Segmented assimilation in Italy? The case of Latinos

Abstract

The article presents results on the educational performance and social, cultural and psychological adaptation of children of immigrants from a quantitative survey conducted during the 2005/6 school year in schools with high percentages of immigrant students in Lombardy, a region of northern Italy. The sample consisted of 17,225 preadolescents (11–14 years old) divided among 13,301 Italians, 1,003 sons and daughters of mixed parentage and 2,921 of foreign parents. Data were collected by a questionnaire translated and adapted from the one used by Portes and Rumbaut in the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS) of 1992 in the United States. They are used to present the Italian situation in light of segmented assimilation theory. The main similarity between California and Florida and Lombardy is the under-achievement of Latinos. Given this finding, an effort is made to consider various factors that contribute to shaping the socio-existential circumstances of this specific group.

Keywords:

• Integration
• migration
• segmented assimilation
• social capital
• Latinos

Notes

A conflictual study tradition prevails in Europe, which was initiated by Georg Simmel and continued with the British cultural studies of Stuart Hall, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, and Raimond Williams. In addition, it should be noted that during recent years the international debate on multiculturalism has centred mainly on the crisis of interethnic co-existence (Alibhai-Brown 2000; Galeotti 1999; Melotti 2007; Spreafico 2006).

See of the national contract stipulated on 16 February 2010 at http://www.istruzione.it/alfresco/d/d/workspace/SpacesStore/a87438ac-7ddd-44eb-aa19-05175975775c/CCNI_A.S._2010-2011.pdf (from page 78). For details in the school personnel downsizing in Lombardy see: http://www.istruzione.lombardia.it/decrlo42_10/

The index of economic wellbeing was constructed by combining the following variables recoded as follows: the occupation, where stated, of both parents; the place where the family lived; the self-perceived socio-economic status of the family; some objects owned; the duration of holidays in the previous summer.

This index measured the density of the kinship network of the interviewees' families and was constructed by combining the following variables suitably recoded: presence or absence of the mother; the presence or absence of a father; degree of closeness to grandparents; degree of proximity to uncles and aunts; help requested by the family in case of need.

This index measures the degree of intensity of the relations within the household between parents and children and between siblings, as described by Coleman (1961). It is constructed by combining the following variables: presence or absence of the mother; presence or absence of the father; help received with homework.

The CILS (Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study) data show that the ethnic group with the greatest degree of family stability is the Filippino group, followed by the groups of Asian origin, while single-parent families are most frequent in the groups of Caribbean origin.

The index of sociality (ISOC) measured the density of the relations that the respondents maintained with peers in and outside school in relation to the importance they attach to classmates, to the fact that they frequent or not Italian and foreign friends and with what frequency; the number of hours per day devoted to watching television; the frequency with which they play team sports and the time involved.

The index of propensity to integration (IPINT) measured the degree of integration, that is the propensity to assimilate, of foreign pupils on the basis of their self-perception as to whether or not they felt Italian; their knowledge of the Italian language, which, if high, enabled greater communication with the context outside the family, in particular with the peer group, friendship relations; and the time the respondents spent with their peers.