We shall today deepen one of the many negative consequences of the rules for the enforcement of Bossi-Fini law. We shall talk about the need of proving that houses, flats, apartments are suitable to law. Suitability depends on the number of people that housing can accomodate and this depends on the parameters provided for by regional laws. These conditions must be respected to have permits issued and renewed. Some police headquarters also believe that housing must be suitable also to renew all indefinite leaves to remain and this is not stated in any law, Indefinite leaves to remain should in fact be revoked only in case of specific crimes.
Housing suitability is becoming a great problem in work permits renewals and in changing employment.
One of the most paradoxical consequences is that migrant citizens risk to lose their residence papers – or housing benefits – just because a new child is born (in Italy!).
What happens in case of newborn children?
Familiar units increase and therefore more people live in the house. From a strictly juridical point of view newborns are counted like a person and they increase the number of the house’s inhabitants. Lodgings need to again be evaluated to verify whether they respect regional laws or not.
Example – Mother, father and two children live in flat that can accomodate four people. According to some police headquarters if a new child is born, the flat is not suitable anymore and – theoretically speaking – the father or the mother (or both) should be fired because they live in a flat that is too small.
This is a problem many are facing, it implies difficulties in permits’ renewal, in newborns’ insertion into stable permits and in being recognised housing benefits.
A recent communication offers us an eloquent synthesis of the situation. The communication was sent to the Council and to policeheadquarters in Bologna and it refers of the problem of permits’ renewal in case of migrant citizens that live in public lodgings. The communication is signed by CGIL Bologna and by Sunia. The communication underlines the problems people meet when they have new children and the live in public lodgings. Flats become too small, police headquarters deny the renewal of permits and they risk to lose the same lodgings.
We need to consider that magistrates have never sentenced on the matter so far and as a consequence there is no interpretative orientation. All dispositions, up to the enforcement of Bossi-Fini law, used to consider familiar units in case of family rejoining. Nothing has ever happened when children were born in Italy.
The link between work contract and housing suitability has huge consequences in labour. Risks are faced at all permits’ renewals.
This is the situation Cgil signalled, many regular workers that live in public lodgings are facing eviction because they had a new baby.
These are the consequences of the application of the rules for the enforcement of Bossi-fini law, which extends the link between residence contract and housing suitability. But this link is still to be discussed.
Immigration Act (in spite of Bossi-fini law changes) provides for that housing suitability is mandatory only when citizens come to Italy from abroad, whereas the rules for the enforcement of the law extended this disposition to all the ones that live and are born in Italy. This goes far beyond the need of enforcing Immigration Act’s rules.
Well the rules for the enforcement of the law have no such right to action.
We hope that a Court’s sentence is soon to be issued against police headquarters’ interpretations. In case this does not happen, consequences will be disastrous.