Informal childcare arrangements: a comparison between Italians and migrants

As migrants settle in their destination country, for those who reunited the family or after childbirth childcare becomes a priority. Most studies on migrants’ childcare arrangements have focused on parental use of formal childcare rather than on different informal childcare solutions by analysing only families with preschool-age children. Italy poses an interesting case study because its welfare system is characterised by a familistic model of care, based on solidarity between generations. In familistic countries, migrants’ childcare solutions are more constrained. In this study, we analysed differences in informal childcare needs and arrangements for children younger than 14 between Italians and migrants from different countries of origin. We merged two surveys conducted by the Italian National Statistics Institute in 2011–2012: ‘Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens’, a sample of households with at least one migrant with foreign citizenship, and ‘Multiscopo—Aspects of Daily Life’, a sample of households in Italy. We found that household composition and parents’ employment status play an important role in shaping informal childcare arrangements. Overall, migrants are less likely to use informal childcare, especially grandparents, than Italians but when they do, they rely more on other relatives and non-relatives than Italians. Moreover, differences emerge across migrant subgroups. This study is the first in Italy to contribute to an understanding of the role of migrant status in determining parents’ childcare arrangements for children up to 13 years

Migrants' choices pertaining to informal childcare in Italy and France: A complex relationship between the origin and destination countries

Childcare is a need that inevitably emerges once migrants establish themselves and their families in their destination country. However, migrants' use of informal childcare still constitutes an under‐researched phenomenon. Using data from the ‘Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens’ survey (2011–2012) for Italy and the ‘Trajectoires et Origines’ survey (2008–2009) for France, this paper examines differences between migrants living in the two countries in terms of their use of informal childcare and, more specifically, their informal childcare arrangements. We employ a comparative analysis because we hypothesised that parental choices would depend on the migrants' region of origin, the institutional context of their destination country and the interplay between these two elements. The results suggest that migrants' choices stem from a complex relationship between the norms and beliefs of the country of origin and those in the destination country, which are generally characterised by different family policies and levels of childcare availability. We show that the use of informal childcare is higher among migrants in Italy than it is among those in France, even among migrants from the same region of origin. The results also suggest that the use of particular informal childcare arrangements varies by region of origin regardless of destination country, supporting the hypothesis that migrants' cultural values and beliefs play a critical role in determining childcare arrangements. Finally, we demonstrate that household composition and parents' occupational status strongly influence migrants' childcare choices

Incidence, treatment and outcome of central nervous system relapse in adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia patients treated front-line with paediatric-inspired regimens: A retrospective multicentre Campus ALL study

Within the Campus ALL network we analyzed the incidence, characteristics, treatment and outcome of a central nervous system (CNS) relapse in 1035 consecutive adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients treated frontline with pediatric-inspired protocols between 2009 and 2020. Seventy-one patients (6.8%) experienced a CNS recurrence, more frequently in T- (28/278; 10%) than in B-ALL (43/757; 5.7%) (p = 0.017). An early CNS relapse—< 12 months from diagnosis—was observed in 41 patients. In multivariate analysis, risk factors for early CNS relapse included T-cell phenotype (p = <0.001), hyperleucocytosis >100 × 109/L (p<0.001) and male gender (p = 0.015). Treatment was heterogeneous, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, intrathecal therapy and novel agents. A complete remission (CR) was obtained in 39 patients (55%) with no differences among strategies. After CR, 26 patients underwent an allogenic transplant, with a significant overall survival benefit compared to non-transplanted patients (p = 0.012). After a median observation of 8 months from CNS relapse, 23 patients (32%) were alive. In multivariate analysis, the time to CNS relapse was the strongest predictor of a lower 2-year post-relapse survival (p<0.001). In conclusion, in adult ALL the outcome after a CNS relapse remains very poor. Effective CNS prophylaxis remains the best approach and allogenic transplant should be pursued when possible