Project "BOnD - Between origin and destination""

Between origin and value acculturation and socioeconomic integration of migrant women

This project investigates the relationship between migrants’ value assimilation and integration, with a particular focus on migrant women’s participation in social and labour markets.

Background and contribution

In the past 30 years, the rise in Lombardy’s migrant population has resulted in major demographic and structural changes, posing new challenges for cultural and socioeconomic integration. These challenges particularly impact women, who face a “double disadvantage” as both their gender and ethnic origin represent a combined burden, contributing to lower employment rates and poorer job quality compared to their male and native counterparts. While the topic has been widely studied with regard to structural elements typical of the occupational and educational framework, the role of culture has been much less explored. By examining these dynamics, the project seeks to address the challenges and opportunities of integrating diverse migrant communities into Italian society.

Migrants’ socioeconomic integration, particularly for women, presents a complex scenario influenced by cultural values, gender norms, and local contexts and opportunities. Traditional gender roles, prevalent in both the countries of origin and Italy, often impose a ‘double disadvantage’ by constraining migrant women’s opportunities for employment and higher education. Moreover, Lombardy’s unique combination of modern urban and peripheral rural areas further complicates integration, creating distinct challenges and opportunities. This underscores the need for a nuanced understanding of how origin-destination context interactions, cultural patterns and regional variations in Lombardy impact the persistence of ethnic penalties and integration outcomes.

The aim of the BOnD project is to analyse the cultural assimilation processes of people of foreign origin in Lombardy and to understand how values and attitudes shape the socioeconomic outcomes of migrant women.

Starting from the broad framework of ethnic penalties studies, this project offers a novel perspective by focusing on the role of cultural values. While extensive research usually focuses on labour market and educational disparities and emphasized factors like the low portability of educational credentials and general discrimination, it often overlooks the nuanced influence of cultural and contextual factors.

Starting from this, the project investigates how migrants’ values and attitudes—particularly around gender roles, diversity, and moral values—evolve from the first to the second generation and how these compare to those of native populations. Moreover, it examines how these cultural norms impact women’s labour market participation, educational attainment, and interethnic interactions, adding a crucial dimension to understanding ethnic penalties.

In addition, while previous research has often focused on broad geographic divides, this project refines the analysis by exploring regional variations within Lombardy. By distinguishing between central and marginal areas, the study provides deeper insights into how local contexts influence both acculturation processes and integration outcomes.

Events

Main objectives

Cultural assimilation: Investigate whether and how the value patterns of first and second-generation migrants shift towards those of the native population, focusing on attitudes towards gender roles, diversity, and moral values.
Role of culture in shaping behaviour: Investigate whether and how individual values influence women’s integration beyond practical constraints, specifically in terms of labour market participation, access to education, and social contacts.
The role of context: Assess how different local contexts (urban vs. peripheral) shape both the strength and speed of assimilation processes and the relationship between value patterns and socioeconomic integration.

Actions

Preliminary tasks. During the initial phase of the BOnD project the aim is to establish a solid theoretical foundation for understanding acculturation processes and their impact on migrant women’s socioeconomic outcomes in Lombardy. This begins with a comprehensive literature review to identify existing knowledge gaps and frame the study’s theoretical approach. Concurrently, secondary data analyses will be conducted using datasets such as the Labour Force Survey, the European Social Survey, and ISTAT’s survey on foreign citizens. Additionally, two focus groups—one in an urban/central setting and one in a more peripheral area—will be organized with migrant associations, cultural mediators, and local policymakers.
Survey design and implementation. The second phase of the project focuses on developing and executing the primary survey. Building on insights from the preliminary phase, this phase involves designing a robust questionnaire to gather data on cultural assimilation, the role of individual values, socioeconomic integration, and contextual influences. The survey will target three comparable samples of native Italians, first-generation migrants, and second-generation migrants in Lombardy. The Centre Sampling Method will be employed to address the challenges of surveying hard-to-reach populations by selecting interviews from “aggregation centres” frequented by migrants. A total of 2,800 face-to-face interviews, equally distributed among the three groups, will be conducted by trained interviewers to ensure comprehensive coverage across urban and peripheral areas.
Data analysis and dissemination. Following data collection, the focus will shift to analysing the survey data and disseminating the findings. The results will be disseminated through scientific articles, reports, and presentations. Throughout the duration of the project, a series of six seminars will be organized, with the last two offered to young scholars as an opportunity to present original analyses based on the data gathered within the project. Finally, a conference will be held to share the project’s finding with academic and policy audiences. The aim of the conference is to present a policy brief, highlighting key insights and practical implications for stakeholders, and to promote the public release of the data, informing both future research and policy-making.