Questioning identity, belonging and ties across generations. Discussions within the Egyptian community

Journal title MONDI MIGRANTI
Author/s Roberta Ricucci, Manuela Olagnero
Publishing Year 2019 Issue 2019/2 Language English
Pages 21 P. 149-169 File size 254 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2019-002008
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Nowadays more migrant families are putting down roots in Italy: buying houses, investing in their children’s education, making plans for the future in this country. In this backdrop, two generations of parents and children interact and develop specific relations with both countries of residence and country of origin. The paper aims at exploring these issues looking at a community of Egyptians, living in Turin. Starting back in the late ’70s, Egyptians are an interesting case for comparing and contrasting generational perspectives living in Italy in conditions of stable inser-tion. As little attention has been dedicated to this ethnic community from the in-tergenerational perspective in the daily life, we would fit the paper in this broader theoretical framework. We aim at investigating: 1) How they link narration of past transitions to the construction of the present self and 2) How young and older mi-grants form new and/or keep old we-relations along their life trajectories and tran-sitions. Biographical perspective provides a tool to start answering to these re-search questions.

Keywords: Generations, Egyptians, youth, identity, life transitions, migrations.

  1. Alheit P. (2009). Biographical learning within the new lifelong learning discourse. In: Illeris K., a cura di, Contemporary theories of learning. Learning theorists… in their own words. London: Routledge.
  2. Alheit P. (1996). Changing Basic Rules of Biographical Construction: Modern Biographies at the End of the 20th Century. In: Weymann A. and Heinz W., eds., Society and Biography. Interrelationships between Social Structure. Institutions and the Life Course. Weinheim: Deutscher Studien Verlag.
  3. Alheit P. and Dausien B. (2000). Biographicity as a basic resource of lifelong learning. In: Alheit P., a cura di, Lifelong Learning inside and outside schools. Roskilde: Roskilde University, University of Bremen and University of Leeds.
  4. Ambrosini M. (2013). Dal multiculturalismo alla diversity. Una ricerca europea sulle politiche locali per gli immigrati. Mondi Migranti, 3: 7-28; DOI: 10.3280/MM2013-003001
  5. Ambrosini M. (2008). Un’altra globalizzazione. La sfida delle migrazioni transnazionali. Bologna: il Mulino.
  6. Ambrosini M. and Abbatecola E. (2002). Reti di relazioni e percorsi di inserimento lavorativo degli stranieri: l’imprenditorialità egiziana a Milano. In: Colombo A. and Sciortino G., eds., Assimilati ed esclusi. Bologna: il Mulino.
  7. Ambrosini M. and Schellenbaum P. (1994). La comunità sommersa: un'indagine sull’immigrazione egiziana a Milano. Quaderni Ismu, n. 3. Milano: Fondazione Cariplo.
  8. Ambrosini M. and Caneva E. (2009). Le seconde generazioni: nodi critici e forme di integrazione. Sociologia e Politiche Sociali, 12, 1: 9-34; Issn: 1591-2027.
  9. Apitztsch U. and Inowlocki L. (2000). Biographical analysis. A German school?. In: Chamberlain Apitzsch U., Siouti I. (2007). Biographical Analysis as an Interdisciplinary Research Perspective in the Field of Migration Studies. Frankfurt am Main: Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität.
  10. Asendorpf J. and Motti-Stefanidi F. (2017). A longitudinal study of immigrants’ peer acceptance and rejection: Immigrant status, migrant composition of the classroom and acculturation. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 23, 4: 486-498;
  11. Baldassar L. (2016). De-demonizing distance in mobile family lives: co‐presence, care circulation and polymedia as vibrant matter. Global Networks, 16, 2; doi 10.1111/glob.12109.
  12. Bosisio R., Olagnero M. (2019). Discourses about Daily Activity Contracts: A Ground for Children’s Participation?. Soc. Sci. 2019, 8, 3, 92;
  13. Berry J.W., Phinney J.S., Sam D.L. and Vedder P. (2006). Immigrant Youth: Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation. Applied Psychology: an International Review, 3: 303-332;
  14. Breckner R. (2014). Collective identities in Migration. Biographical Perspectives in Ambivalences and Paradoxes. Sociology and Anthropology, 1: 15-24;
  15. Bristow J. (2016). The sociology of generations. New Directions and Challenges. Palgrave: Mcmillan.
  16. Bruner J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press.
  17. Caneva E. (2011). Mix generation. Gli adolescenti di origine straniera tra globale e locale. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  18. Ceravolo F. and Molina S. (2013). Dieci anni di Seconde enerazioni in Italia. Quaderni di Sociologia, 57, 63: 9-34;
  19. CeSPI (2005a). Gli Egiziani in Italia. Tre casi studio: Roma, Milano, Emilia Romagna. Roma: CeSPI Working Papers 14.
  20. Cingolani P. and Ricucci R. (2014). Transmediterranei. Generazioni a confronto tra Italia e Nord Africa. Torio: AAccademia.
  21. Colombo M. and Santagati M.G. (2014). Nelle scuole plurali. Misure d'integrazione degli alunni stranieri. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  22. Field J., Gallacher J. and Ingram R., eds. (2009). Researching Transitions in Lifelong Learning. London: Routledge.
  23. Fischer-Rosenthal W. (1995). The Problem With Identity: Biography as Solution to Some (Post) Modernist Dilemmas. Coemenius, 14: 260-65.
  24. Fokkema T., Cela E. and Ambrosetti, E. (2013). Giving from the heart or fro m the ego? Motives behind remittances of the second generation in Europe. International Migration Review, 47, 3: 539-579;
  25. Gans H. (1996). Symbolic ethnicity. In: Hutchinson J. and Smith A.D., eds., Ethnicity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  26. Girgis H. and Osman M. (2013). Desire to migrate among Egyptians after the January 25th revolution. Paper presented in the International Seminar on International Migration in the Middle East and North Africa After the Arab Uprising: A Long Term Perspectives. The International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (Iussp), Cairo 22-23 April.
  27. Goodson I., Antikainen A., Sikes P. and Andrews M., eds. (2017). Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History. London: Routledge.
  28. Granata A. (2011) Son qui da una vita. Dialogo aperto con le seconde generazioni. Roma: Carocci.
  29. Grillo R.D. (2010). Between Assimilation and Parallel Lives: The Crisis of Identification Among Migrant Youth. unpublished Working Paper.
  30. Heider F. (1958). The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. New York: Wiley.
  31. Heinz W. (1996). Status Passages as Micro-Macro Linkages in Life Course Research. In: Weymann A., Heinz W., eds, Society and Biography. Weinheim: Deutscher Studies Verlag.
  32. Idos-Unar (2018). Dossier Statistico Immigrazione. Roma: Idos.
  33. Illeris K., ed. (2009). Contemporary theories of learning. Learning theorists… in their own words. London: Routledge.
  34. Ismu (2016). Ventiduesimo Rapporto sulle migrazioni. Milano: Franco Angeli.
  35. Lareau A (2003). Unequal Childhoods: Social Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkley, ca: University of California Press.
  36. McAdams D.P. (2017). How Stories found a Home in Human Personality. In: Goodson I., Antikainen A., Sikes P., Andrews Meds, The Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History, Routledge: London.
  37. McAdams D.P. and McLean K.C. (2013). Narrative identity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22: 233-238; DOI: 10.1177/0276236618756704
  38. Micheli G. (2009). Sempre giovani e mai vecchi. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  39. Olagnero M. (2016). Are Kids all right? In: Belloni M.C., Bosisio R. and Olagnero M., eds., Well-being, Participation, Citizenship. Torino: Accademia University Press.
  40. Olagnero M. (2004). Vite nel tempo. Roma: Carocci.
  41. Olagnero M. and Hindrichs I. (2019). El modelo de la Acción Biográfica: Un ejercicio de análisis narrativo de cuatro transiciones biográficas. In: Hindrichs I. (ed.).  Entre el campo y la teoría: Estrategias de categorización inductiva y deductiva en investigación cualitativa. Mexico: El Colegio Mexiquense, A.C.
  42. Paparusso A. (2018). Studying immigrant integration through self-reported life satisfaction in the country of residence. Applied Research in Quality of Life;
  43. Paparusso A., Fokkema T. and Ambrosetti E. (2017). Immigration Policies in Italy: Their Impact on the Lives of First-Generation Moroccan and Egyptian Migrants. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 18, 2: 499-546;
  44. Premazzi V. (2013). Transnational actors or just spectators? How the media affect second generations' relationships with the country of origin? Egyptians in Italy. PhD thesis, Università di Milano, Milano;
  45. Premazzi V. (2012). How do political changes in the country of origin affect transnational behaviors of migrants? The case of Egyptians in Turin during and after the Arab Spring, paper presented at the Summer School “Intergenerational relationships in a globalized world”, Torino, July 23-27.
  46. Premazzi V., Ambrosetti E., Cela E. and Fokkema T. (2013). The Arab Spring and the Return Intention of Egyptians Living in Italy. International Journal of Euro-Mediterranean Studies, 6, 109-131.
  47. Ricucci R. (2018). Cittadini senza cittadinanza. La questione dello ius soli. Torino: SEB27.
  48. Ricucci R. (2017). Diversi dall’islam. Figli dell’immigrazione e altre fedi. Bologna: il Mulino.
  49. Ricucci R. (2016). Learning by sharing is not possible. The issue of second-generation integration is still the same old story. A focus on the Italian case. Migration Letters, 13, 2: 178-192.
  50. Ricucci R. (2014). Second generations on the move in Italy. Lanham: Lexington.
  51. Riessman C. (2008). Narrative Methods for the Human Sciences. Cambridge: Sage Publications.
  52. Riessman C. (1993). Narrative Analysis. Newbury Park: Sage.
  53. Ryder N. (1965). The Cohort as a concept in the study of Social Change. American Sociological Review, 6: 843-61, DOI: 10.2307/2090964
  54. Schütze F. (2005). Cognitive figures of autobiographical extempore narration. In Miller R., eds, Biographical Research Methods, Vol. 2, London: Sage.
  55. Sciortino G. (2017). Introduzione. Prendendo l’integrazione sul serio. Mondi Migranti, 2: 25-32; DOI: 10.3280/MM2017-002002
  56. Siouti I. (2017). Biography as a Theoretical and Methodological Key Concept in Transnational Migrations Studies. In: Goodson I., ntikainen A., Sikes P. and Andrewseds M., Routledge International Handbook on Narrative and Life History. London: Routledge.
  57. Tsiolis G. (2012). Biographical constructions and transformations: using biographical methods for studying transcultural identities. Revista de Sociologia, 1: 113-127.
  58. Vertovec S. (2006) The emergence of super-diversity in Britain. Oxford: Centre on Migration, Policy and Society working paper n. 25.
  59. Weizsächer W. von (1956). Pathosophie. Gottingen: Vanderbroeck & Ruprecht.
  60. Zohry A. (2009). The migratory patterns of Egyptians in Italy and France. Firenze: Eui.

Roberta Ricucci, Manuela Olagnero, Questioning identity, belonging and ties across generations. Discussions within the Egyptian community in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 2/2019, pp 149-169, DOI: 10.3280/MM2019-002008