The young foreign generations and their families. A comparative analysis between a “new” and an “old” immigration country

Giuseppe Gabrielli, Università di Bari
Anna Paterno, Università di Bari

The rapid growth of the international migrations during the past decades has enlarged the attention of scholars and policy makers from migrants to their families. The characteristics and the formation processes of the immigrants’ families and of the “second generations” – native youth or adolescents migrated at very young ages - are deeply connected to the migratory “history” of the host countries. In particular, we focus on two very different pictures: the U.S.A. have for long time attracted immigrant flows; meanwhile Italy has progressively changed its role from traditional emigration country to receiving country of immigrants. Based on these considerations, the topic of this study is to analyse the main familiar characteristics of young foreign generations in the two considered countries. Trough the study of the familiar contexts, we aim to understand the behaviour models of reference. The data used are the NELS survey (National Education Longitudinal Study) in USA and the ITAGEN2 survey (Second Generations in Italy) in Italy. We will pay particular attention on the two different contexts together with the existing disparities between the two surveys. The analysis will be conducted using the most suitable techniques to describe and interpret the quantitative data (e.g. multivariate models) and including in the elaborations migratory history of interviewers and of their families (origin country, place of birth, stay-period in the host country, and so on). Variables about demographic characteristics of migrants and their families will be analysed according to the ethnic groups, migratory strategies and models, and the length of stay in the host country. Socio-economic variables will be included in the models (educational attainment, job attendance of parents, living conditions, and so on) to understand the future behaviour of young foreign generations and their insertion and social position in the host society.