Luisa Leonini

Different But Not Stranger: Everyday Collective Identifications among Adolescent Children of Immigrants in Italy

This article deals with the problem of the future of the second generation in Italy. After a brief overview of the main perspectives currently adopted to theorise the future of the second and subsequent generations, the Italian situation is introduced. Our objective is to see whether and how the observations made especially in contexts with a long tradition of immigration, where migration processes are now culturally and institutionally embedded, can be useful to understand the Italian situation, characterised by recent immigration flows. The empirical basis to the paper is a set of interviews and focus groups with 105 young people of migrant origin in Milan. Analysis of their narratives reveals six self-identifications which we describe as ethnic enclave, mimicry, crisis, transnational, hyphenated and cosmopolitan.

A generational attitude : young adults facing the economic crisis in Milan

Abstract For almost 10 years there has been talk of the economic crisis affecting the European area, with more evident effects in the Mediterranean countries. Yet the expression ‘economic crisis’ has become too wide and blurred to be useful for describing how the current socio-economic conjuncture is affecting different categories of young people in different ways. Precariousness and reduced job opportunities, with their consequences for social mobility, constitute only the more explicit and raw evidence of the lived experience of the crisis among young people. Although families remain the all-solving institution, the consequences of the crisis are diversified according to the economic, cultural and social capital of each individual, to gender and generation position, and to subjective and contextualized perceptions. This article presents research conducted to investigate how young people living in the urban area of Milan locate, react, readapt and reinvent themselves in the present economic context by analysing their aspirations, expectations and practices. We develop a comparative analysis of the main structural bias (gender, education, social class position) in order to shed light on the effects and perceptions of the crisis among young people in the city of Milan.

Nuovi italiani. Forme di identificazione tra i figli di immigrati inseriti nella scuola superiore

New Italians. Forms of identification emerging from students with migrants origins in Italian higher schools - This article discusses the future of the second and third generations in Italy by developing a generational perspective. Through the adoption of a constructionist theoretical approach, informed by works on globalization and the new social movements, it tries to advance beyond the limits of theories and observations at time of fordism, based on concepts of either assimilation or integration. The paper presents an on-going research on students of foreign origins who attend high schools in Milan. By doing so, it focuses on the specificity of the Italian situation and it highlights new and innovative forms of identification, as they are changing alongside current ideas of belonging, membership, citizenship and difference. Hence, the actual experience of the second and third generations, and their new forms of identification, emerge as a useful starting point to understand some peculiarities of the contemporary world. Keywords: Second Generation, Social Movements, Social Integration, Immigration in Italy, Education.

Introduzione. Giovani e crisi in Italia tra precarietà e incertezza

L’articolo mostra la complessita dell’attuale crisi economico-finanziaria e suggerisce l’utilita di una prospettiva intersezionale per cogliere la variabilita dei suoi effetti nella vita dei giovani italiani. Particolare attenzione e data alla posizione di generazione e alle conseguenze del particolare intreccio di genere, capitale culturale e background etnico. Analizzando la condizione dei giovani dentro la crisi, risulta infatti evidente che le tradizionali dimensioni ‘strutturali’ (come genere, classe, background etnico, capitale culturale e sociale, la diversa collocazione territoriale, ecc.), seppure ancora centrali nel determinare gli effetti della crisi nei percorsi individuali, non si rivelano pienamente utili se considerate in modo isolato. E il loro specifico intreccio che produce distinte configurazioni di opportunita e vincoli in cui si manifesta concretamente la capacita di azione individuale e collettiva.

Veränderung der räumlichen Konfiguration von Migrantenfamilien : Narrationen von Kindern nach der Zusammenführung mit ihren Müttern in Italien

Zusammenfassung: Der Aufsatz untersucht die Erfahrungen von Trennung und Wiedervereinigung von Kindern und gewanderten Müttern in Italien anhand der Analyse von 32 qualitativen Interviews, durchgeführt mit Heranwachsenden, die zu unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten ihres Lebens wieder mit ihren Müttern vereint wurden. Wir zeigen, dass internationale Migration die Ursache ist, dass Kinder mehrfach Veränderungen in der Zusammensetzung ihrer familiären Bindungen ausgesetzt sind, die aus der räumlichen Trennung und Wiedervereinigung resultieren, von der diese Bindungen abhängig sind. Die Art, in der Kinder diese Wechsel interpretieren und sich ihnen anpassen, hängt von Faktoren wie dem Zeitpunkt des familiären Wanderungsprozesses und der Häufi gkeit transnationaler Familienpraktiken ab, die von den mehr oder weniger abrupten Unterbrechungen des Familienlebens nach der Abreise der Mutter und des Kindes beeinfl usst werden.