Lessons learned from the facts on the ground and political demands for future agency

Since the first “emergency migration” event in Italy (1990s), social work represented the interface and the filter between the Italian reception system and migrants, acting for initial assessment, orientation and “sorting" of migrants into the various local and national welfare agencies and in the network of public and private services within the reception system (Simone, 2020). Consequently, in addition to the more operational competences, social workers need to be supported by training, in-service training and supervision, in order to acquire, along with updated methods and knowledge, full awareness of the dictates of their deontological code; in accordance with this, there should be an affirmation of their role as agents of social justice, something that is often lost in the difficult working conditions and emergencies of the daily routine of receiving migrants (Kohli, 2006).