Beyond the Category of Formal Professionals: Exploring Infra-Political Intermediaries in Asylum Determination Procedures in Italy

In Italy, the migration and asylum management devices marked out the administrative and legal trajectories of asylum seekers. The status quo led to contested situations, where various actors, both formal and non-formal, challenge the denial of legal protection. The discretion of these actors raises questions about how access to legal administrative procedures is influenced by the production, circulation and retention of information and resources by and among the ‘citizens’ and the ‘non-citizens’. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with Sub-Saharan refugees in Venice and its peripheries between 2020/2021 we have inquired how asylum seekers reverse initial denial of their eligibility to legal protection. By examining testimonies of established refugees, interpreters, case officers and pro-migration activists, we gain insight into the diverse actors involved and strategies employed to overcome the denial of eligibility. Our proposal focuses on how information infrastructure about existing opportunity to challenge denial is weaved among individuals and expands into wider networks. This examination highlights the emergence of a particular figure: infra-political intermediaries assisting protection seekers to reverse denial of their eligibility to protection. We underscore ways "non-citizens" and "citizens" are constituted within infra-political dynamics as they navigate legal categories, provisions and regulations related to asylum determination procedures on a daily basis. Henceforth, we illuminate the social processes through which asylum seekers are transformed from being “counterfeit” to “trustworthy” protection seekers. Implications suggest stretching the analytical category of administrative intermediaries beyond professionals to include infra-political intermediaries who rely on unconventional resources and practices in the asylum determination process.