Abstract

Within the context of the «migration crisis», refugee integration has become a challenge which this article looks at deeply in relation to the process of refugee settlement in small, southern Italian communities. Our aim is to open a debate over the apparent dilemma between welfare and refugee integration by focusing upon a «frontline social work» that produces a type of «bottom-up welfare» in which local social actors and institutions «negotiate» the benefits of citizenship. The focal point is a study of daily social interaction between refugees and the local population considering the adjustments that this situation entails and the tensions that it produces between old and new residents' access to social rights and benefits. Through empirical analysis, we highlight the connection among re-construction of borders, citizenship and social innovation.