Italy is recalibrating its migration strategy through a dual track: expanding legal work visas to offset a shrinking workforce while tightening maritime deterrence along the central Mediterranean. Offshore asylum centres in Albania aim to separate arrival from entry rights, though EU divisions and Libya’s fragmented politics strain coordination. If courts uphold the model, it could redefine Europe’s southern frontier; if not, Italy risks renewed arrival surges, humanitarian strain, and deepened fractures in EU solidarity on migration policy