Integrazione o ReImmigrazione

Article 8 ECHR, Complementary Protection, and ReImmigrationWhy the Italian Model Offers a European Path Between Human Rights and National Security

Written by

Fabio Loscerbo

in


In recent months, a relevant but often misunderstood debate has emerged within Europe. Italy and Denmark, supported by a broader group of European states, have publicly raised concerns about the way Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights is currently applied in deportation cases involving serious criminal conduct.

From the outset, it is essential to clarify what this initiative is—and what it is not. It does not amount to a formal amendment of the European Convention on Human Rights, nor does it represent a retreat from the protection of fundamental rights. Rather, it is a coordinated political signal addressed to the European human-rights system, and in particular to the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, calling for a reassessment of how the right to private and family life is balanced against public security.

At the core of the debate lies a structural problem. Over time, Article 8 ECHR has evolved from a safeguard against arbitrary state interference into a powerful legal obstacle to deportation. Family ties and social integration are increasingly treated as decisive elements, even when they coexist with serious and repeated criminal behavior. For many European governments, this evolution has produced a growing gap between formal sovereignty in immigration matters and the actual capacity to enforce removal decisions when public safety is at stake.

Italy and Denmark are not questioning the legitimacy of protecting family life. What they are questioning is the tendency to treat that protection as nearly absolute, detached from the individual’s conduct and from any concrete assessment of dangerousness. In this sense, the initiative should be read not as an attack on human rights, but as an attempt to restore proportionality and credibility to the system.

This is where the Italian experience becomes particularly relevant for a broader European—and international—audience. In Italy, the protection of fundamental rights linked to private and family life is largely channeled through a specific legal mechanism known as complementary protection. Unlike the automatic logic often associated with Article 8 at the supranational level, complementary protection operates through an individualized judicial assessment. Italian judges are required to examine whether removal would result in a serious violation of fundamental rights, but this analysis is inseparable from an evaluation of the individual’s behavior and of any concrete risk posed to society.

In other words, the existence of family ties does not neutralize the inquiry into dangerousness. Integration is not presumed merely because time has passed or relationships have been formed. It is assessed substantively, in light of respect for the legal order. This approach allows fundamental rights to be protected without transforming them into a blanket immunity against deportation.

From this perspective, the idea advanced by Italy and Denmark to delimit the scope of Article 8 ECHR appears legally sound. However, such a delimitation should not take the form of an abstract restriction of rights. A more coherent solution lies in relocating the protection of private and family life within structured national legal frameworks, where courts are equipped to balance rights and security in a transparent and accountable way. Complementary protection, as developed in the Italian legal system, offers precisely this kind of framework.

Rather than relying on ex post corrective intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, a harmonized European approach inspired by complementary protection would allow domestic judges to carry out the balancing exercise directly. This would preserve judicial oversight while restoring a meaningful margin of appreciation to states, especially in cases involving serious threats to public order.

This legal architecture naturally connects to the concept of ReImmigration. ReImmigration does not deny integration; it completes it. Integration is not an unconditional entitlement but a legal and social pact. When an individual repeatedly and seriously violates the fundamental rules of coexistence, that pact is broken. In such cases, the right to remain loses its substantive foundation.

ReImmigration affirms a principle that is often implicit but rarely stated openly: permanence on the territory is conditional upon respect for the legal order. Complementary protection becomes the proper space in which this condition is assessed, ensuring that protection remains available where it is justified, but does not shield conduct that undermines the security of the host society.

For an American audience, this European debate may resonate strongly. It reflects tensions familiar to U.S. immigration law, where due process, family unity, and national security often collide. The Italian model demonstrates that it is possible to protect fundamental rights without surrendering enforcement capacity, and to maintain judicial control without normalizing impunity.

Ultimately, the initiative launched by Italy and Denmark should not be seen as a rollback of human rights, but as an effort to realign rights with responsibility. By drawing on the Italian “laboratory” of complementary protection, Europe has the opportunity to reconcile human dignity, public safety, and the credibility of its legal order. That reconciliation is precisely what ReImmigration seeks to achieve.

Avv. Fabio Loscerbo
Lawyer – EU Transparency Register Lobbyist
ID 280782895721-36

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