Immigrant youths: Between early leaving and continue their studies

School enrollment and early school leaving are crucial issues in many EU countries, with Italy playing a central role in the European context. According to Eurostat data, in 2011 Italy is ranked 28th for early leaving from education and training (ELET) among 33 countries. Large school dropout rates, less success in studies, loss of school years, and lack of concentration, which are directly involved in the labor market, are the main issues that children of immigrants in the Italian school face. This paper contributes to the growing literature on these issues and highlights its main characteristics and determinants. The main source of this work is the first (and only) survey on the Condition and Social Integration of Foreign Citizens in 2011-2012 of ISTAT (National Institute of Statistics in Italy) released in 2017. The survey collects data on families with at least one foreign citizen and provides unprecedented information on foreigners living in Italy. The data allowed us to associate each young immigrant student with parents’ characteristics (e.g. age, citizenship, degree of study, family type) and provided information about the type of schooling (e.g. loss of school years, perceived discrimination in class, amount of homework). Using logistic regression models, we analyzed three different dichotomous dependent variables: non-enrollment at school, intention to enroll in university and early school leaving, and training of young people of foreign citizenship. This paper evaluates their association with some individual demographic characteristics, family socio-economic context, school inclusion, and (or) the average level of family integration. The results show that the risk of not being enrolled in school is significantly lower for girls, increases with age, is higher in Southern Italy (i.e. double compared to the Northern area), is higher for those encountering problems with the language, and increases with age on arrival in Italy. Family characteristics play a decisive role, in that young foreigners living without parents exhibit a greater risk of not being enrolled in school, the same is true for those with low-educated parents. When analyzing the intention to enroll in university, it was also possible to use variables related to the study path of young foreigners. The intention of not going to university is clearly associated with school failure and with parents’ low interest in following their children’s school career. The analysis on early leaving from studies and training confirmed the afore-mentioned results. In particular, the risk of early leaving from studies and training affects young people who arrived in Italy between 13 and 17 years, especially Albanian or Chinese citizens. Even in this case the role of parents is decisive

Does maternal ethnic identity affect the educational trajectories of immigrant descendants?

According to Eurostat (European Commission 2014, 2016), Italy has one of highest quota in Europe of immigrant youths (aged 18-24) with at most a compulsory level of education, who left school before they have finished their course and have not attended any other course in the last four weeks. After a short presentation of the international literature on ethnic identity (section 2), we will introduce the survey and the method of analysis adopted (section 3). The maternal ethnic identity of children (aged 14-24) will be presented in section 4 and in the following one (section 5) the determinant of educational trajectories will be discussed with special attention to the role of maternal ethnic identity. In the final section, the main results will be synthetized and the possible political implications will be highlighted

Travailleurs étrangers et travail irrégulier en Italie: évidences sur la base de la régularisation de 2002

Objectif de ce travail est de montrer en quelle mesure la régularisation 2002 reproduit une géographie spécifique de l’insertion des immigrés dans l’économie souterraine au niveau local. Notamment, en utilisant les données des étrangers régularisés par province de présentation des demandes on cherchera à mettre en évidence l’homogénéité ou hétérogénéité des différentes régions du pays par rapport à la typologie de régularisation et aux caractéristiques socioprofessionnelles des régularisés. De plus, on montrera l’existence de liens entre l’emploi de travailleurs étrangers en condition d’irrégularité et certaines caractéristiques des marchés du travail et des systèmes productifs locaux. On se servira de cartogrammes et de technique statistiques telles que l’analyse factorielle et cluster et la régression linéaire multiple

Rapporto sulla popolazione. Le molte facce della presenza straniera in Italia

Al di là delle emergenze recenti, l’immigrazione straniera è un fenomeno le cui origini risalgono a circa quaranta anni fa: proprio i demografi italiani furono tra i primi a segnalarne l’importanza, analizzandone cause, caratteristiche e conseguenze. Questo Rapporto permette di seguire la pluridecennale evoluzione dell’immigrazione e della presenza straniera in Italia, con attenzione alle specificità dei diversi contesti territoriali. Una ricca e affidabile documentazione statistica consente di illustrare le origini e le caratteristiche degli stranieri, i loro comportamenti demografici, l’inserimento nel mercato del lavoro e le condizioni di integrazione. Tra le questioni affrontate si segnalano quelle, rilevantissime, dei profughi, della cittadinanza e delle seconde generazioni

The legacy of Corrado Gini in population studies

This volume contains 12 papers that range over many different research subjects, taking in many of the population questions that, directly or indirectly, absorbed Corrado Gini as demographer and social scientist over several decades. They vary from the analysis of the living conditions and behaviours of the growing foreign population (measurements and methods of analysis, socio-economic conditions and health, ethnic residential segregation, sex-ratio at birth), to studies on the homogamy of couples; from population theories (with reference to the cyclical theory of populations) to the modelling approach to estimating mortality in adult ages or estimating time transfers, by age and sex, related to informal child care and adult care; from historical studies that take up themes dear to Gini (such as the estimates of Italian military deaths in WWI), to the application of Gini’s classical measurements to studying significant phenomena today (transition to adulthood and leaving the parental home, health care, disabled persons and social integration). The subjects and measurements that appear here are not intended to exhaust the broad spectrum of Gini’s research work in the demographic and social field (nor could they), but they can make up a part of the intersection between his vast legacy and some interesting topics in current research, some of which were not even imaginable in the mid twentieth century. Looking at the many contributions that celebrated Gini in Treviso and thinking about his legacy, it seems possible to identify at least two typologies of approach, to be found in this issue of the journal, too. On the one hand, there are contributions that aim to retrieve and discuss themes, methodologies and measurements dealt with or used by Gini so as to evaluate their present relevance and importance in the current scholarly debate. On the other, there are contributions that deal with topics that are far from Gini’s work, as they study very recent phenomena, but actually, among other things, make use of methods and indicators devised by Gini that are now so much part of the common currency of methodology, so they don’t require explicit reference to their Author

The cultivable bacterial microbiota associated to the medicinal plant Origanum vulgare L.: from antibiotic resistance to growth-inhibitory properties

The insurgence of antibiotic resistance and emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens prioritize research to discover new antimicrobials. In this context, medicinal plants produce bioactive compounds of pharmacological interest: some extracts have antimicrobial properties that can contrast different pathogens. For such a purpose, Origanum vulgare L. (Lamiaceae family) is a medicinal aromatic plant, whose essential oil (EO) is recognized for its antiseptic, antimicrobial and antiviral activities. The cultivable bacteria from different compartments (i.e., flower, leaf, stem and soil) were isolated in order to: (i) characterize the bacterial microbiota associated to the plant, determining the forces responsible for the structuring of its composition (by evaluation of cross inhibition); (ii) investigate if bacterial endophytes demonstrate antimicrobial activities against human pathogens. A pool of plants belonging to O. vulgare species was collected and the specimen chemotype was defined by hydrodistillation of its essential oil. The isolation of plant associated bacteria was performed from the four compartments. Microbiota was further characterized through a culture-independent approach and next-generation sequencing analysis, as well. Isolates were molecularly typed by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiling and taxonomically assigned by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Antibiotic resistance profiles of isolates and pairwise cross-inhibition of isolates on agar plates (i.e., antagonistic interactions) were also assessed. High level of diversity of bacterial isolates was detected at both genus and strain level in all different compartments. Most strains were tolerant against common antibiotics; moreover, they produced antagonistic patterns of interactions mainly with strains from different compartments with respect to that of original isolation. Strains that exhibited high inhibitory properties were further tested against human pathogens, revealing a strong capacity to inhibit the growth of strains resistant to several antibiotics. In conclusion, this study regarded the characterization of O. vulgare L. chemotype and of the bacterial communities associated to this medicinal plant, also allowing the evaluation of antibiotic resistance and antagonistic interactions. This study provided the bases for further analyses on the possible involvement of endophytic bacteria in the production of antimicrobial molecules that could have an important role in clinical and therapeutic applications

Intentions on desired length of stay among immigrants in Italy

Abstract The decision to emigrate from the country of origin may not be a permanent one: migrants can decide to return home or to emigrate to a third country. This phenomenon, established for some time in certain other European countries, has become an important one for Italy only recently. This paper contributes to the knowledge of migrants’ intentions in two ways: on the one hand, it analyses the factors associated with indecision about future plans; on the other, it focuses on the desired length of stay and its relationship with attachments (family, economic, socio-cultural and psychological) to host and home country. We used two logistic regression models: one for migrants’ indecision and the other for migrants’ desired length of stay. The data were collected by survey, coordinated by the ISMU Foundation and conducted in 2008 and 2009 with more than 12,000 migrants living in Italy. According to our results, indecision seems to be associated with an intermediate phase of migration at the early stage of family development in the case of negative balance of the migration experience, while attachment to the host country is associated with longer stay, and no attachments or attachment to the country of origin are associated with shorter stay

Possibilità di quantificazione della presenza straniera in Italia: il punto della situazione

Quaderni n. 11, Dipartimento per lo studio delle società mediterrane