(Im)migration research in Italy. A European comparative perspective

The article analyses research on (im)migration in Italy since the early 1980s until the present as compared to research in other European receiving countries. An historical approach is adopted in order to make sense of the processes of knowledge formation in terms of topics, methods and theories. In the early 1990s, the thesis of Italian exceptionality was developed in a context that did not encourage any comparative effort: throughout the 1980s, research on migration in Europe was characterised by the coexistence of different national traditions which could hardly communicate with each other. Yet, throughout the 1990s, some trends towards convergence can be identified, thanks to a number of theoretical and methodological challenges arising especially from North American research. Whereas for sociology, much of the debate focuses on such notions as social networks and transnationalism, in political science, along with the neo-institutional research path centred on national citizenship models, a new attention for policy-making processes emerged in the late 1990s. However, despite this growing towards convergence and the consolidating Italian research infrastructure, priorities in the agenda often reveal a greater concern with the internal debate (see for instance the relatively high level of attention for irregular migration and deviant networks), than with the development of a truly comparative approach to the study of the phenomenon. Second-generations and immigrants’ civil (and political) participation represent crucial challenges for the theoretical and methodological advancement of Italian migration studies, especially as far as the issue of integration is concerned.