Chinese immigrant youth identities and belonging in Prato, Italy: exploring the intersections between migration and youth studies

Abstract

This article explores the experiences of young people of Chinese background in Prato (Italy). Despite significant social exclusion, young Chinese develop a sense of belonging to Prato by creating local, translocal and transnational affiliations and interconnections. These relationships contribute to making an often overtly hostile local reality, liveable and meaningful. A central aim of this article is to examine the intersection between migration studies and youth studies. The former tend to focus on the processes of identity formation featuring ethnic background, hence the label ‘second generation’. In contrast, the latter tend to foreground age- and generation-specific practices of belonging that may extend beyond ethnic identification, hence the focus on ‘youth’. We argue that bringing migration and youth studies together – by complicating notions of home and host, migrant and local identity and belonging – helps us to better understand how young people are managing multiplicity and mobility (and situatedness and stasis/fixity).