Sushi-Eating Secondos and Casual Latins: Political Movements and the Emergence of a Latino Counter-culture among Second-Generation Italians in Switzerland

Abstract

Migrant youth develop different ways of dealing with their migrant background, some celebrate and reify their ethnicity, some distance themselves from people of the same background, and some situationally create new cultural repertoires and draw on multiple cultural frameworks. This paper describes two different ways in which second-generation Italians in Switzerland publicly celebrate their migrant background. Although they all grew up in similar socio-economic conditions, some have appropriated a discourse that celebrates cultural diversity as an integral part of Swiss society with the aim of increasing their political rights, while others publicly emphasise their Italianness and use Latino cultural categories to assert their ethnicity. Both groups employ a culturalist discourse, the former emphasising their belonging to Swiss society and culture, and the latter celebrating their difference. This paper discusses how these two kinds of identity politics are on the one hand related to the socio-economic and cultural context in which the second generation grew up, and, on the other, to the educational background and peer-group associations developed during young adulthood. By showing this plurality of social and cultural patterns of belonging among members of the second generation, the paper highlights the reflexive character of cultural practice and discourse.

Keywords:

• Ethnic Reification
• Politics of Recognition
• Second-Generation Italians

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the participants in this research; editors and referees of the Journal of Intercultural Studies for their comments; Steven Vertovec and Ellie Vasta for support and advice through the course of this project; Anne Juhasz for input and critical comments; the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Janggen-Poehn Stiftung, the Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft, the International Federation of Women Graduates, the University of Oxford Scatchered European fund, the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, and St Antony's College, University of Oxford, for funding support.

Notes

1. These numbers refer to those Italians who have not yet acquired citizenship. Between 1974 and 2005, a total of 70,000 first-generation Italian migrants acquired citizenship, along with 71,000 members of the second generation (Bundesamt für Migration, Statistikdienst, 2006). Presuming that they still live in Switzerland, there are currently approximately 441,000 people of Italian origin who do not have Swiss citizenship residing in the country. On the reason why some migrants of Italian origin have acquired citizenship and why others have not, see Bolzman, Fibbi and Vial.

2. However, while the vast majority of them have achieved a higher status than their working-class parents, only few achieved higher education (3 per cent of Italian descendants went to university, in contrast to a total of 11 per cent of the Swiss) (Juhasz and Mey). But research, which accounted for socio-economic background found that members of the second generation of Italian and Spanish backgrounds have been upwardly mobile to a higher degree than their Swiss peers of the same class background (Bolzman, Fibbi and Vial).

3. The term “Italianità” is used among both Swiss and Italians to express certain features associated with “Italianness” such as cordiality, openness, enjoying life, etc.

4. In various European countries, 1 May is a national, political holiday celebrating workers’ rights.

5. The term “secondo” was first used publicly in 1993, in the film “Babylon 2” by Samir.

6. The movement agitated for “facilitated access to citizenship” that would include the right to apply for citizenship between the ages of 14 and 24 for individuals who have permanent residency permits and who have been to school in Switzerland for at least five years. It includes reduced costs and a simplified naturalisation procedure requiring processing only at the regional level (www.auslaender.ch/einbuergerung/revision).

7. Conversation with Anne Juhasz, Swiss sociologist and secondo specialist.

8. By former Yugoslav, I refer to the nation-states which were formerly part of Yugoslavia.

9. House music is a form of electronic urban dance music characterised by a heavy 4/4 bass drum pattern, popularised in Chicago in the early 1980s.

10. There seems to be a “hierarchy of otherness” (Noble, Poynting and Tabar) among second-generation Italians in Switzerland: while second-generation Spaniards and Portuguese belong to their group, Turks and migrants from former Yugoslavia do not (Wimmer). However, this is changing today with an increasing number of children and adolescents of many different origins and more interaction between them.

11. For examples of Swiss-Italian style and fashion see: www.webdjsitalodisco.ch; www.gentediaare.ch; www.djlenoe.ch

12. See, for example: www.weekendance.ch