Migrants In Italy Research Articles

Environment: Protection of Environmental Migrants in Italy in Light of the Latest Jurisprudential Developments

Environment: Protection of Environmental Migrants in Italy in Light of the Latest Jurisprudential Developments

The Mediating Role of Binding Moral Foundations and Perceived Realistic and Symbolic Threats on the Relationship between Need for Cognitive Closure and Prejudice against Migrants

In this study we explore how endorsing binding moral foundations and the perception of realistic and symbolic threat mediate the relationship between need for cognitive closure (NCC) and prejudice against migrants in Italy. We hypothesized that individuals with a high NCC are more prone to endorse binding moral foundations and also to perceive high realistic and symbolic threats and, consequently, they are more prejudiced against migrants. Data were collected through a questionnaire (N = 351). Results explain the relationship between need for cognitive closure and prejudice against migrants through a complex sequence of mediation effects of binding moral foundations and perceived threats.

Culture portability from origin to destination country: The gender division of domestic work among migrants in Italy

Culture portability from origin to destination country: The gender division of domestic work among migrants in Italy

From the migration crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, (im)possible regularization of migrants in Italy and Spain.

The reception of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in camps has become a common phenomenon in Europe, discursively linked to the historical 'crisis' of mass movements towards the region. Camps and irregularity are two key issues in understanding the special impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on migrants and refugees. This article explores connections between the 'campization' of migrant and refugee reception and the current debates for and against migrant regularization in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Southern Europe (Spain and Italy). The analysis uses qualitative methodology based on multi-site ethnographic fieldwork (pre-COVID-19 pandemic); informal remote interviews with migrants and refugees; and analysis of political, media and legislative discourses.

Who Wants to Become Italian? A Study of Interest in Naturalisation among Foreign Migrants in Italy

Since the early 1990s, Italy, along with other countries situated at Europe’s periphery, has become an attractive destination for migrants due to its lax regulation of migration and its job market. Despite its restrictive naturalisation laws, an increasing number of migrants are becoming eligible for Italian citizenship, which has led to a growing number of naturalisations in recent years. Existing research exploring naturalisation and its determinants has found migrants’ ability to attain citizenship strongly depends on their interest in becoming a member of the host state, requirements (as defined by the host country), and their capacity to overcome various constraints such as the costs involved in the naturalisation process. However, few empirical studies have focused on immigrants’ interest in naturalisation. To fill this gap, we analyse migrants’ interest in naturalisation and how it correlates to their eligibility. This paper relies on the most recent data on interest in naturalisation from the 2018 and 2019 waves of the Regional Observatory for Integration and Multiethnicity of Lombardy (Italy). The results show that not all migrants are interested in naturalisation after assessing its perceived costs and benefits, thus confirming an instrumental approach to citizenship. Interest is mostly related to the legislation and conditions in the country of origin. Moreover, the relationship between eligibility and interest is highly dependent on civil stratification, and eligibility is not directly associated with interest.

“Exit Italy”? social and spatial (im)mobilities as conditions of protracted displacement

ABSTRACT This article examines how the experience of protracted displacement interacts with mobility desires and practices of a diverse population of asylum-seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants in Italy. Drawing from ethnographic data collected in different Italian localities and among different nationalities, we focus on participants’ translocal connections, both as ways ‘out of limbo’ and as factors in protracted legal and socio-economic precariousness. We propose an interpretation of complex spatial mobilities to understand under what conditions spatial mobility translates into an improvement in the living conditions of migrants, producing upward socio-economic mobility, and under what conditions spatial mobility perpetuates marginality and isolation. Although translocal connections provide space for action, migrants risk being trapped in a loop of movements between different countries and different localities within Italy, without the possibility to achieve legal protection in any of these.

Body-Size Perception among First-Generation Chinese Migrants in Italy.

Body-size perception is an important factor in motivating people to lose weight. Study aim was to explore the perception of body image among first-generation Chinese migrants living in Italy. A sample of 1258 Chinese first-generation immigrants and of 285 native Italians living in Prato, Italy, underwent blood pressure measurements, blood tests (with measurement of glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides), and anthropometric measurements. Body-size perception was investigated with Pulvers’ figure rating scale using logistic or linear multivariable regression adjusted for age, gender, BMI, education and years spent in Italy. Chinese migrants had lower BMI and discrepancy score (preferred minus current body size) than Italians (p < 0.05 for both). After a logistic regression analysis, the discrepancy score remained lower in the Chinese than in the Italian cohort independently from BMI and other confounders (OR 0.68; 95%CI 0.50 to 0.92). In the Chinese cohort, female gender, BMI and years spent in Italy were positive determinants of discrepancy score (desire to be thinner), while age showed negative impact (p < 0.05 for all). Overweight is an important risk factor for diabetes, a very prevalent condition among first-generation Chinese migrants. The present study offers useful information and suggests the need for prevention programs specifically addressed to men.

The Utilisation of Preventive Health Services among Migrants in Italy

Access to and utilization of preventive health services are diversely distributed among immigrants. This paper aims to test the impact of structural, socio-economic, cultural, and contextual factors, and to test whether the acculturation theory holds true for migrants in Italy. Based on the “Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens” survey (2011–2012), this paper shows that utilization of preventive health services among immigrants depends on structural characteristics and highlights the relevance of social interactions between foreigners and natives. Finally, the paper concludes that the acculturation model holds true for immigrants in Italy.

Epidemiological Characteristics of COVID-19 Cases in Non-Italian Nationals in Sicily: Identifying Vulnerable Groups in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sicily, Italy.

As in other parts of the world, undocumented migrants in Italy suffer worse health status due to their immigration enforcement situation and other vulnerabilities such as precarious illegal jobs, exploitation and abuse or barriers to higher education, with higher prevalence of chronic noncommunicable diseases. The COVID-19 pandemic, as other pandemics, has not affected everyone equally. The undocumented was one of the most affected groups with regard to hospitalization rates and mortality worldwide. Sicily is one of the gates of entrance to Europe for migrants and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia. Herein, we described the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 cases in Sicily to compare hospitalization rate and mortality between Italian nationals and foreigners. We extracted data from the integrated national surveillance system established by the Italian National Institute of Health (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, ISS) to collect information on all COVID-19 cases and deaths in Sicily. We found that the hospitalization rates were higher in undocumented foreigners, and they were most likely to present a more severe clinical outcome compared to Italian nationals. Inclusive public health policies should take this population group into consideration to achieve the Health for All goal.

Skewed Sex Ratios at Birth in Italian Migrant Populations: Evidence from a Longitudinal Register 1999-2017.

Many studies in different settings have suggested that migrants from countries with skewed sex ratios at birth tend to adjust the sex of their offspring to ensure the birth of at least one male child. Enlarging the scope of existing research, the present study explores the phenomenon by studying the sex ratio at birth and sex selection at birth among migrants in Italy, focussing on birth order and the sex of the previous child. We perform a descriptive analysis of SRB by birth order (first, second and third), sex of the previous children, inter-birth interval and citizenship of the child. We analyse data from the Longitudinal register on reproductive histories from 1999 to 2017 (ISTAT). Results show significantly higher values of SRB for third births among Indian and Chinese communities when the first and second births are girls. A skewed SRB is also present among Indian babies born after a female firstborn. A more detailed analysis of SRBs for immigrants from China and India, by the sex of the previous children and inter-birth interval between second and third birth, did not indicate significant changes in SRB when the inter-birth interval is longer. Our study provides evidence for policymaking. However, further research is needed to address the causes of sex selection among immigrant communities. Efforts to alter gender norms and reduce son preference within communities are required to tackle gender discrimination against second-generation girls.

A comparative study on the incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus between children of North African migrants and Italian children in Emilia-Romagna region, Italy.

Evaluate the incidence of type 1 diabetes in North African vs Italian children aged 0-14years from 1 January 2015, to 31st December 2018, in Emilia-Romagna region, Italy. Clinical and epidemiological data about childhood onset type 1 diabetes in Emilia Romagna region were retrospectively collected by the regional centers of pediatric diabetology and matched using 3 different data sources. 365 new cases were diagnosed. Total cumulative incidence was 15.4/100,000/year. North African cases showed a cumulative incidence of 53.8/100,000/year, statistically significant compared to cumulative incidence of the Italian cases alone 13.1/100,000/year (p value < 0.001). The annual incidence did not differ in the 4years for both groups. Conclusion: The incidence of type 1 diabetes in the pediatric age (0 14 years) was significantly higher in the North African population than in the Italian one, suggesting that a mix of genetic and environmental factors may have caused the increase in newly diagnosed cases. • The incidence of type 1 diabetes largely varies worldwide. • Study on immigrants helped to better understand the interplay role between genetics and environment. • This is the first study focused on the incidence of children and adolescents of North African migrants in Italy. • The incidence of children and adolescents of North African migrants in Emilia Romagna region, Italy, seems to be higher than that reported in the host countries, and, above all, than that reported in highest-incidence countries in Europe and in the world.

Transnational Cross-Border Family Ties: Diasporic Lives of Bangladeshis in Italy and Beyond

The scope of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how Bangladeshi migrants in Italy maintain transnational family attachments, across multiple destinations, with the home country as well as with several host countries. The data comes from fieldwork in Northeast Italy. Research methods include in-depth interviews and participant observation. The findings reveal that a high proportion of Bangladeshi migrants maintain a variety of transnational and diasporic ties with their family and friends living in the country of origin and different European countries. These include family obligations, remittances, establishing businesses back home, visits and communication. They also preserve their national identity in this host society by maintaining cultural ways of belonging and through religious practices and involvement in Bangladeshi politics. The findings have also shown that Italian Bangladeshi families work to foster transnational family ties among the new generations born in Italy, who have little knowledge of their ancestral country. On a final note, this paper argues that transnational connections with the homeland play an important role in shaping the diasporic lives of Bangladeshis in Italy.

Loneliness Among Migrants in Italy: Risks and Protectors

In this study we focused on migrants’ loneliness, in order to unpack risks for, and protective factors against, loneliness among migrants in Italy. Our data come from the ‘Social Condition and Integration among Foreign Citizens’ survey conducted by ISTAT during 2011–2012 on a sample of 25,000 individuals living in a household with at least one foreign-born member. Our results show that economic resources and employment protect from loneliness feelings, whereas education does not. Family and social embeddedness and satisfaction with life are protective factors, whereas discrimination, language barriers, deprived neighbourhoods and poor health are associated with a higher risk of loneliness. Gender is a key lens to consider when analysing loneliness especially in relation to fragile populations like those with a migratory background.

Following ties and traces of migration

The Albanian town of Gjirokastër is located 30 kilometers from the Greek border. While this proximity has inevitably contributed to directing migration flows to Greece, the focus of this article is to understand the characteristics of migration from Gjirokastër to Italy – the second destination for Albanian migrants after Greece. Findings will show how, despite its marginality, migration from Gjirokastër to Italy plays a significant role in remaking the symbolic boundaries within the social space under consideration. Based on a short period of ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in the summer of 2015, this research follows the ties and traces of migration from Gjirokastër to Italy through an experimental analysis of the town’s visual landscape and soundscape and that of the narratives which emerged from photo-elicitation sessions and face-to-face interviews with individuals related to Albanian migrants in Italy. Thanks to the analysis of both these public and private spheres, the article specifically proposes an understanding of the migration phenomenon which focuses on its transformative role within the place of origin, its categories and its hierarchies.In particular, we will see how migration to Italy may become a way to transform the status of Muslim Albanians vis-à-vis Orthodox Albanians in Gjirokastër through religious conversion to Catholicism, as well as as through the opportunities provided by learning the Italian language. In fact, both language learning and religious conversion – either before or after migration – seem to act as tools for social mobility on an individual basis. This concerns not only migrants, but also their kin and, more extensively, the local population of Gjirokastër through infrastructures (church, honorary consulate, school, etc.) indirectly linked with migration to Italy.

Housing precarity

This paper puts forward the relevance of the concept of precarity in the investigation of the housing conditions of migrants. With this aim, the article presents an inductive journey, anchored in the analysis of the roots of migrant housing problems in Italy. Specific attention is paid to the connection of causal factors internal to the housing system (e.g. the shortcomings of the public housing system, the marginality of the private rental market, and the spread of illegal renting) with the functioning of public institutions, demonstrating that the housing precarity of migrants in Italy is institutionally constructed, maintained and shaped. Subsequently, the reflection lands on the notion of precarity; use of said term – which is usually confined to the analysis of the labor market − is extended to the field of housing. Four main epistemological dimensions of the concept of precarity are identified and explored: i) the centrality of the political and institutional creation of precarity; ii) the intersection of personal attributes and structural forces, of local and global causes; iii) the understanding of sectoral problems as part and parcel of an ontological condition of risk and uncertainty; iv) the indication of precarity as a potential point of departure for collective political agency, in particular among the disparate groups which − despite being marginalized by neoliberal exploitation − are not represented by traditional working-class organizations. The paper concludes with a note on migrant housing in pandemic times.

I am not a virus! From model minority to public enemy, the racialisation of the Chinese community in Italy through food

Covid-19 has shed light on the Sino-Italian communities, usually perceived as a "minority model", based on their being considered as integrated, hard-working and silent. The media narratives about the relation between the spreading of the virus and the consumption of food framed as "disgusting" have neutralised the color-blindness usually applied to Asian migrants in Italy. The latent racism has been reinforced by a process of distinction focused on the disgust for an "abject" food. The reframing of the Sino-Italians as folk devils through the spread of gastro-panic has yet triggered processes of subjectivation, pushing them to make their voices heard on a public level. By the standpoint of 12 "Asian" restaurant owners in the city of Genoa, we explore the frame in which such dynamics have unfolded.

Childhood memories of belonging among young Romanian migrants in Italy: A qualitative life-course approach

This article uses a life-course approach to investigate how and why migrants’ feelings of belonging change between childhood and young adulthood. Drawing on 24 in-depth retrospective interviews with young Romanian migrants who moved to Italy as children, the paper shows how young migrants’ belonging is shaped by the nature of social relations and by the level of acceptance or exclusion expressed by others in the receiving and origin countries, under specific institutional and socioeconomic contexts. Overall, the study demonstrates how life-course methodologies are an essential tool to capture the dynamic, changing nature of belonging.

Access to Healthcare for Migrant Patients in Europe: Healthcare Discrimination and Translation Services.

Background: Discrimination based on ethnicity and the lack of translation services in healthcare have been identified as main barriers to healthcare access. However, the actual experiences of migrant patients in Europe are rarely present in the literature. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess healthcare discrimination as perceived by migrants themselves and the availability of translation services in the healthcare systems of Europe. Methods: A total of 1407 migrants in 10 European Union countries (consortium members of the Mig-HealthCare project) were surveyed concerning healthcare discrimination, access to healthcare services, and need of translation services using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Migrants in three countries were excluded from the analysis, due to small sample size, and the new sample consisted of N = 1294 migrants. Descriptive statistics and multivariable regression analyses were conducted to investigate the risk factors on perceived healthcare discrimination for migrants and refugees in the EU. Results: Mean age was 32 (±11) years and 816 (63.26%) participants were males. The majority came from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, and Iran. Older migrants reported better treatment experience. Migrants in Italy (0.191; 95% CI [0.029, 0.352]) and Austria (0.167; 95% CI [0.012, 0.323]) scored higher in the Discrimination Scale to Medical Settings (DMS) compared with Spain. Additionally, migrants with better mental health scored lower in the DMS scale (0.994; 95% CI [0.993, 0.996]), while those with no legal permission in Greece tended to perceive more healthcare discrimination compared with migrants with some kind of permission (1.384; 95% CI [1.189, 1.611]), as opposed to Austria (0.763; 95% CI [0.632, 0.922]). Female migrants had higher odds of needing healthcare assistance but not being able to access them compared with males (1.613; 95% CI [1.183, 2.199]). Finally, migrants with chronic problems had the highest odds of needing and not having access to healthcare services compared with migrants who had other health problems (3.292; 95% CI [1.585, 6.837]). Conclusions: Development of culturally sensitive and linguistically diverse healthcare services should be one of the main aims of relevant health policies and strategies at the European level in order to respond to the unmet needs of the migrant population.

Assoggettamento da juju? Decostruire le categorie della dipendenza tra le giovani migranti dalla Nigeria

L’articolo si propone di discutere il ruolo della dimensione magico-religiosa nell’asservimento e nello sfruttamento sessuale delle migranti nigeriane in Italia e la risonanza che tale dimensione ha nel discorso pubblico. A partire dal mio coinvolgimento come perito in un processo a carico di una donna accusata di tratta e di messa in schiavitù, l’articolo vuole fornire una prospettiva africanista per approfondire alcuni punti che caratterizzano la migrazione delle donne nigeriane. Dialogando con l’ampia letteratura sul tema specifico e con gli studi sulle discipline umanitarie, sulle politiche dei confini e dell’accoglienza, l’articolo si sviluppa attorno a due questioni principali. Innanzitutto, vuole ricostruire il quadro all’interno del quale le credenze e le pratiche, comunemente dette juju, si sono consolidate; quindi cerca di analizzare in prospettiva storica, con riferimento alla storia atlantica e coloniale, la correlazione tra dipendenza e debito. L’obiettivo dell’articolo è restituire ai migranti la dignità di un possibile agire politico all’interno di un discorso storico e mostrare come il dispositivo juju in Italia contribuisca a rafforzare le discriminazioni di genere, la sofferenza individuale e la produzione di discorsi razzisti.

Labour market profiles of Albanian migrants in Italy: Evidence from Lombardy 2001–2015

AbstractAlbanian migration to Italy represents one of the most intense and iconic East‐West migration flows of recent decades and a paradigmatic case of intra‐Mediterranean migration. This paper uses a unique data set collected by the Lombardy region’s Observatory of Integration and Multiethnicity in 15 annual cross‐sectional surveys over the period 2001–2015. Analysis of this data set enables us to address three questions: first, what are the main factors influencing the labour market performance of Albanian migrants in Lombardy compared with other migrants? Second, what were the differential effects of the post‐2008 economic crisis on migrants’ employment stability? Third, were there any significant gender differences in labour market profiles and outcomes? Our main finding is that Albanian migrants have a lower probability of (long‐term)unemployment and irregular employment and higher probability of employment compared with other migrants, an effect that is partially attributable to the different structural composition of the Albanian migrant group.