M Ambrosini
Biographic Data
| ID | 3284 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Ambrosini |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Ambrosini |
| SIGNATURE | AMBROSINI M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Milan |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1788-8686 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 68 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 554 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 68 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Alternatives to Return: An Ideal-Typical Categorization of State Responses to Non-Repatriated Irregular Migrants
While return occupies a central position in European migration policy discourse, it remains a loudly announced, weakly implemented, and strongly contested aspect of migration governance. The enduring “return gap,” the divergence between policy commitments and actual removals, underscores the limitations of a control-oriented framework. Drawing on a comparative study of 11 EU+ countries, the article develops an ideal-typical categorization of stat…
Quando l'amore non accetta confini. Coppie e famiglie miste nell'Italia multietnica
La formazione di coppie e famiglie miste è uno degli indicatori più eloquenti dello sviluppo di una società multietnica, in cui la sfera delle scelte personali più intime sfida le convenzioni sociali ancorate alle tradizioni omogamiche. Le coppie miste, tuttavia, soprattutto quando uno straniero si unisce con una donna del luogo, rimangono un fatto sociale atipico, spesso malvisto. L'articolo approfondisce il tema sulla base di una recente ricerc…
L'integrazione subalterna persiste: Sfide e tendenze del modello italiano di inclusione degli immigrati nel mercato del lavoro
In Italia e in altri paesi mediterranei, l'inserimento occupazionale degli immigrati presenta una dicotomia evidente, caratterizzata da un trade-off tra buone opportunità occupazionali e una qualità del lavoro mediamente scarsa. Nonostante il rischio di disoccupazione relativamente basso per i lavoratori stranieri, l'accesso a lavori qualificati o non manuali rimane un ostacolo significativo. Questo fenomeno coesiste con un persistente rifiuto po…
Language Abuse: The Politicization and Categorization of People on the Move Through Language and Narrative
Over the last three decades, the once-distinct terms ‘asylum’ and ‘immigration’ have become conceptually intertwined. This process is almost complete in Europe, where politicians, media, the public, and even academia often speak of these concepts interchangeably. Blurring these concepts has implications for migratory people: it removes legal rights borne by the state and diminishes the claims of humanitarian protection seekers within these moveme…
The populist far right paradox: The identification of the enemy and its exceptions in the immigration policies of the Meloni government in Italy
Opposition against refugees and migrants is a central topic of the populist far-right’s political agenda. In Italy, the populist far-right has come to lead the national government with the Meloni government. In this scenario, this article identifies what can be defined as the “populist far right paradox”: how to maintain the electoral commitment of rigid closure towards immigrants and refugees, in the presence of interests and pressures that inst…
Immigrant Solidarity Amid the Covid-19 Crisis in Italy: Forms of Help, Intergroup Solidarity, and Recognition
Italy was the first Western country to be severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Within it, immigrants have played an important role as essential workers and throughout solidarity initiatives. The present article is based on 64 in-depth interviews with immigrants who engaged in solidarity actions directed toward the immigrant population and the host society during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analytically, it emerged that through solidaristic init…
Immigrant Work and the Production of Italian Agrifood: The Variants of Subordinate Integration
Humanitarian Help and Refugees: De-Bordering Solidarity as a Contentious Issue
This article aims at discussing the involvement of "humanitarian" actors, stemming from civil society, in treatment of the issue of refugees' reception. It suggests the concept of "de-bordering solidarity," to express the political meaning of such mobilizations. With this term, it refers to various forms of support provided by activists and volunteers, through which these actors contest policies of asylum and borders in practice, even when they d…
Il concetto di economia morale nello studio delle migrazioni e delle politiche migratorie
Framing Asylum at the Local Level: Experts’ Narratives of Conflictual Dynamics in the Post-Reception Period in Italy
Studies on the framing of the refugee crisis have focused on media and political discourses, revealing contrasting views and an increasing politicization of immigration. However, the framing-of-asylum discourse in relation to the reception and settlement of asylum seekers in local communities has so far received less attention, especially when conflictual dynamics emerge. This article investigates the ways in which experts at different levels mak…
Covid-19 and (Im)migrant Carers in Italy: The Production of Carer Precarity
This article explores the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on foreign health workers in Italy. Focusing on caregivers in Lombardia, we explore what we call carer precarity, an emergent form of precarity resulting from pandemic restrictions exacerbating existing socio-legal vulnerabilities. The duality of the carer role-complete household and societal reliance in addition to simultaneous socio-legal marginalization-shapes their precarity. Utilizing…
Constrained to be (im)mobile? Refugees' and Asylum seekers' practices to integrate in restrictive socio-economic urban contexts in Northern Italy
This article comparatively examines forms of (im)mobility among refugees and asylum seekers (RAS) in coping with dispersal process, restrictive migration policies and local socio-economic characteristics in three cities of Northern Italy. Drawing on qualitative data, it sheds light on the everyday forms of (im)mobility of RAS to resist structural barriers limiting their opportunities to access jobs and welfare services. The Results show that peop…
Diasporas and Collective Remittances: From State-Driven to Unofficial Forms of Diaspora Engagement
This article advances understandings of collective remittances practices by elaborating on the case of the Armenian diaspora in the Netherlands. It argues that the collection, management, and distribution of collective remittances are crucial aspects of how diasporic immigrant groups function. Hence, collective remittances represent a lens through which to analyze a diaspora's internal life, gender differences and tensions, relations with the ori…
Migration, (il)legal status and housing precarity: Difficulties and coping strategies
Using evidence from participant observation and qualitative interviews with 54 sub-Saharan African (SSA) migrants—"economic migrants," refugees (people with any international protection status), (refused) asylum-seekers and irregular migrants—this article identifies the housing barriers and the resources individuals use to cope with housing difficulties in the mid-sized city of Bergamo, Italy. The analysis highlights that while legal status is si…
Moral economy and deservingness in immigration policies. The case of regularisations in Italy
This paper has two purposes. The first is theoretical: to revise use of the concept of moral economy in migration studies, and the related concept of deservingness. I will identify different versions and meanings, showing their significant contribution to the understanding of migration issues, but discussing their lack of consideration of a particular aspect: the conflict between competing moral economies. The second and related purpose will be t…
Irregular Migration: Imiscoe Short Reader
Introduzione. Quando la cittadinanza sale dal basso
Questa introduzione presenta la cornice teorica in cui si situano gli articoli di seguito selezionati per la pubblicazione. La cittadinanza sostanziale o vissuta è emersa nelle scienze sociali in contrappunto rispetto alla cittadinanza formale o legale. Così concepita, diventa l'oggetto di molteplici pratiche e rivendicazioni sviluppate da soggetti e gruppi marginali, segnatamente dagli immigrati, e anche dagli immigrati in condizione irregolare.…
Immigrant Volunteering: A Form of Citizenship from Below
Immigrant volunteering is a disputed topic. For some scholars, an important instrument for the social integration of immigrants, while others frame immigrant volunteerism as a regime of 'ethical citizenship' centred around the paradigms of 'civic integration' and 'deservingness'. Our research collected the experiences of hundreds of migrant volunteers in Italy (658 questionnaires plus 89 in-depth interviews) to address three research questions in…
De-Bordering Solidarity: Civil Society Actors Assisting Refused Asylum Seekers in Small Cities
This article elaborates on the activities developed by various actors from the civil society in favour of non-deported refused asylum seekers (NDRAS) through the lens of ‘de-bordering solidarity’. Drawing on qualitative data collected in two small Italian cities ruled by anti-immigrant coalitions, this study explores the rationales and outcomes of migrant supporters’ actions in providing help to NDRAS, thus deepening the action of pro-immigrant c…
Reimagining the homeland: Diasporic belonging among Turkish and Kurdish second generations in Italy
This paper analyzes the experiences of children of immigrants coming to Italy from Turkey. It does so by using in-depth interviews and looking at how they conceptualize their sense of belonging to their home country and the transnational ties that they maintain in relation to their parents’ experience. The participants in this research grew up in families whose intention was not to remain in Italy but to continue their journey to Germany. Like th…
Confini contesi: Chiusure Selettive E Iniziative Solidali
L'articolo si propone due obiettivi. In primo luogo intende approfondire il tema del ritorno dei confini, illustrandone l'articolazione a diversi livelli e il funzionamento selettivo, come effetto di un regime neo-liberale di governo della mobilità umana: un regime che incorpora disuguaglianze profonde nella distribuzione del diritto a muoversi attraverso i confini. Il caso dei respingimenti al confine con la Bosnia e la responsabilità dell'agenz…
Implicit' remittances in family relationships: The case of Bangladeshis in Italy and beyond
In this article - based on 100 in-depth interviews with divided and reunited Bangladeshi families in Italy, Bangladesh, and London - we discuss how remittances are influenced by gender relations within the family, what social meanings they assume, what family memberships they reinforce, how the intertwining between migration and family cycle affects them. By adopting an intersectional approach, we show how economic transfers are normally sent to …
Citizenship beyond the normative script: Young Immigrants' Volunteering as a Practice of 'Citizenship From Below
Immigrant volunteering is usually absent from the debate on the reconfiguration of citizenship ‘from below’. Indeed, it has been generally considered a conservative force, if anything, an instrument of fuller integration. Building on 25 interviews with young migrant volunteers, this paper aims to fill this gap. It shows that, even if immigrant volunteering may reinforce some conventional categorizations, it achieves the primary result of showing …
Actions speak louder than claims: Humanitarian Corridors, Civil Society and Asylum Policies
Resettlement of refugees in third countries has seen a growing intervention by various civil society actors in the last few years, starting from the Canadian experience. Also in Europe, these sponsorship schemes are developing, despite a general restriction of asylum policies. This paper will analyse a case of civil society's sponsorship, which has been developed in recent years by religious (Christian) institutions, first in Italy, then in other…
Interventi di Maurizio Ambrosini, Pietro Fantozzi, Enzo Pace, Francesco Ramella, Rocco Sciarrone, Lia Tirabeni, Mara Tognetti
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We are against a multi-ethnic society: Policies of exclusion at the urban level in Italy
Local policies for immigrants in recent years have attracted a growing interest among scholars. It is increasingly accepted that they are distinct units of analysis in the governance of migration, with significant degrees of autonomy with regard to national policies. Most of the literature, however, deals with the inclusive role of local policies. The argument of this article, on the contrary, is the development of local policies aimed to exclude…
Multilevel governance in trouble: The implementation of asylum seekers’ reception in Italy as a battleground
The reception of asylum seekers in Italy has become an increasingly contentious issue: many actors, public and private, are involved at various levels of government, and cooperative behaviour cannot be taken for granted. The multi-level governance approach sheds light on the possible patterns in vertical relations, while it does not effectively explore the horizontal relations, which are however crucial, especially at the local level. Moreover, w…
From "illegality" to Tolerance and Beyond: Irregular Immigration as a Selective and Dynamic Process
Immigration defined as "illegal" is a typical area where the dominant representations differ from social phenomena. Starting from this point, this article deals with two issues. The first is the selective treatment of irregular immigration by receiving societies. Diverse interests and social representations of irregular immigration tend to redefine it in different ways: formal authorization and social recognition should be distinguished, and they…
Urban Multiculturalism beyond the ‘Backlash: New Discourses and Different Practices in Immigrant Policies across European Cities
All across European receiving societies, the mainstream political discourse is displaying increasing disaffection with multiculturalism. It is primarily at the level of local policies, though, that the social inclusion of immigrants and the governance of ethno-cultural diversity are negotiated. Building on a comparative study of the urban ‘adaptations’ of multiculturalism in eight European cities, this article addresses three questions: (1) the c…
Moral economy and deservingness in immigration policies. The case of regularisations in Italy
This paper has two purposes. The first is theoretical: to revise use of the concept of moral economy in migration studies, and the related concept of deservingness. I will identify different versions and meanings, showing their significant contribution to the understanding of migration issues, but discussing their lack of consideration of a particular aspect: the conflict between competing moral economies. The second and related purpose will be t…
"The Urban Governance of Asylum as a "Battleground: Policies of Exclusion and Efforts of Inclusion in Italian Towns
The article argues that the governance of immigration, especially at local level, can be considered a "battleground" involving diverse actors. Beyond the idea of a "negotiated order" as the result of the interaction among actors (mainly institutional) in the multilevel governance framework, the management of asylum at a local level is the outcome of conflict and cooperation, of alternative views and political actions, of official policies and pra…
Into the Interstices: Everyday Practices of Refugees and Their Supporters in Europe’s Migration ‘Crisis’
This article investigates the interconnections between migration to Europe for asylum and the multiple ‘crises’ of the border regime that have occurred in recent decades. Drawing on 22 months of ethnographic research with refugees in Italy and Germany, the article highlights the tensions between migration policy and legislation at the structural level and the agency of refugees. The case study focuses on a protest staged by refugees in Berlin and…
Parenting from a distance and processes of family reunification: A research on the Italian case
A new trend has emerged over the recent years in the relationship between immigration and family structures, especially in Italy and Southern Europe: it is no longer just single men or women who emigrate first, but also mothers who leave their children at home. In relation to the departure of the mothers, the issue of so-called ‘transnational families’ has arisen. Transnational family relations and reunifications, the paths of men and women, the …
Introduction to the Special Issue: Implementing Human Rights: Civil Society and Migration Policies
Immigration issues have gained salience at political agendas of governments and in public discourse in most countries of the global North. Public attention for the presence of immigrants and their
Surviving underground: Irregular migrants, Italian families, invisible welfare
Ambrosini M. Surviving underground: irregular migrants, Italian families, invisible welfare The aim of this article, which focuses on the Italian case and its domestic and care sector, is to highlight two aspects. The first concerns the interaction among unauthorised migrants, the demand of their labour on the one hand and the other social actors they meet during their settling process on the other hand. The second concerns the nature of the irre…
The Role of Immigrants in the Italian Labour Market
In little more than a decade, Italy has become a country characterized by immigration from abroad. This pattern is far removed from what central‐northern European countries experienced during the 1950s and the 1960s. Immigration has not been explicitly demanded by employers, nor has it been ruled by agreements with the immigrants' countries of origin, nor perceived as necessary for the economic system. For all these reasons, immigration has been …
Local "Battlegrounds". Relocating Multi-Level and Multi-Actor Governance of Immigration
The multi-level governance (MLG) approach is widely used to understand the complex processes of immigration policymaking. In this literature review, we consider both (i) the vertical dimension of MLG: the local, regional, national, European, or even global level; and (ii) the horizontal dimension of MLG: the relations between public and non-public actors. While focusing on the local level, this review identifies a trend regarding, on the one hand…
NGOs and Health Services for Irregular Immigrants in Italy: When the Protection of Human Rights Challenges the Laws
Official policies toward irregular immigrants have hardened; but unauthorized sojourners nevertheless remain in their receiving countries. Their human rights must be in some way protected, and responses must be given to their social needs. Civil society organizations often provide these responses, in particular, by furnishing nonurgent medical care.The article presents the results of two case studies on NGOs based in Milan, which considered their…
Immigrant Volunteering: A Form of Citizenship from Below
Immigrant volunteering is a disputed topic. For some scholars, an important instrument for the social integration of immigrants, while others frame immigrant volunteerism as a regime of 'ethical citizenship' centred around the paradigms of 'civic integration' and 'deservingness'. Our research collected the experiences of hundreds of migrant volunteers in Italy (658 questionnaires plus 89 in-depth interviews) to address three research questions in…
Actions speak louder than claims: Humanitarian Corridors, Civil Society and Asylum Policies
Resettlement of refugees in third countries has seen a growing intervention by various civil society actors in the last few years, starting from the Canadian experience. Also in Europe, these sponsorship schemes are developing, despite a general restriction of asylum policies. This paper will analyse a case of civil society's sponsorship, which has been developed in recent years by religious (Christian) institutions, first in Italy, then in other…
Female Immigrant Entrepreneurs: More Than a Family Strategy
This article explores the issue of immigrant women entrepreneurship. It focuses on the emergence of new points of view on self‐employed migrant women and in particular their search for independence. With the support of qualitative research carried on in Italy, it will set out a typology of motivations and strategies to become self‐employed in which, besides a “family strategy” and an “independency strategy”, a “mixed network strategy” also emerge…
How religion shapes immigrants' integration: The case of Christian migrant churches in Italy
This article investigates the relationship between integration processes and religious participation through an analysis of migrant churches established in the city of Milan. While in Europe most public opinion and literature are focused on Islam, and religion is often viewed as an impediment and barrier to integration, this work wants instead to discuss the ways in which religion serves migrants' needs in the receiving society, acting as a socia…
Travailler dans l'ombre. Les immigrés dans l'économie informelle
Lavorare nell'ombra. Gli immigrati nell'economia informale. Maurizio Ambrosini. L'articolo analizza le ragioni e le forme deU'inserimento degli immigrati in vari settori dell'economia informale italiana, nel contesto délie trasformazioni delle economie occidentali che sospingono la riproduzione e la crescita di rapporti di lavoro irregolari. Partendo da una ricerca pilota condotta nell'area milanese, vengono identificate tre forme di lavoro irreg…
Humanitarian Help and Refugees: De-Bordering Solidarity as a Contentious Issue
This article aims at discussing the involvement of "humanitarian" actors, stemming from civil society, in treatment of the issue of refugees' reception. It suggests the concept of "de-bordering solidarity," to express the political meaning of such mobilizations. With this term, it refers to various forms of support provided by activists and volunteers, through which these actors contest policies of asylum and borders in practice, even when they d…
Irregular but tolerated: Unauthorized immigration, elderly care recipients, and invisible welfare
Immigrant female and also male workers are increasingly involved in the supply of care services in the countries of the Global North, and they are especially so in elderly care. In the countries of southern Europe, but to an increasing extent also in countries like Germany and Austria, the care work of immigrants is embedded in a specific care regime. It is undertaken mainly in the recipients' households, often around the clock, and on a live-in …
De-Bordering Solidarity: Civil Society Actors Assisting Refused Asylum Seekers in Small Cities
This article elaborates on the activities developed by various actors from the civil society in favour of non-deported refused asylum seekers (NDRAS) through the lens of ‘de-bordering solidarity’. Drawing on qualitative data collected in two small Italian cities ruled by anti-immigrant coalitions, this study explores the rationales and outcomes of migrant supporters’ actions in providing help to NDRAS, thus deepening the action of pro-immigrant c…
Implicit' remittances in family relationships: The case of Bangladeshis in Italy and beyond
In this article - based on 100 in-depth interviews with divided and reunited Bangladeshi families in Italy, Bangladesh, and London - we discuss how remittances are influenced by gender relations within the family, what social meanings they assume, what family memberships they reinforce, how the intertwining between migration and family cycle affects them. By adopting an intersectional approach, we show how economic transfers are normally sent to …
Migration and Transnational Commitment: Some Evidence from the Italian Case
The idea of the active role of migrants in supporting the socio-economic development of their homeland is the subject of growing interest in academic and institutional debates. This expectancy can be framed theoretically in the notion of transnationalism, where the migrant is seen as an actor placed simultaneously in two or more social fields: those of the societies of origin and of destination. This article discusses this view from the point of …
Diasporas and Collective Remittances: From State-Driven to Unofficial Forms of Diaspora Engagement
This article advances understandings of collective remittances practices by elaborating on the case of the Armenian diaspora in the Netherlands. It argues that the collection, management, and distribution of collective remittances are crucial aspects of how diasporic immigrant groups function. Hence, collective remittances represent a lens through which to analyze a diaspora's internal life, gender differences and tensions, relations with the ori…
Séparées et réunies: Familles Migrantes Et Liens Transnationaux
Cet article s’intéresse à la demande de main-d’œuvre féminine, en Italie et plus généralement en Europe méridionale, qui produit ce que l’on peut définir comme la « stratification internationale des opportunités de soins et d’assistance ». Il aborde la façon dont les mères séparées de leurs enfants à cause de l’émigration s’efforcent de continuer à exercer leurs devoirs maternels, malgré les frontières et les distances, mettant en évidence les di…
L'intégration invisible des immigrés
L'immigration étrangère a été encore peu étudiée en Italie sous l'angle de sa participation au marché du travail. Jusqu'à présent, seule a été médiatisée et répandue dans l'opinion publique l'image d'une population immigrée improductive, parasitaire et dangereuse, sans que soit évoqué son apport au niveau économique. Une grande partie d'entre elle est pourtant insérée sur le marché du travail, que ce soit au «noir» ou officiellement, dans certain…
Les immigrés réguliers en Italie: Liens ethniques et modes d'insertion dans le monde du travail
Los immigrantes regulares en Italia : vinculos étnicos y modos de inserción laboral MaurisioAMBROSINI La entrada de inmigrantes en el mercado laboral italiano no correspondió a una demanda formal de los empleadores ; tampoco fue organizada. Sin embargo algunas decenas de miles de inmigrantes lograron encontrar un empleo a pesar del nivel elevado del desempleo. El trabajo domestico, concentrado en las grandes metrópolis, y el empleo industrial en …
Travailler dans l'ombre. Les immigrés dans l'économie informelle
Lavorare nell'ombra. Gli immigrati nell'economia informale. Maurizio Ambrosini. L'articolo analizza le ragioni e le forme deU'inserimento degli immigrati in vari settori dell'economia informale italiana, nel contesto délie trasformazioni delle economie occidentali che sospingono la riproduzione e la crescita di rapporti di lavoro irregolari. Partendo da una ricerca pilota condotta nell'area milanese, vengono identificate tre forme di lavoro irreg…
The Role of Immigrants in the Italian Labour Market
In little more than a decade, Italy has become a country characterized by immigration from abroad. This pattern is far removed from what central‐northern European countries experienced during the 1950s and the 1960s. Immigration has not been explicitly demanded by employers, nor has it been ruled by agreements with the immigrants' countries of origin, nor perceived as necessary for the economic system. For all these reasons, immigration has been …
Entreprendre entre deux mondes: Le transnationalisme économique des migrants
Séparées et réunies: Familles Migrantes Et Liens Transnationaux
Cet article s’intéresse à la demande de main-d’œuvre féminine, en Italie et plus généralement en Europe méridionale, qui produit ce que l’on peut définir comme la « stratification internationale des opportunités de soins et d’assistance ». Il aborde la façon dont les mères séparées de leurs enfants à cause de l’émigration s’efforcent de continuer à exercer leurs devoirs maternels, malgré les frontières et les distances, mettant en évidence les di…
Migrants dans l'ombre. Causes, dynamiques, politiques de l'immigration irrégulière
L’article tente de répondre à trois questions : 1) Qu’est-ce que l’immigration irrégulière et comment la définit-on ? 2) Pourquoi persiste-t-elle, se reproduit-elle et se révèle-t-elle si difficile à éradiquer ? 3) Pourquoi les mesures de régularisation s’avèrent-elles à leur tour récurrentes et difficilement évitables ? Dans les vingt-sept pays de l’Union européenne, dans les dix dernières années, entre 5 et 6 millions de personnes ont été régul…
Irregular Immigration Control in Italy and Greece: Strong Fencing and Weak Gate-keeping serving the Labour Market
Italy and Greece have been often blamed by their fellow EU Member States for the excessive permeability of their borders, their inability to stop irregular migration, and their inefficient asylum systems. In addition the two countries have weak internal controls, especially as regards the sectors of the labour market where immigrants are usually employed e.g. agriculture, domestic work, tourism and catering. This article seeks to make sense of th…
Malgré la politique: L’insertion contrastée des immigrés dans le marché du travail italien
L’article présente un point de vue sur l’immigration étrangère en Italie : il essaye de montrer comme elle se trouve coincée entre une demande économique très dynamique pour environ vingt ans (5,3 millions de résidants étrangers fin 2010) et une politique qui, surtout à l’heure actuelle, voudrait en principe fermer les portes et arrêter la transformation multiethnique de la société. Mais la fermeture doit enfin composer avec les exigences et les …
Surviving underground: Irregular migrants, Italian families, invisible welfare
Ambrosini M. Surviving underground: irregular migrants, Italian families, invisible welfare The aim of this article, which focuses on the Italian case and its domestic and care sector, is to highlight two aspects. The first concerns the interaction among unauthorised migrants, the demand of their labour on the one hand and the other social actors they meet during their settling process on the other hand. The second concerns the nature of the irre…
Immigration in Italy: Between Economic Acceptance and Political Rejection
Les adolescents d’origine immigrée: Processus d’identification entre liens familiaux et société d’accueil
Migrants' entrepreneurship in transnational social fields: Research in the Italian context
The aim of the article is to analyse the development of transnational economic activities run by migrants in Northern Italy. It is based on qualitative empirical research conducted in the three most important cities in northern Italy: Milan, Genoa, and Turin. The article describes different kinds of transnational economic activity, identifying the subject of transnational transactions; the main clients (immigrant population or native population);…
Irregular Migration and Invisible Welfare
Focusing on care workers for the elderly, this book examines the paradoxical position of irregular migrants in European society, who are often labelled as 'illegal' residents but who in fact provide m
Fighting discrimination and exclusion: Civil society and immigration policies in Italy
Migration policies in recent years have turned to growing restrictions and tighter controls in most countries, not only at national level but often also at local level. But several actors from civil society have tried to counteract this trend, protesting, organizing advocacy actions, providing services and promoting networks. Italy is a case in point: from the beginning of the arrival of immigration flows in the ’80, the reception of the newcomer…
La valutazione delle riviste sociologiche: Riflessioni a valle di un serrato dibattito
The article examines the debate on the evaluation of Sociology Journals, which has in recent years become quite heated. It discusses the issues related to the use of bibliometric criteria: the relationship between circulation and quality; the transition from individual to collective; the objectivity of evaluation procedures; the reliability of the available bibliometric criteria. It concludes that bibliometric indicators can be useful instruments…
We are against a multi-ethnic society: Policies of exclusion at the urban level in Italy
Local policies for immigrants in recent years have attracted a growing interest among scholars. It is increasingly accepted that they are distinct units of analysis in the governance of migration, with significant degrees of autonomy with regard to national policies. Most of the literature, however, deals with the inclusive role of local policies. The argument of this article, on the contrary, is the development of local policies aimed to exclude…
Undocumented Migrants and Invisible Welfare: Survival Practices in the Domestic Environment
In Italy, as in other countries, a significant number of migrants are employed as domestic workers, baby-sitters or carers of elderly people in Italian families (Parreñas 2001). Many of them begin as irregular migrants, but they manage to accede to a regular status: Italy is the EU country that has granted the highest number of regularizations, through six amnesties in 22 years, and other forms of hidden regularization. As employers, the families…
Irregular but tolerated: Unauthorized immigration, elderly care recipients, and invisible welfare
Immigrant female and also male workers are increasingly involved in the supply of care services in the countries of the Global North, and they are especially so in elderly care. In the countries of southern Europe, but to an increasing extent also in countries like Germany and Austria, the care work of immigrants is embedded in a specific care regime. It is undertaken mainly in the recipients' households, often around the clock, and on a live-in …
Family Migration in Southern Europe: Integration Challenges and Transnational Dynamics: an introduction
Published online: 17 October 2014
Migration and Transnational Commitment: Some Evidence from the Italian Case
The idea of the active role of migrants in supporting the socio-economic development of their homeland is the subject of growing interest in academic and institutional debates. This expectancy can be framed theoretically in the notion of transnationalism, where the migrant is seen as an actor placed simultaneously in two or more social fields: those of the societies of origin and of destination. This article discusses this view from the point of …
Urban Multiculturalism beyond the ‘Backlash: New Discourses and Different Practices in Immigrant Policies across European Cities
All across European receiving societies, the mainstream political discourse is displaying increasing disaffection with multiculturalism. It is primarily at the level of local policies, though, that the social inclusion of immigrants and the governance of ethno-cultural diversity are negotiated. Building on a comparative study of the urban ‘adaptations’ of multiculturalism in eight European cities, this article addresses three questions: (1) the c…
Parenting from a distance and processes of family reunification: A research on the Italian case
A new trend has emerged over the recent years in the relationship between immigration and family structures, especially in Italy and Southern Europe: it is no longer just single men or women who emigrate first, but also mothers who leave their children at home. In relation to the departure of the mothers, the issue of so-called ‘transnational families’ has arisen. Transnational family relations and reunifications, the paths of men and women, the …
From "illegality" to Tolerance and Beyond: Irregular Immigration as a Selective and Dynamic Process
Immigration defined as "illegal" is a typical area where the dominant representations differ from social phenomena. Starting from this point, this article deals with two issues. The first is the selective treatment of irregular immigration by receiving societies. Diverse interests and social representations of irregular immigration tend to redefine it in different ways: formal authorization and social recognition should be distinguished, and they…
Introduction to the Special Issue: Implementing Human Rights: Civil Society and Migration Policies
Immigration issues have gained salience at political agendas of governments and in public discourse in most countries of the global North. Public attention for the presence of immigrants and their
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