Reception or Exclusion? Mass accommodations for asylum seekers as segregation devices

The increase in the number of migrants and asylum seekers headed to Europe in recent years has put a strain on the capacity and organization of the EU reception system, invalidating the guarantee of adequate standards of living granted by the right of asylum. The peak in asylum applications in Europe reached in 2015 worsened the already existing problems and exacerbated the political and social debate on reception; the absence of a unified political vision has led to a problem-solving approach in which European asylum seeker reception focuses more on provision of services than on the well-being and the effective possibility of integration of asylum seekers. In practice, the lack of stringent guidelines has left the specifics of asylum-seeker accommodations largely to national governments, whose policies often reflect explicit strategies of exclusion. Paradoxically, 'Reception' or 'Accommodation' Centers end up belonging, in both form and function, to the same category as Expulsion Centers: controversial spaces designed to seclude and control. This article attempts, following a concise analysis of European legislation and the structures it produces, a conceptualization of collective centers for asylum seekers as a contemporary manifestation of the camp-form.