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Ageing and migration are two of Europe’s fundamental demographic processes, challenging a wide range of social policies. Their intersection generates a wide taxonomy of types of individuals, from the most well-off and active ones to those more deprived and marginalised and for whom being old and having a migration background represents a double jeopardy. Yet in discussions of the ‘demographic time bomb’ of ageing, the special circumstances of ageing migrants are rarely recognised. Thus far, in Europe, very little is known about ageing populations with a migratory background, and this is even more true for Italy, that turned into an immigration country only in the late 1980s and where older migrants are a neglected, although growing, group in the Italian population. In this paper, we unpack ageing migrants’ wellbeing by focusing on life satisfaction, as a broader indicator of individual’s wellbeing; in particular, we analyse the effect of migration experiences on migrants’ perception of the quality of life in old age. We use data from the Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens survey (2011–2012) and build several indicators related to different structural and socio-cultural dimensions of integration to analyse different patterns of association with life satisfaction among different groups of ageing migrants in Italy. Our study has important implications form both theoretical and policy perspective as it contributes to the advancement of original knowledge on the factors that shape wellbeing in later life in a context of migration.

In this study we focused on migrants’ loneliness, in order to unpack risks for, and protective factors against, loneliness among migrants in Italy. Our data come from the ‘Social Condition and Integration among Foreign Citizens’ survey conducted by ISTAT during 2011–2012 on a sample of 25,000 individuals living in a household with at least one foreign-born member. Our results show that economic resources and employment protect from loneliness feelings, whereas education does not. Family and social embeddedness and satisfaction with life are protective factors, whereas discrimination, language barriers, deprived neighbourhoods and poor health are associated with a higher risk of loneliness. Gender is a key lens to consider when analysing loneliness especially in relation to fragile populations like those with a migratory background.

Within a framework of increasing ethnic diversity of developed countries' population, a growing body of migration literature has focused on migrants’ health. Nonetheless, although ageing is a major demographic trend of western societies involving both natives and migrants, older migrants remain a relatively under-researched group so far. In Italy, despite the increasing incidence of migration on total population, its fast ageing process, and the acknowledged difficulties that migrants face in becoming full members of the Italian society, thus far, very little is known about the migrant population approaching old age. Our study focuses on the main protective and risk factors of health in later life using a unique dataset from the ‘Social condition and integration of foreign citizens’ (SCIF)’ survey conducted by ISTAT between 2011 and 2012. Our findings show that a number of variables related to both the migration process and living conditions in Italy are important determinants of self-rated health, stressing the necessity to design and implement tailored policy responses and services that address migrants’ vulnerabilities in later life.

In this paper, we apply the novel Fuzzy First-Order Dominance (F-FOD) methodology to rank migrant subpopulations in Lombardy (Italy), in terms of multidimensional poverty and social fragility, for the year 2014, with the purpose to possibly provide useful support to policy-makers, in targeting relief interventions from poverty and discomfort. The F-FOD methodology allows for the direct comparison of different distributions of poverty and fragility, assessed by means of suitable ordinal multi-indicator systems, so extending to this more complex setting, the usual univariate first-order dominance criterion. It also provides complimentary “incomparability” scores, to assess to what extent the final rankings are reliable or instead forcing. It turns out that the levels of poverty and fragility of migrant subpopulations are quite different and, in particular, that the time since migrations has a key impact, on the identification of most critical cases, which typically involve recently migrated people. Evidence also emerges that the temporal poverty/fragility trajectories of migrants, distinguished by country of origin, follow different paths, suggesting how policy interventions must be properly, and differently, tuned to be effective.

Ethnic segregation is defined as the degree to which two or more subgroups of population by ethnicity are separated from each other. Whether or not two groups are separated is a debate reflecting on the definition of what ‘separation’ means: sharing the same space where to reside, having the same opportunities for daily encounters or for work, or the space for leisure and cultivation of friendship relations. In this paper, we focus on the relation between ethnic residential segregation and friendship relations. We analyse the residential behaviour and friendship of foreigners in Milan (the nine major citizenships), which is the most important urban area in the national settlement system of Italy and the most attractive area in the migratory Italian panorama. We show how residential behaviour can only partially explain friendship relations between immigrants and natives, since different ethnic groups tend to settle on the territory and interact with others depending on the characteristics of individuals and their immigration history. Data come from the population register (2005–2009) and the 2007 Regional Observatory for Integration and Multi-ethnicity Survey. Results are based on indices of segregation and multilevel multinomial logistic regression models.

Migrants usually experience a downward mobility in their host country’s economy and are over-represented among lower status jobs. The present study contributes to the knowledge on migrant occupation mobility in Italy, assuming a longitudinal perspective and focusing on two aspects: first, the entry of migrants into the Italian labour market and, second, the working trajectories of migrants in Italy, reflecting the role of the first step in determining the following trajectory and migrants’ strategies.

Foreign-born women frequently find their first job in the domestic sector. This is usually considered a stepping-stone, but it is rather a definitive condition. We analyse the working trajectory of foreign-born women with a first job in domestic work using sequence analysis and studying their association with job satisfaction by means of logistic regression models. The data were collected as part of the Foreigners’ Job Trajectories project conducted by the ISMU Foundation in Italy in 2009. We found that, after all, domestic and care workers can be satisfied with their job if basic decent working conditions are guaranteed. Particular attention is paid to the high rate of job satisfaction for women with a trajectory from live-out to live-in jobs. Possible explications for job satisfaction are extensively discussed focusing on economic drivers, the agency of domestic workers, and the emotive dimension of domestic and care works.

Drawing on seminal work by Nazio and Blossfeld (Eur J Popul 19(1):47–82, 2003) and Di Giulio and Rosina (Demogr Res 16(14):441–468, 2007), this paper tests whether the recent spread of cohabitation in Italy has followed the typical pattern of diffusion of innovation processes. In doing so, we contribute to the debate on the determinants of the emergence of “new” family behaviour. Following previous literature, innovative behaviour should spread initially through direct social modelling, i.e. interpersonal communication among highly selected individuals (peer effects). At later stages, the diffusion should spread through knowledge awareness of the innovation, i.e. communication with previous generations (pre-cohort effects), so that also less selected individuals are prone to adopt the new behaviour. In the specific Italian context—a Catholic, “familistic” setting, with high normative pressure and importance of parental approval—we surmise the influence of previous generations to be dominant. We use data from the “Family and Social Subjects” survey carried out by Istat (2009) and apply Event History Analysis in the form of competing-risks exponential models to study Italian women’s transition to cohabitation as first partnership. Results suggest that the most important driver of the spreading of cohabitation in Italy is represented by the degree of its diffusion among older cohorts. However, we find a positive and significant interaction between women’s education and peer effects at the onset of the phenomenon, in line with the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) hypothesis. Cohabitation is also more likely if parents experienced separation/divorce and, more generally, if the environment of the family of origin can be described as “SDT-friendly”. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10680-016-9380-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background: Family reunification of migrants in their destination country is often the result of a process that includes one or more steps and combines family and migration events. However, the lack of relevant data often limits the possibility of studying all these stages. Objective: The paper aims to identify family migration models by means of the entire family migration trajectory, highlighting the relationship of these models with the migration project and with the family, cultural, and gender norms of the country of origin. Methods: We used sequence analysis on a large sample of resident families with at least one foreign-born member in Italy, using data collected by the Italian Institute of Statistics in 2011-2012. We focused exclusively on migrants from less developed countries and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Results: Our results indicate that family characteristics and stability in the host country are not always relevant for family reunification. Family, cultural, and gender norms of the home country and the nature of the migration project itself determine the family migration model. When the migration project becomes orientated, or converges over time to settlement, family reunification is pursued regardless of the possible difficulties and conditions during emigration. Conversely, during the time that migrants are maintaining a temporary project, family reunification is not even considered. Contribution: Adopting a longitudinal approach, we generalised and extended previous results, considering migrants from additional countries and studying the reunification of all family members. We compared family migration models and their association with gender, cultural, and family norms of the country of origin and the family migration project.

Onward migration is a rising issue in migration studies as a consequence of the growing complexity in migration patterns worldwide. This paper analyses historic and economic reasons behind the recent surge of onward migration from Southern European countries and, more specifically, Italy. Using 2014 ORIM data about short-term onward migration intentions and a logistic regression model, the paper explores factors that select aspirant onward migrants from Italy. The model tests the effects of socio-demographic and economic factors. The results of the study question the idea of citizenship as the highest level of integration in the host country and suggest that the recent wave of onward migration from Italy is mainly a reactive phenomenon triggered by the economic crisis. Most of all, this study explicitly underlines the role of gender in shaping intentions of short-term onward migration in Italy. The gender-sensible approach adopted in the present study shows the important role of women in the decision-making process of couples: female unemployment significantly increases intentions of onward migration, and the migration is also considered as an opportunity for the spouse and a gain in the economic prospects of the entire family. Conversely, female employment has a significant role in preventing onward migration.

The Second Demographic Transition (SDT) theory underlines the importance of changing values and attitudes to explain the trend toward low fertility and raising female labour market participation. We contribute to this debate comparing religiosity and gender attitudes over several European countries using three waves of the European Values Study (1990, 1999 and 2008). By dealing with the issues of measurement invariance and endogeneity between values and behaviour, our results support some critiques of the SDT theory. The pace of the process of sociocultural change has not been the same across European countries and the forerunners of the SDT, that is, the most secularized and gender-egalitarian societies, now have the highest female labour market participation rates and the highest fertility. We provide evidence for a ‘macro–micro paradox’ regarding the role of values on family behaviours. Religiosity is positively correlated with fertility and housewifery, while gender attitudes are only correlated with women’s labour market decisions. These correlations are stronger in more traditional countries, even if aggregate fertility is lower. We stress the necessity to integrate cultural and structural explanations, suggesting the lack of family policies and the rigidity of the family formation process as possible mechanisms to unravel this paradox.Keywords: religiosity, gender attitudes, fertility, female labour market participation, measurement invariance, values, attitudes

The chapter analyses the demographic consequences of Beijing abandoning ts infamous ‘One-Child Policy’ in her Chapter “Chinese Population Policies: Towards a Free Choice”. Revising China’s ‘One-Child Policy’ was indeed very necessary against the background of a rapidly shrinking working population. The number of Chinese citizens over 60 years old today has reached 132 million and the number will climb to roughly 400 million in 2040. By the middle of this century, the author writes, China will have one of the oldest populations on the planet with a very high old-age-dependency ratio. As a consequence, the Chinese government has begun experimenting with the ‘Two-Child Policy’,although it remains yet to be seen whether this new policy can in the years ahead address China’s demographic problems quickly and efficiently enough.

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.

Forced migrants in Italy have so far received limited assistance and follow integration trajectories into the job market typical of economic migrants. Using a multilevel statistical approach and a new source of survey data, this article describes key aspects of the economic integration of forced migrants. Particular attention is paid to testing the hypothesis that there are significant differences between them and other migrants in the risk of unemployment and in access to the primary job market. Results from this study show a higher risk of unemployment than for other migrants but no difference in their access to regular employment.

In addition to women's increased educational attainment and institutional settings, also changed orientations toward family to achieve full life-satisfaction have been underlined to explain low fertility rates. Since Southern and Northern Italy differ for the institutional and economic setting, cultural orientations regarding the importance of family as well as fertility rates, also for Italy it seems reasonable to suppose that the latter are caused by both 'structural' and 'cultural' factors. We argue that South-to-North migrations could be an interpretative key of geographical differences in the timing and number of childbirths. In fact, migrants are socialized to different familiar behaviours, although they share with Northerners the same institutional and economic setting. We use data from the Italian Households Longitudinal Survey and apply event history models to Italian men's transition to parenthood. Our results show that North-South differences in the transition to the first child are largely explained by different levels and patterns of female labour market participation, while preferences could have a crucial impact in the transition to the second child, where migrants and Southerners are equally much faster than Northerners. We think that these results contribute to both the literature about fertility determinants and long-term consequences of migrations. © The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved