When Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni use the word "immigration," they're not talking about the same thing. It would be a mistake to regard the two far-right leaders as interpreters of the same discourse. For the Italian prime minister, immigration is an external matter of human geography that needs to be controlled, its regulations offering foreign policy opportunities.
By contrast, when the term is used by the leaders of the Rassemblement National (RN, far-right), it evokes something totally different. It is no longer a quantifiable phenomenon. Instead, it conjures up an anxiety-inducing imaginary world that refers less to real flows than to internal identity-related tensions and uneasiness, the product of the long colonial and migratory history that has shaped contemporary French society.
It's about something else entirely. In this confused but effective discourse, the RN's notion of immigration serves to cement a set of national anxieties, linking Islamist terrorism, suburban riots, social fraud, crime and, since October 7, 2023, anti-Semitism, to the figure of an imaginary migrant. The RN's discourse targets, in fact, citizens belonging to minorities, particularly Muslims.
In Italy, this subtext is absent from Meloni's speech. The immigration theme is not used to mask a discussion of an internal reality, which she leaves to her League allies and the more right-wing bangs of the political spectrum. It refers to an external phenomenon.
Tool for diplomatic action
In Meloni's speeches, the migrant is presented as a "desperate" victim whose "right not to emigrate" has been violated as a result of failed economic development attributed to the predatory policies of external powers. In this context, France is particularly targeted. The migrant is also first and foremost a victim of "human traffickers," who must be fought using Italy's expertise in anti-mafia operations.
As a result, Rome's migration policy has become a tool for diplomatic action. Since the start of her mandate, Meloni has laid the foundations for a narrative promoting renewed cooperation with African states. After organizing an Italy-Africa summit in Rome in January, she emphasized a narrative in which Italy advocates an "equal to equal" approach, laying the foundations for cooperation on migration issues with countries of origin and transit.
This policy has led to agreements with Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, linking financial aid to more effective control of migratory flows, at the cost of human rights violations in the southern Mediterranean. As a result, the number of irregular arrivals by sea has fallen considerably, with 41,181 people registered at the end of August 2024, compared with 113,877 over the same period in 2023.
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