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The increase of foreign presence in Italy and the co-existence of “old” and “new” immigrants produced a growing presence of second generation and pupils migrated at young ages. Their integration process is multidimensional and interactive and can be particularly complex. After describing the evolution of the young foreign presence in Italy, we analyse some aspects of the insertion process in a sample of 700 youths having at least one foreign parent and enrolled in Secondary Schools. We use data coming from two waves of the ITAGEN2 Panel Survey, that is the first representative research on this topic in Italy. We estimate a crude index to quantify and compare the integration process’s level reached by each student in each wave. Thus we can analyse the “directions” (decreasing, stable, increasing) of such phenomenon during the considered period (two years length). Further multivariate analyses consider their main determinants as well.

I ragazzi stranieri sono ormai una quota considerevole, e crescente, della popolazione giovane in Italia. Se è vero che i giovani rappresentano il futuro di un paese, una parte importante del nostro futuro sarà affidata a questi nuovi concittadini. Quali sono le loro speranze e le loro possibilità? La prima ricerca nazionale su questi temi, qui presentata, dice anzitutto che la scuola anche oggi, come ai tempi di don Milani, perpetua le differenze sociali. I giovani stranieri ottengono risultati scolastici molto peggiori rispetto ai coetanei italiani. Il rischio è che si riproponga da noi quanto già accaduto altrove: se non raggiungeranno posizioni sociali migliori di quelle dei genitori, questi giovani svilupperanno rancore e ostilità verso la società ospite. Altre paure, invece, non sono fondate. I ragazzi stranieri non frenano la modernizzazione culturale. Al contrario, hanno atteggiamenti meno tradizionali dei giovani italiani, pur provenendo da paesi dove famiglia e clan sono gli assi portanti della società. Particolarmente significative sono le opinioni delle ragazze, che hanno una visione delle donne più moderna rispetto alle coetanee italiane.

The almost 100 Italian counties are characterised by wide differences concerning both nuptiality and household structure. In this paper these geographical differences are studied, dealing with post-unitary period (1861-1981), using census data. The aim is to underline the most important geographical differences, giving an extensive foundation for the future interpretative research. Firstly, nuptiality indicators (people never married at age 50 and SMAM of Hajnal, both for males and females) are calculated in the five census years 1881, 1911, 1931, 1961,1981, reconstructing counties boundaries at 1961. This large table is summarised by three principal components analyses (both for males and females and considering together all indicators). Secondly, territorial differences by household structures are presented, mapping indicators of complex household (proportion of non-nuclear household) in 1881, 1931 and 1981. In 1931 and 1981 indicators are directly calculated by census data, in 1881 counties are ranked by diffusion of non-nuclear household, by an estimation procedure. Thirdly, connection between geography of nuptiality and household structure are studied in 1881 and 1931, with the aim of checking validity of Laslett and Hajnal framework for Italian situation., Statistica; Vol 56, No 2 (1996)

The possibilities to get reliable estimates of fertility and of spontaneous and induced abortion for small areas (italian municipalities) are discussed. After a swift description of the published official statistics, two methods are explained in detail. The own-children method is good because of its completeness. In fact, you can get estimates of age specific fertility rates (until the 15th year before the survey) using only the census micro-data (or the micro-data extracted from the municipal population registers) and without using any other female population statistics, seldom available for small areas. The own-children method is applied to the set of the most populated five towns of the Veneto (Venezia, Verona, Padova, Vicenza and Treviso), either on the census data (1971 and 1981) or on the municipal data (1986). The differences in the results are discussed, comparing estimates of the same years resulting from two different surveys (1971 vs 1981 and 1981 vs 1986), and comparing the own-children estimates with the official statistics. Finally, the hospitalization statistics are used together with the official statistics to build detailed data on fertility and induced abortion. A general method is discussed and tested using the hospitalization data concerning the Veneto. Good fertility estimates are obtained (age specific fertility rates), while the abortion data are less sure, especially for the municipalities of the eastern side of Treviso and Venezia provinces., Statistica; Vol 49, No 1 (1989)

In this paper, we study similarities between the children of immigrants and those of Italian parents using data from the Itagen2, a survey of a large sample of pupils, aged 11-13, enrolled in Italian junior high schools in 2006. We measure three different aspects-linguistic abilities, friendship with peers, and sense of belonging in Italy-and investigate the determinants of similarity using multivariate techniques. Our results suggest that the Italian social context is favourable to a rapid assimilation on the part of children of immigrants to the tastes and ideals of young Italians. However, the similarity decreases when the children of immigrants are recently arrived in Italy, the economic situation and social capital of their families are poor, the children's school performance is unsatisfactory, and their parents come from particular countries-mainly China, the Philippines, Yugoslavia and Peru. © 2013 © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

The ‘classical’ interpretations appear to be inadequate for explaining the very low fertility in southern Europe. The volume “Strong Family and Low Fertility: a Paradox”, edited by G. Dalla Zuanna and G.A. Micheli, contains two different possible interpretations, which, though departing from similar premises, reach quite distinct conclusions. Micheli’s interpretation, in particular, supplements the anthropological continuity of the strong-tie models with an alternative way of interpreting the change, whereby the normal process of rational decision-making is superimposed by mechanisms which are “completely or largely based on normative/affective considerations, not merely with regard to selection of goals, but also of means” (Etzioni, 1988). The author advances the hypothesis that in order to understand the shifts, which have marked Italian demography at the end of the twentieth century, it is necessary to descend beneath the surface-crust of the processes of rational decision-making and dig down into our deep psychology. Indeed, there are increasing signs of a growing hesitation (or fear) among the younger generations when they are faced with irreversible choices. Ginsborg (1998) maintains “very often, it has not been the lack of a sense of responsibility, but on the contrary an excess of it which has been the main contribution towards the decline of the rate of fertil-ity”. What meaning should we attribute to this increased sense of responsibility? Is it really a sign of greater control over one’s own choices, or is it perhaps sometimes the sign of a loss of the ability to “let go”, to expose one’s own actions to the risk of consequences which cannot be entirely controlled? The author certainly doesn’t deny the existence of a broad range of structural factors - economic, sociological and anthropological -, which is decisive in stimulating the rational assumption of ‘parsimonious’ choices. Rather, he questions the self-sufficiency of the dominant psycho-economic keys of interpretation. In particular, it is suggested that the crucial demographic choices of a life course are often “decisions not to choose”, in which there is no direct link between result and intention, and the completion of the transition from preferences to action requires a relaxation of the control of reason. The rarefaction of procreative behaviour may then be read as the result of a mechanism of interception between the preference system and the decisions, so that the individual appears lacking in reactivity, with no reasonable motives. The growing tendency to remain inside the niche of a pre-adult state would therefore find an added (though not exclusive) explanation in a kind of blocking of dispositional states: something like the letting out of the clutch, which makes it impossible to make a vehicle move forward, however desperately we put our foot down on the accelerator. Bowlby’s theory of attachment (1968) provides us with a possible translation of the concept of ‘interceptor’: if a cohort’s experience of attachment has been in some way disturbed in the early years of life, it may actually produce a change (anxious insecurity) in this cohort or a partial de-activation (avoidant insecurity) of the instinct of attachment and also of its interface, the caring instinct. And an anxious or avoiding assumption of the caring instinct may also explain the recent changes in transition to the adult state.

"This article is a contribution to the discussion on theories about household formation and marriage in Italy in the 1880s. Based on data [from] the 1881 census, it aims at verifying some hypotheses on the interdependence between marriage behaviour and socio-economic and environmental factors, by using some multivariate statistical techniques. The authors propose a number of indicators and analyse their correlation matrix, before reducing the variables to a few relevant factors which summarize a major part of the available information. Such factors are employed to determine homogeneous areas for marriage behaviour. Finally, they propose and measure some causal relationships between variables within two of the previously identified areas." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE) excerpt