Residence registration to cope with homelessness: evidence from a qualitative research study in Milan

“…Pasqualini and Bazzani ( 2021 ), similar to the study by Cheong and Baltazar ( 2021 ) of foreign labor migrants in Sabah, Malaysia, find that foreign nationals in Milan face additional challenges in accessing residence registration. They specifically highlight that when an individual is not recorded in the residence population registry, access to basic social and health services is severely reduced.…”

“…The category “health and care” was applied to code publications about the impact of the pandemic on urban health and care more broadly, and “well‐being” was added as a subcode in seven of the relevant publications. When referring to the physical and mental well‐being of a city’s inhabitants, “quality of life” was as also added as the in‐vivo subcode, but the coders did not compare definitions of terms used in the articles, and coded the papers using other topics present in the texts, such as housing and home and lifestyle changes (Pasqualini & Bazzani, 2021; Preece et al, 2023). The data in Table 2 show those topics most frequently addressed in the papers, most of which are cross‐thematic and/or deal with specific, narrow issues.…”

“…Such studies analysed resilience in terms of existing resources, both social (ties, organisations) and material (infrastructure, including especially the presence and availability of green spaces), Resilience seemed to affect the ways in which urban residents did or might cope with everyday difficulties and an extraordinary situation in the form of the pandemic. Three publications focused on housing problems experienced by vulnerable groups: immigrants, the elderly, and welfare recipients and the homeless; two dealt with the situation in Milan (Pasqualini & Bazzani, 2021; Ranzini, 2021); and one dealt with the crisis situation in Göttingen (Alyanak, 2020).…”

“…Lastly, a recent study of Pasqualini and Bazzani (2021) link homelessness and civil registration, and conclude the residence registration plays a critical role for homeless persons in Milan (Italy) to exercise their rights and access the services they need to escape homelessness. The authors mainly focus on individual barriers to residence registration (such as fear, mistrust and social stigma), rather than addressing structural dynamics.…”