The research analyses educational trajectories and post-school aspirations in the field of education and labour market of immigrant families with children attending the last year of upper secondary school in Italy and particularly in Turin, in 2011. The theoretical framework I adopt intends to avoid both conceptions of immigrants’ careers as completely delimited by ethnic discriminations and ad hoc explanations. I have therefore focused my attention on agency, family and contextual determinants of educational choices and social mobility expectations. The institutional context has been defined using quantitative and qualitative secondary data. Then I have realised 91 semi-structured qualitative interviews addressed to teachers, educators, migrant students and to some of their parents coming from different geographical areas, sampled from six secondary schools, characterised by dissimilar curricula and percentage of immigrant students. Immigrants tend to prefer vocational tracks at the end of lower secondary school not only because of children's school performances and economic resources. Other reasons are: family’s migration project, effects of norm on immigration, status imbalance (downward homologation of parents’ previous qualifications). The lack of knowledge of Italian educational system gives a greater importance to teachers’ orientations or immigrants social networks. Higher education is seen by migrant families as one possible route to reach middle class status in transnational social stratification. Nevertheless, expected timing of transitions to adulthood (earlier than natives) and deterioration in household finances during the economic crisis reduce the propensity to attend university.
Education and social integration of immigrant students in Italy: family choices and expectations at the end of secondary school
SANTERO, ARIANNA
2013-01-01
Abstract
The research analyses educational trajectories and post-school aspirations in the field of education and labour market of immigrant families with children attending the last year of upper secondary school in Italy and particularly in Turin, in 2011. The theoretical framework I adopt intends to avoid both conceptions of immigrants’ careers as completely delimited by ethnic discriminations and ad hoc explanations. I have therefore focused my attention on agency, family and contextual determinants of educational choices and social mobility expectations. The institutional context has been defined using quantitative and qualitative secondary data. Then I have realised 91 semi-structured qualitative interviews addressed to teachers, educators, migrant students and to some of their parents coming from different geographical areas, sampled from six secondary schools, characterised by dissimilar curricula and percentage of immigrant students. Immigrants tend to prefer vocational tracks at the end of lower secondary school not only because of children's school performances and economic resources. Other reasons are: family’s migration project, effects of norm on immigration, status imbalance (downward homologation of parents’ previous qualifications). The lack of knowledge of Italian educational system gives a greater importance to teachers’ orientations or immigrants social networks. Higher education is seen by migrant families as one possible route to reach middle class status in transnational social stratification. Nevertheless, expected timing of transitions to adulthood (earlier than natives) and deterioration in household finances during the economic crisis reduce the propensity to attend university.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
