Migration flows and fear: rediscovering the principle of equality

This article examines the concept of equality considering how it is important to re-discover its meaning in order to overcome people’s concern (and fear) about migrants. The aim is to clarify how likeness and unlikeness are formulated, constructed, and then applied to concrete cases within a legal system, despite stereotypical perspectives. Analyzing Kelsen’s formalistic understanding of law, and bearing in mind Ehlrich’s standpoint, this contribution will observe how uncodified rules might condition behaviors at the individual and institutional levels. A formalistic approach to law might explain how a legal system works ‘from within’, i.e., according to formal procedures of normsgeneration and norms-application, nonetheless it is not able to do so ‘from the outside’. The law might encompass a number of traditional behaviors, thus regulating them in formalistic terms, but this does not mean that law is able to embrace the essence of society since society evolves over the time, and custom changes accordingly. Thus, it will be argued that the legal culture of a given system does not represent ‘the perspective’, but it is merely perceived as an instrumental device to resolve possible society’s conflicts. Migrants flows can challenge our States’ ability to address diversity preventing societal fear. Only if the importance of equality is rediscovered and implemented massmigration will not constitute a problem in this globalized world, and migrants will be perceived as a resource not as a problem. In other terms, rediscovering equality and enhancing its meaning can lead to the creation of a global society where there is no need to “integrate” individuals because diversity would no longer be an issue