to underline that the Unified Code on Immigration obliges the Questore to certify the requisites for the issue of a residence permit for reasons of social protection and such certification activity must, however, for absolute necessity, ascertain the total reliability of the facts of exploitation which emerge from the testimony of a foreign citizen, also in the case of a proposal for the right to a residence permit made by the Local Authority or authorized subjects, insofar as the same proposal must be in line with the requisites provided for in Para. 1. of Article 18, and such requisites presuppose information of a crime, which the Public Security Authorities are obliged to refer to the Judicial Authority in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure.
However, the lack of continuation of the collaboration of the victim cannot be used as an element of legal impediment to the completion of a project of social protection and the legal outcome of the declarations made by the victim, unless the same has given false testimony, cannot determine a revocation of the residence permit in question.
To crystallize this jurisdictional orientation, the State Council has provided that, with decision of the 27.6.2006 notes that the authorization to permanency in Italy for reasons of Article 18 of the Unified Code, No. 286/1998, is not to be seen as granted in exchange for a possible ‘contribution of information given to the police in criminal seat, by the victim, during the course of a police investigations’. The norm pursues, in fact, the need, at a social level, to ensure immediate protection to a party considered to be weak (the foreigner, victim of violence or serious exploitation ), in order to allow him/her to free him/herself from the violence and influences of the criminal organizations, and to participate in a programme of assistance and social integration. The ascertainment by the Public Security Authorities regarding the existence of the presuppositions to make ready the said protection – in order to ensure, at an effectiveness level, the aim pursued by the norm – need not await the conclusion of the criminal trial for the denounced facts, but, in presence of the need of protection, can intervene during the investigative and preliminary acquisition stages, with an autonomous evaluation of the real situation of the foreigner and of the reliability of the denounced facts.
However, Article 18 has been nationally and internationally recognized as a normative instrument of fighting the phenomenon connected to the trade of human beings and places our Country on the cutting edge in the juridical fight against the phenomenon of the new slavery.
Furthermore, the approval of the Law No. 228 of 2003, is particularly important, “Measures against the trade in human beings”, through which is provided, first and foremost, to redesign certain crime descriptions in our Legal system, and precisely those of ‘reduction in slavery’, ‘trade of persons’ and ‘commerce of slaves’ and to introduce new ones. In fact, it is the opinion of many jurists that the descriptions already provided by the preceding Legislation were not suitable to describe and contain such phenomenon. The new law recognizes the indications contained in the protocol of Palermo (December, 2000) of the Convention of the United Nations against the trans-national organized crime, configuring the trade in human beings as a specific and autonomous hypothesis of crime. With the D.P.R. No. 394/99 was instituted, at the Department for equal opportunities, “… the Inter-Ministerial Commission for the implementation of Article 18 of the Unified Code, composed of representatives of the Ministries for equal opportunities, for social solidarity (present Ministry of Employment and social policies), of the Interior, and of Grace and Justice (present Ministry of Justice)” (Article 25, Para 2). The Commission performs tasks of direction, control and programming both of the resources and of the programmes of assistance and social integration. In particular, it performs a fundamental role in the selection of these programmes on the basis of the criteria and modality stability with Decree of the Minister for Equal Opportunities, together with the Ministers of the Interior, of Justice and of Employment (D.M- Ministerial Decree. 23.11.99). The types of interventions realized have been particularly complex and delicate. Above all, for the conditions of psychological isolation in which the women victims of the trade are found, coming from situations of extreme social distress, from environments of social marginalization, violence and abuse, with high rates of unemployment – as in the case of Countries of East Europe, and with very low levels of schooling – as in the case of the Nigerian women.
From an analysis of the data relative to the years of application of the projects, the more or less constant presence of women from Nigeria and East European Countries is noted. In particular, in recent periods, a decrease in the traffic of Albanian women has been noted with an increase of presence from other East European Countries, especially from Romania, Moldavia and the Ukraine.


The administrative activities of the Immigration
Office of the Questura (Offices of the Questore)
of Rome, relative to the institution of Article 18,
of the Unified Code: operating modality

The administrative activities of the Immigration Office of the Questura of Rome, relative to the institution of Article 18, of the Unified Code has, as its primary objective, the rigorous application of the normative dictate of the subject in question and has concentrated its efforts on the necessity of speeding up the procedures involved in the issuing of the residence permit for reasons of social protection, until the foreign citizen can possess and use, in the simplest and fastest way possible, this instrument of protection: protection which, if delayed, could be strongly impaired.
To this end, therefore, the Immigration Office held it opportune to reorganize, from the inside, the activity responsible for residence permits for reasons of social protection. The first significant step of this action was to open a privileged line to speak with the social forces in the field, the operators of the sector and volunteers. With this aim, for the first time an office has been instituted. This office deals with the normative institution in question and, furthermore, has the task of maintaining relations with the subjects operating in this ambit and with the associations, the authorities and various organizations which are registered with the Second Section of the Register of the DPR 394/99, mod. DPR 334/2004 (section reserved to subjects admitted to the treating of matters of social protection). The assigned personnel are directly coordinated by an official in charge and are personally supervised by the Office Executive. And precisely in context of this relation of close collaboration, the Immigration Office has furnished a telephone number and an e-mail of reference to the operators involved in the sector.

Moreover, the Immigration Office frequently announces meetings with heads of organizations in the field, with the aim of embarking upon a synergic and common action in facing the various problems which can present themselves in the examination of the various cases being treated.
Finally, of outstanding importance is also the action of synergy with the Mobile Squad of the Questura of Rome, with the sections of the Investigative Police of the police stations of the Public Security of Rome and Province, with the Carabinieri Force and with the Judicial Authority, as well as with the Prefecture of Rome, with regard to the suspensions and revocations of the provisions of expulsions.
Personnel handling the cases of residence permits for reasons of social protection are also entrusted with residence permits for reasons of justice, according to Art. 11, c.l. lett. C.bis. of the DPR, No. 394 of 3108.1999. mod. Of the DPR. No. 334 of the 18.10.2004, to enable the evaluation of situations which could fall within the case in point of Art. 18 of the Decree No. 286 of the 25.07.1998, mod. L. 189/2002, and which could have been missed by the operating personnel at the time of request to the Judicial Authority, with an end, therefore, of being able to identify the most suitable form of juridical protection and personal safety of the foreigner.
The subsequent step of this orientation was the decision of the Immigration Office to treat the normative institution in question with a distinct and exclusive modality compared to other administrative practices. In fact, the personnel dealing with the provisions of Art. 18, follow the preliminary enquiries relative to the residence permits for reasons of social protection; keep the statistics; deal with correspondence inherent in the same institution. They deal with eventual suspensions or revocations of the expulsion decrees, and eventual administrative measures; they receive and talk with the foreign citizens who request such permit; they conserve, in strict privacy, the files inherent in the administrative positions of the same, and they maintain relations with the social operators.
The foreign citizens under social protection and the operators who accompany them are received directly at the Immigration Office: discretely and in areas separated from the rest of the Service users.
For the more complex cases, the personnel have also undertaken to deliver the residence permits directly to the host structures.
The adopted modus operandi has allows the creation, within the Immigration Office, of figures of reference, both for the social forces, which daily give their all to assist and recuperate the victims of these criminal manifestations, and for the foreign citizens themselves, who establish, with the employed personnel, relations of trust and collaboration.
This carries an advantage, not only in the social context into which the victims must be integrated, but, undoubtedly, also for a return of the Administration image, effectively contributing to the growth of the concept of “nearness” of the Forces of Law and Order also towards the foreign population, as well as conforming the administrative activities in question to the guidelines set down by the Ministry of the Interior and also reasserted in special circulars .
The involved subjects themselves have expressed, on many occasions, their satisfaction with the relations of collaboration established.

For the purpose of improving the operative modalities of the normative institution under examination, from the 01.10.2004, the Immigration Office has, moreover, adopted various innovations:
- the institution of a sector of reference for the social operators and the Forces of Law and Order, as well as for the foreign citizens under social protection, where they are received daily, from Monday to Friday, from 08.30 to 13.00, and on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, from 15.00 to 17.30, in premises reserved for the treatment of these administrative situations, separate from the other administrative activities;
- drastic speeding up the time involved for the issue of the residence permit for reasons of social protection;
- the issue of the residence permit even in the momentary and justified absence of a passport or an equipollent document: is done in order not to delay the emission of the aforesaid permit;
- application of the circular No. 48 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of 31.10.1961, still in force, which provides that a travel permit can be obtained also by those foreigners who are without a passport, and are not able, for proved and valid reasons, to obtain one from the Authorities of origin;
- this procedure, in force, can be found in the circular No. 300/C/2003/331/P/12.214.5/1^ Div. of 24.02.2003 and it was
sustained by specific request of the Immigration Office of the Questura of Rome, and by note of the Ministry of the Interior, prot. 400/C/4601/A16/2006 of the 05.03.2007;
- the issue of the residence permit for reasons of social protection without waiting for the real and due bureaucratic emission of the decrees of suspension/revocation of expulsion pending with regard to the applicant ( a wait which, otherwise, could protract for months), under the circular of the Ministry of the Interior. No. 300/C/1999/13/P/12/214/18/1^ div. of the 25/10/1999 ([…] in the hypothesis in which the foreigner – towards whom it was proposed with justifiable and valid reason, the adoption of the measure of humanitarian protection – is found to be the receiver of a past provision of expulsion, it is held that the same provision must be suspended, unless it concerns expulsion for reasons of public order and security […]) and No.300.C/2002/334/P/12,214/18/1^ Div. of the 22nd May, 2000. ([…] Finally, the readers’ attention is called to the question on the necessity of speeding up the procedure concerning the issue of the residence permit “de quo”, in order to permit, through this instrument, the carrying out of the protection as set out in Art. 18 of the Unified Code for the victim of actions of violence or serious exploitation: protection which, if delayed, could be strongly impaired. […]);
- communications – ex art. 27, c.3-bis del DPR No.394 of the 31.08.1999, mod. of the DPR, No. 334 of the 18.10.2004 – to the Provincial Direction of Employment, carry only the nationality of the foreign citizen, omitting the name for reasons of security;
- emission of residence permit with indications of addresses not traceable to the foreign citizen and with fictitious reasons for permit;
- up-datings of residence permit for reasons of protection, relative to change of dwelling or marital status or passport etc., are done directly at the Immigration Office;
- acknowledging also values and procedures not institutionally falling within that of the Administration, but in the knowledge that to operate effectively in such areas, it is necessary to take into account a fundamental aspect of solidarity, the Immigration Office, on its own initiative, has provided, many times, to find adequate structures for the recuperation, social and work integration of the foreign citizen, victim of the vile criminal activities: this Office working through that extraordinary previously mentioned synergy, together with the social forces operating in the sector;
- On the request of the “Differenza Donna” Association, in the ambit of the project “TACIS IBPP Programme”, financed by the European Union – having as an objective the exportation of the Italian system of collaboration among civil societies and institutions in matters of violence against women – on the 04.07.2006, the Office received a Russian delegation comprising officials of social Services, lawyers, psychologists and social assistants, for the purpose of an exposition of the normative institution of Art. 18 Unified Code;
- Starting up a protocol of understanding with Local Authorities;
- Operative synergy with the Ministry of Justice for the treatment operations of Art. 18, C.6 Unified Code and the participation of this Immigration Office in the meetings of the Minors Commission of the new Citizen Plan for the Prison for the period 2007-2009;
- With note of the 8.02.2007, the Immigration Office, with request of wide diffusion – informed the Public Security Stations of Rome and Province, the Mobile Squad and the Judicial Authority – regarding the reactivation by the Department of Equal Opportunities, at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, of the national ‘green telephone number’ against the trade;
- On 9.11.2005, subject to agreement with the Division III of the General Direction of Immigration of the Ministry of Employment and Social Policies, this Office acquired, for the first time ever, and formally, the copy of the Second Section of the Register of the Associations and Authorities which perform activities in favour of the immigrants, Section reserved to the subjects admitted to the operational dealing in the matter of Art. 18, Unified Code.

Administrative activities of the Immigration
Office relative to the institution of Art. 18 of the
unified Code: bureaucratic procedures

Out of deference to the normative dictate and to a need for real social integration of the foreign citizen, the Immigration Office issues the residence permits for reasons of social protection, for six months. On the expiry of same, an updating of the relation, by the subjects in charge, is requested, which then proceeds to a renewal ex.art. 18 for another six months.
At the end of this time, upon request of the foreigner, subject to the presentation of the final positive third relation, on the part of the subject in charge, and except for other needs of a social-assistive nature, the Office proceeds to the conversion of the permit, from ‘reasons of social protection’ to ‘reasons of study or employment’ (with the following appropriate communication to the Provincial Direction of Employment).
This procedure has been found to be very positive, since it allows the establishment of relations of trust between the institutions and the user, as well as a monitoring and a really effective social assistance by the operators in charge, permitting a true integration of the foreigner into the society.
The foreign citizens ‘under social protection’ are received directly at the Immigration Office, with separate and reserved treatment until they obtain the residence permit for reasons of study or employment (ex art. 18, c.5. Unified Code) until such time as a real stabilization of same, in the fabric of society is established, to the point where he/she can provide, autonomously, for his/her needs, also at a bureaucratic level.
For the first permit for social protection, the following are the prerequisites:
- 4 photographs;
- In absence of the above: photocopy of passport or equally valid document or a Consular certification
- relation inherent in the assistance programme and social integration relative to the foreigner, conforms to the directives of the Inter-Ministerial Commission of Art. 25. according to that set out in Art. 27, c.2, lett.b. DPR. No. 394 of the 31.08.1999, mod. Of the DPR No.334 of the 18.10. 2004 and according to the modality of the Ministry of the Interior ccircular, No. 300.C/2000/334/P/12,2q14/181^ Div. Of the 22nd May, 2000;
- acceptance, by the foreigner, of the programme of social assistance and integration;
- Opinion of Judicial Authority, if it comes under the juridical case in point ex.art 18,c.l. of the Dlgs. No. 2286 of the 25.07.1998, mod. L.189/2002 and according to Art. 27, c.l, lett.b. of the DPR, No. 394 of the 31.08.1999, mod. of the DPR . No.334 of the 18.10.2004, or in reference to that which is set down in the Ministry of the Interior circular. No. 300.c/1999/13/P/12/214/18/1^ div. of the 25.10.1999;
- Any proposal from the social services of the local authorities or from the associations, authorities and other bodies registered in the Register, of which Art. 52, Para 1, lett. c), operating within the local authorities, according to Art. 18, c.l. of the Dlgs. No. 286 of the 25.07.1998, mod. L.189/2002,which have ascertained, in the course of assistive interventions, situations of violence or of serious exploitation with regard to a foreigner and concrete danger emerges for his/her safety, because of attempts to free him/herself from the conditions of an association which commits one of the crimes contemplated in the same Art. 18. of the Unified Code, or have revealed situations of violence or serious exploitation regarding the foreigner, as contemplated in Art. 27, c.l, lett.a of the DPR No. 394 of the 31.08.1999, mod. From the DPR, No. 334 of the 18.10.2004, according to the modality as set down in the Ministerial circulars;
- A form, correctly filled out by the foreigner, understanding warnings on the consequences provided by law in the case of interruption of the programme or of incompatible conduct with the finality of same, according to Art. 18, c.4. of the Legislative Decree No. 286 of the 25.07.1998, mod. L. 189/2002 and of Art. 27, Para 2, lett.c. of the DPR, No. 394 of the 31.08.1999, mod. of the DPR. No. 334, of the 18.10.2004;
- The taking and examination of fingerprints, if foreseen, according
to the modality of Art. 5 of the Legislative Decree No. 286 of the 25.07.1998, mod. L. 189/2002.
All the cases treated under Articles 18, have been opportunely filed and positioned in distinct folders, preserved in non-accessible premises, except to personnel expressly authorized by officials in charge, in the spirit, also, of what is recommended in Para 3 – ter of the Art.27 of the DPR 394/99, mod. DPR 334/2004 and to safeguard the need of privacy of the files.
From the day of receipt of the first request (on the same date, the taking and examination of fingerprints – if foreseen – is effected, according to the disposition of the Law in force) the issue of the permit, after verification of the normative requisites, takes place rapidly, in a maximum of fifteen days. The renewal of the residency permit, vice versa, takes place on the same day of the receipt of the request.
The conversion of the residency permit, takes place, naturally, after the requisites of the Law have been ascertained and the verification has been made that the foreign citizen has given proof of concrete participation in the programme of assistance and social integration and has not shown incompatible conduct with the finality of same.

Administrative activities of the Immigration Office relative to the institution of Art. 18 of the unified Code: 1.10.2004 - 1.11.2007