The progressive population ageing observed in Western countries determines a growing need for long-term care for older people. At the same time, migrants and refugees often have integration difficulties in regards to the hosting country society and labour market, with one reason being the lack of EU recognition of the educational degrees obtained in their native country. Creating educational opportunities in elderly care for migrants may facilitate their social inclusion, increase their employability, and constitute a response to the growing labor demand. The HERO project moved in this direction by planning, designing, and carrying out an original training curriculum targeted to migrants and refugees from African and Middle Eastern countries, piloted in four Mediterranean countries (Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Portugal). The impact of the training on migrants and refugees’ quality of life was assessed through the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire, while social inclusion was assessed through semistructured interviews and participant observation carried out during the internship in elderly care facilities. Eighty-two migrants (70.7 percent women) were involved in the study. The results showed that despite the fact that the training did not have an impact on the trainees’ quality of life, it was associated with social inclusion. Four ideal types of migrant learners were drawn: “ex-professional trainees,” “fall-back trainees,” “care-oriented trainees,” and “nonprofessional care workers,” based on which as many possible educational pathways were drawn to optimise the trainees’ learning process. The study results shaped the formulation of suggestions on migrants’ education in elderly care.

The increase in older people with long-term care needs and the shortfall in the formal elderly healthcare workforce are questioning the healthcare system sustainability in Italy. Migrants have been employed for many years in the informal care sector as live-in carers often experience unfair working conditions. Appropriate training can help migrants and refugees enter the formal care sector, improve their quality of life, and bring new workforce into the hospital wards and nursing homes. This study is aimed at understanding practices and difficulties of educational and elderly healthcare organisations in training and employing migrants and refugees in Italy, and the latter’s educational needs. An online survey, carried out in Spring 2021, reached 17 care facilities managers, 13 educational organisations and five migrants/refugees, who answered three different questionnaires with close and open-ended questions. Quantitative data were analysed statistically and qualitative data by means of the content analysis. Findings showed the need for training specifically designed for migrants and refugees, focusing on language, healthcare terminology and culture of the host country, and on care provider organisations working culture, mission, and vision. Suggestions for boosting migrant and refugees’ elderly care education are given to policy makers, elderly care facilities and training organisations.

O artigo adota a Teória dos Sistemas Sociais do sociólogo N. Luhmann e fornece um enquadra-mento dos conceitos de “corrupção sistêmica” e “violência sistêmica”, analisando como os fenômenos que eles descrevem afetam os subsistemas do direito e da política. A análise dos eventos de “Tangentopoli”(Itália), conectados à investigação criminal “Mani Pulite”, tenta identificar concretamente as repercussõesno âmbito dos direitos humanos e dos conflitos entre mídia, opinião pública, poderes judiciário e político.Através de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental e do método hipotético-dedutivo, a corrupção é entendidanão somente como crime, mas como fenômeno social abrangente, que envolve a sociedade como um todobem como os cidadãos, entendidos como individuos que no dia dia são chamados para escolhas e açoes responsáveis. Precisamente por esta referência aos níveis individual e interpessoal da vida social, as consi-derações feitas também podem se aplicar a contextos diferentes do aqui analisado (Itália).

O artigo analisa a pandemia da Covid-19 na Itália a partir dos conceitos de emergência e exceção, tomados enquanto categorias (com suas formas e características identificáveis) através das quais é possível observar a realidade, com uma postura crítica em face de eventos e acontecimentos concretos. As reflexões do filosofo italiano Giorgio Agamben sobre a pandemia da Covid-19 na Itália são utilizadas como mote para refletir sobre o papel que os poderes interpretam na tentativa de gerenciar o caos pandêmico. O estudo encontra-se focado no gerenciamento da crise na Itália. Primeiramente, porque Agamben fundamenta as suas reflexões nas ações e decisões do governo italiano frente à pandemia; em segundo lugar, porque se trata de um exemplo concreto de exercício de medidas extremas, aparentemente mais adequadas para um estado de exceção que de emergência, que, na maioria dos casos, sequer foram aprovadas pelo Parlamento. Na primeira seção, o texto investiga os conceitos de emergência e exceção e suas relações com a soberania; na sequência, o estudo volta-se para as ações do governo italiano desde o começo do alarme sanitário relacionado à Covid-19, com uma atenção específica à compressão de liberdades e direitos; finalmente, serão analisadas as críticas de Agamben e, sobretudo, como elas poderiam estimular uma reflexão de cunho sociológico (com atenção específica nos aspectos jurídico-políticos) sobre o difícil equilíbrio entre a proteção dos interesses individuais, a salvaguarda da saúde coletiva e as condições que possibilitam tanto a participação social quanto a ação e o desenvolvimento pessoal dos indivíduos como um todo – não somente enquanto consumidores, atores sociais ou pacientes, mas como seres de “carne e sangue”, frágeis, sensíveis, com uma especificidade intrínseca que se reflete no seus pensamentos e sentimentos.

Today claims relating to health are so common that distinguishing between rights and interests is harder and harder: definitions of health as the one provided by the World Health Organization legitimise the expectation of a continuous improvement in standards of care, access to treatment and measures of prevention. Moreover, with COVID-19 pandemic, health seems to gain the status of a supreme and unquestionable value. Here the hypotheses of a “Healthization of Law” is presented: it indicates both a kind of supremacy of Law on other spheres of society when health (public or individual) is at stake, and also the fact the Law is strongly conditioned by the emergence of health as the highest value to which all spheres of society must orient themselves. Then analysing the relationship between the structural conditions of world society and the semantics of health it is urgent than ever, in order to understand which kind of expectations and claims pandemic legitimised, and how the semantics of health (and wellbeing) describes social structure and its changes.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected an already critical state of the Italian National Healthcare System and of the Welfare State in general. The aim of this work is to describe how the challenge imposed by pandemic has been faced, and the possible directions that social and health policies could take in the country, also in light of the adoption of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Through the analysis of the deep-rooted contradictions in public policies and of the areas where the intervention is more urgent, the work underlines the structural factors which are leading to a progressive shift in the vision of health, from a perspective centred on the role of the State and the protection of the public interest, to one where the role of the private sector and the idea of individual interest are ever stronger, with a consequent change in the balance between economics, legal and political systems. La pandemia de COVID-19 afectó a un estado ya crítico del Sistema Nacional de Salud italiano y del Estado del Bienestar en general. El objetivo de este trabajo es describir cómo se ha afrontado el reto de la pandemia, y las posibles direcciones que podrían tomar las políticas sociales y sanitarias del país, también a la luz de la adopción del Plan Nacional de Recuperación y Resiliencia (NRRP, por sus siglas en italiano). A través del análisis de las arraigadas contradicciones en las políticas públicas y de las áreas en las que la intervención es más urgente, el trabajo subraya los factores estructurales que están conduciendo a un progresivo cambio en la visión de la salud, desde una perspectiva centrada en el en el papel del Estado y la protección del interés público, a otra en la que el sector privado y la idea del interés individual son cada vez más fuertes, con el consiguiente cambio en el equilibrio entre los sistemas políticos.