Ideal Family Size and Fertility in Egypt: An Overview of Recent Trends

Egypt is already the most populous Arab country in the world with 93 million citizens in 2016 which may grow to about 120 million by 2030 if the same level of fertility continues. This paper aims to offer an overview of the evolution over time of the ideal number of children in Egypt, assessing previous researches and giving a particular emphasis on most recent data on such topic. In a context of raising fertility, whose causes are still unknown, we test the persistence of a high ideal number of children among younger cohorts

Demographic Challenges in the Mediterranean

The demographic challenges of the Mediterranean are not well known. Indeed, major societal changes are taking place in the region: young people’s expectations, women’s desire for greater autonomy, male-female and intergenerational relations, and the forms and size of families. These transformations have consequences on Mediterranean demographics: progress in women’s education, decline in fertility indicators, reduction in intergenerational cohabitation, rural exodus, and an increase in single-parenthood and single households. Several risks may arise from this new demographic landscape: political instability, social movements, pressures on the labour market or the depopulation of territories. At the same time, the changing demographic panorama of the region may lead to socio-economic and societal opportunities: the silver economy, improvement in the health of the population, progress in education and the demographic dividend

Minori stranieri non accompagnati a Roma, particolarmente dall’Egitto

Il presente contributo di ricerca si basa sui dati e sulle evidenze empiriche emerse da due ricerche realizzate dalle autrici tra il 2014 e il 2015 nell’ambito di due diversi consorzi di ricerca. Per riuscire a tratteggiare in modo completo le esperienze vissute, le traiettorie migratorie e le dinamiche di accoglienza dei minori, entrambe le ricerche si sono avvalse di metodologie di analisi sia tipo quantitativo che qualitativo. Interviste qualitative semi-strutturate sono state somministrate ai minori stranieri non accompagnati (MSNA) e ai testimoni privilegiati provenienti dal contesto istituzionale e dal terzo settore romano. Le interviste ai minori sono state svolte facendo ricorso a un mediatore culturale necessario per interagire in lingua madre con gli intervistati. Questa figura ha rappresentato allo stesso tempo una risorsa e un limite: una risorsa, perché ha favorito l’avvicinarsi e l’interazione con persone e mondi altrimenti difficilmente accessibili; un limite perché al contempo ha rappresentato un filtro. La raccolta delle interviste è stata integrata con materiale di riflessione e di discussione sia accademica che divulgativa, attinente al significato dell’essere oggi MSNA in Italia e a Roma

The Perceptions of Migration During the Pandemic: What Twitter Data Tell Us?

This paper aims to analyse sentiments and emotions about migration in Italy using Twitter, by comparing the period of COVID-19 pandemic with the previous year. We take Italy as a case study because it has been severely affected by the COVID-19, it is one of the largest recipients of immigrants in Europe and, is among the few countries that implemented an amnesty for irregular migrant workers during the pandemic. We apply a text mining and sentiment analysis to the tweets with hashtags and keywords related to the migration and to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that tweets related to migration express a sense of emergency and also invasion. No major changes occurred in the period of the pandemic in comparison with the previous period. Indeed, both negative and positive sentiments are present in the tweets in both periods, confirming a certain polarization in the public discourse about migration

What is the Relationship Between the Perceived Quality of Neighbourhood and the Self-reported Life Satisfaction in Immigrants Versus Natives in Europe?

Subjective well-being (SWB) is emerging as an important measure of individual and societal progress. Among the many individual factors associated with SWB, the quality of the neighbourhood is recently receiving growing attention as a factor shaping self-reported life satisfaction in contemporary societies. However, to the best of our knowledge, studies focusing on the perceived quality of the neighbourhood are still scant. We aim to fill this gap, comparing self-reported life satisfaction of different population groups (i.e., immigrants and natives) living in European countries, and to analyse the association between self-reported life satisfaction and the perceived quality of the neighbourhood, controlling for individual socio-demographic and human capital variables and socio-economic characteristics of the country of residence. The data are drawn from the cross-sectional European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) of 2016. Our findings reveal that first and second-generation immigrants report lower self-reported life satisfaction compared to natives. Moreover, our findings show that the positive subjective evaluation of the characteristics and services available in the immediate neighbourhood where people live is positively associated with self-reported life satisfaction. There is also a positive relationship between contacts and social networks in the neighbourhood and self-reported life satisfaction. Finally, the characteristics of the country of residence matter for both native and immigrants’ life satisfaction, with immigrants being more satisfied in countries with higher quality of life captured by country gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, life expectancy and unemployment rate

Évolution historique et développements récents des politiques publiques en Italie

The aim of our research is to analyze the evolution of public policies in Italy. These policies are undergoing profound changes in Italy and in Europe as a result of changes in the structure by sex and age of the population and the social and economic consequences of these changes. Did the Italian policies take into account those changes ? What has been the role played by the economic and institutional factors in the evolution of policies ? The second objective of this research is to examine how the public policies adopted in Italy over the past forty years have taken account of the changing role of men and women in society, both in the private sphere and in society. Has the evolution of gender-related social relations linked to women’s higher level of education and the increasing participation of women in the labor market involved more egalitarian or equality-oriented family policies ?Objectif de cette recherche est en premier lieu d’analyser l’évolution des politiques publiques en Italie. Ces politiques sont en train de subir des changements profonds en Italie et en Europe suite aux modifications intervenues dans la structure par sexe et par âge de la population ainsi qu’aux conséquences sociales et économiques de ces changements. Est-ce que les politiques italiennes ont tenu compte de ces changements ? Quel a été le rôle joué par les facteurs économiques et institutionnels propre à notre pays dans l’évolution des politiques ? Ces sont parmi les questions auxquelles nous allons répondre dans cette contribution. Le deuxième objectif de cette recherche est de s’interroger sur comment les politiques publiques adoptées en Italie dans les derniers quarante ans ont tenu compte de l’évolution du rôle des hommes et des femmes dans la société, tant dans la sphère privée que dans la sphère publique : l’évolution des rapport sociaux de sexe liée à la plus grande scolarisation des femmes, à la croissante participation des femmes au marché du travail a-t-elle impliqué des politiques familiales plus égalitaires ou plus orientées à l’égalité dans les taches familiales et extra familiales des hommes et des femmes

Le projet Demopædia: questions terminologiques liées à l’élaboration du Dictionnaire démographique multilingue

The aim of this paper is to present the terminological issues that have accompanied the process of translation and harmonization of the Italian edition of the multilingual demographic Dictionary Demopædia started in 2007 and ended in 2012. After presenting a brief history of the demographic multilingual dictionaries, the authors describe the computerization process and harmonization of dictionaries, in particular of the Italian edition

Return migration to home country: a systematic literature review with text mining and topic modelling

A crucial (and less developed) part of migration studies is the exploration of migrant’s further mobility and the intention of return to home country at some point in life. Knowing who, why and when returns matters for both the host and the home country. Very few studies have focused on return in a wider perspective, adopting a comparative approach. The present study aims at providing a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature indexed in Scopus database, to understand how return has been dealt with by researchers. The main objectives are: collecting and synthetizing previous studies; comparing approaches, conceptualizations of return, methods and variable of interest. A bibliometric analysis on metadata and content analysis based on text mining and topic modelling techniques has been conducted on a sample of approximately 3,000 publications. With our contribution, we expect to implement a baseline for theoretical development and empirical research, presenting an overview on the evolution of trend topics, with regional and temporal patterns of research focus and identifying knowledge gaps in literature

Nano-immuno assay development for the detection of cancer biomarkers

The quantitative analysis of protein markers is a promising strategy in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy monitoring of malignant tumors. The optimization of the clinical detection of these markers is directed towards the use of a small volume system. We developed a multiplexing nano-immuno array for proteomic analysis in low sample volumes with potential capability of pathological screening of cancer biomarkers. Nanografting, a tip assisted Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) nanolithography technique is used to fabricate DNA nanoarrays. DNA nanospots created by nanografting are exploited in order to immobilize DNA-antibody conjugates that recognize specific proteins of interest. The determination of the antigen content of a biological sample was obtained from the analysis of AFM topographic profiles of the nanopatches before and after the incubation. As a proof of principle, we focused on the biomarker Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (Her2), relevant antigen found in some human cancers such as breast, lung and gastric ones. By measuring spot height variation we performed the detection of low concentrations of the biomarker and we were able to optimize the device sensitivity by correlating the density of the DNA-antibody conjugates on the surface and their capability to bind the Extra Cellular Domain (ECD) of Her2. As future perspectives we are also exploring the use of new binders, as aptamers and nanobodies (VHH), as new tool for the recognition of specific biomarkers with higher affinity

EU-border crisis on Twitter: sentiments and misinformation analysis

The objective of this paper is to investigate the information and to detect the presence of misinformation on Twitter posts circulating in relation to migration events happened in 2020 at the Greek-Turkish border and in 2021 at the Polish-Belarusian border. Data were retrieved through API by using keywords referring to the two border events. The study was carried out by applying text mining and sentiment analysis techniques on tweets and retweets related to these two events, and by conducting a qualitative analysis on specific subsets of tweets. Our results show that in both borders’ crises migration is perceived as an emergency issue, migration-related narratives mainly refer to “war”, “attacks”, “tension”, “invasion” and the emotions expressed are mostly negative. In addition, in outbreaking crisis, the identification of misinformation in social media is extremely challenging, because of the rapid circulation of rumours related to facts that are rather difficult to ascertain