https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370816640138 European Journal of Criminology 2017, Vol. 14(1) 46–62 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1477370816640138 journals.sagepub.com/home/euc Managing illegality at the internal border: Governing through ‘differential inclusion’ in Italy Giulia Fabini Department of Legal Studies, Law School, University of Bologna, Italy Abstract This article interrogates whether a crimmigration frame could be used to assess immigration control in Italy. It argues that even if crimmigration laws are similar across European countries, the outcomes of European border control depend on the local context. It looks at the interaction between police, judges, and migrants at the internal borders in Bologna, Italy. The article is based on quantitative data (analysis of case files on pre-removal detention in Bologna’s detention centre) and qualitative data (one-to-one in-depth interviews with migrants and justices of the peace, and participant observation). The case study focuses on ‘differential inclusion’ of undocumented migrants informally allowed to remain in the Italian territory. Police manage illegality rather than enforcing removals, using selective non-enforcement of immigration laws as effectively as enforcement itself. The article’s main hypothesis is that, at the local level, the production of borders works as a provisional admission policy to include undocumented migrants, though in a subordinated position. Keywords Undocumented migrant, internal borders, police, differential inclusion, Italy This paper examines how border control operates in the policing of undocumented migrants in Italy. Much criminological research assumes that border control follows the logic of exclusion and focuses on the mechanisms through which undocumented migrants are removed (see, among others, Cheliotis, 2013; Ugelvik and Ugelvik, 2013). In the Italian case, border control results in the far more frequent circumstance whereby undoc- umented migrants are informally allowed to remain, despite the lack of official Corresponding author: Giulia Fabini, University of Bologna, Via Zamboni 33, Bologna, 40126, Italy. Email: giulia.fabini@unibo.it 640138EUC 0 0 10.1177/1477370816640138European Journal of CriminologyFabini research-article 2017 Article