Contingent Infrastructures Between Italy and the Philippines: Intermediating Labour Mobility at the Fringes of Formal Recruitment Systems

The article examines the mobility of Filipinos to Italy through the lens of contingent infrastructures: loosely coordinated and improvised assemblages of actors and practices that enable migration in the absence of effective institutionalised transnational recruitment systems. Drawing on policy content analysis and 28 semi-structured interviews conducted between 2023 and 2025, the paper analyses how these infrastructures operate within the opportunities opened by Italy's quota-based labour migration system, both within and beyond the domestic work sector. The article argues that, despite the existence of highly formalised labour migration channels, mobility in this corridor largely depends on the bottom-up activation of a heterogeneous and loosely coordinated set of actors, including long-established migrants, Italian employers, and legaladministrative intermediaries operating across Italy and the Philippines. These actors collectively bridge institutional gaps created by weak coordination between the Italian and Philippine migration regimes and by the absence of effective institutionalised transnational recruitment mechanisms capable of matching labour supply and demand in a sector that operates largely through word of mouth. The findings show that contingent infrastructures are deeply ambivalent. On the one hand, they enable migrants to access mobility opportunities and navigate restrictive migration policies. On the other hand, dependence on brokerage, interpersonal ties, and the discretionary practices of for-profit intermediaries exposes migrants to uncertainty, high costs and potential exploitation.