Immigration in Italy differs significantly from the experience of countries with a longer history of immigration, such as Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. Until recently, rigorous analyses of the settlement process of immigrants in Italy were very difficult due to the lack of adequate data. Over the last decade, socio-economic surveys have documented the existence of strong and pervasive inequalities in the life chances of native and foreign populations. The availability of new data sources now makes it possible to explore some key areas in depth and integrate existing analyses on socio-economic and socio-cultural processes.

The PRIN project – Immigration, integration, settlement. Italian-Style (Projects of Significant National Interest – PRIN: 2017N9LCSC_003), coordinated by Giuseppe Sciortino (University of Trento), brings together experts on migration and immigrant integration from various scientific and disciplinary fields and aims to provide a broad and systematic analysis of the immigrant settlement process in Italian society.

The IRPPS-CNR Research Unit’s main objective is to deepen the analysis of international and internal migration trajectories of immigrants, their effect on stabilization processes, circulatory mobility, and mobility/immobility following arrival in Italy, taking into account the different stages of the life cycle and the contextual changes that have occurred in recent years. To this end, activities have focused on several lines of inquiry, also considering that the long Italian economic crisis, the arrival of refugees, and, in recent months, the Covid-19 pandemic require a comprehensive redefinition of the interpretive frameworks of migration in our country.

In brief, the themes addressed by the activities of the IRPPS-CNR Research Unit are:

– Migration and citizenship pathways in Italy over the last decade, through the linking of census information, traditional statistics, and administrative archives to achieve a quantitative redefinition of inbound and outbound migration flows (in collaboration with Istat and the University of Naples Federico II);
– Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration pathways;
– Regularization and migration dynamics (in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II);
– Integration trajectories and modes of entry: differences and similarities through the analysis of the Istat Survey ‘Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens’, 2011-2012;
– Changes and stability of migration projects during immigration to Italy, through data from the Istat Survey ‘Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens’, 2011-2012 (in collaboration with the University of Milan Bicocca);
– Foreign communities between segregation and dispersion, with particular regard to the metropolitan areas of Rome and Milan (in collaboration with Istat, the University of Milan Bicocca, and the University of Naples Federico II);
– Integration trajectories of immigrants in the labor market based on arrival cohort;
– The role of language proficiency in integration processes (in collaboration with the University of Naples Federico II).