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This study examines the determinants of the overeducation phenomenon among migrants in Lombardy, Italy, and how it has evolved over the last 14 years. The target population consists of legal and undocumented individuals with original citizenship from countries defined as 'high migratory pressure countries', who declared themselves as 'employed'. Italy has one of the highest rates of overeducation among non-EU citizens in the European Union, and there is also a significant gap between the overeducation rates of Italian nationals and non-EU citizens in the country. The study explores various factors contributing to overeducation and how the individual and migratory characteristics affecting it evolved. The chosen period encompasses years affected by the consequences of the economic crisis and the pandemic emergency. A significant time effect, different according to gender, is detected: more specifically, a decrease in the probability of being overeducated in the post-crisis years in comparison with the preceding ones for men. More years since migration and having attended primary or secondary education in Italy appear to significantly lessen the likelihood of overeducation. Predicted probabilities demonstrate that being a woman and originating from certain countries, such as some eastern European non-EU countries (Ukraine and Moldova) and the Philippines, disadvantage foreign workers in terms of overeducation.

Childcare is a need that inevitably emerges once migrants establish themselves and their families in their destination country. However, migrants' use of informal childcare still constitutes an under-researched phenomenon. Using data from the ‘Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens’ survey (2011–2012) for Italy and the ‘Trajectoires et Origines’ survey (2008–2009) for France, this paper examines differences between migrants living in the two countries in terms of their use of informal childcare and, more specifically, their informal childcare arrangements. We employ a comparative analysis because we hypothesised that parental choices would depend on the migrants' region of origin, the institutional context of their destination country and the interplay between these two elements. The results suggest that migrants' choices stem from a complex relationship between the norms and beliefs of the country of origin and those in the destination country, which are generally characterised by different family policies and levels of childcare availability. We show that the use of informal childcare is higher among migrants in Italy than it is among those in France, even among migrants from the same region of origin. The results also suggest that the use of particular informal childcare arrangements varies by region of origin regardless of destination country, supporting the hypothesis that migrants' cultural values and beliefs play a critical role in determining childcare arrangements. Finally, we demonstrate that household composition and parents' occupational status strongly influence migrants' childcare choices.

Poverty is a multidimensional concept that, besides the economic status and financial resources, should consider the lack of access to resources enabling a minimum standard of living and participation in society. In particular, elderly people are likely to require help with some or everyday activities and the total costs of this help can be very high and absorb a significant amount of their income, especially when they are alone and not in good health. This work proposes a strategy based on Bayesian Network to identify the risk of poverty in elderly people, relying on multidimensional indicators learned from heterogeneous sources of information, including the difficulty of accessing services, social exclusion and health status. Data cleaning and integration that include socio-demographic indicators are proposed here, and an overall framework of analysis that can be exportable to several other categories of the population at risk of poverty is presented.

The reception paths offered for unaccompanied foreign minors (UFMs) in the destination country are fundamental to acquiring the tools to enter the world of work and, more generally, build a new life, particularly the possibility of quickly learning the native language and dedicating oneself profitably to study and training. Starting from this consideration, we investigated the learning paths of the UFMs hosted by the Municipality of Milan. We identified the determinants for their successful performance by acquiring information from the minors and the operators who had them in charge. The analyses showed that staying in the reception pathway and the backgrounds of the UFMs are equally relevant to achieve positive performances. On the one hand, although many UFMs dropped out of the more structured educational pathways (CPIA and school), legal and relational inclusion impact significantly; on the other hand, the origin, the approval or otherwise of the parents to migrate, and the years of study in the country of origin are just as important to have educational results.

In this paper, we address the measurement of vulnerability at municipality level, by using novel non-aggregative tools for the construction of synthetic indicators and for the extraction of rankings, based on the theory of partially ordered sets. We compare the results of the non-aggregative procedure to those provided by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, through the Index of Social and Material Vulnerability (applied to 2011 census data) and show that, although the overall pictures rendered by the two approaches are very similar, they are not equivalent, some local areas being resolved and some municipalities being ranked differently. The synthetic vulnerability scores are complemented with a measure of the degree of diversity of the vulnerability patterns, to give a more faithful picture of the complexity of the phenomenon and provide policy-makers with a more realistic view on it.

Access to and utilization of preventive health services are diversely distributed among immigrants. This paper aims to test the impact of structural, socio-economic, cultural, and contextual factors, and to test whether the acculturation theory holds true for migrants in Italy. Based on the “Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens” survey (2011–2012), this paper shows that utilization of preventive health services among immigrants depends on structural characteristics and highlights the relevance of social interactions between foreigners and natives. Finally, the paper concludes that the acculturation model holds true for immigrants in Italy.

Couple formation and migration are the results of interrelated decision-making processes in the life cycle. Using data from the “Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens (SCIF)” survey, conducted in Italy in 2011–2012 by Istat, we aim to investigate how the timing of migration events affects the type and timing of marriages in the destination country. Time-related models investigate the competing-risk transitions to endogamous and exogamous marriages with Italian spouses. Obtained results provide evidence of the complexity of today’s migrations, and they indicate the coexistence of various patterns among first-generation migrants in Italy, characterised by a plurality of origins, with different projects and behavioural models. The “interrelation of events” hypothesis explains the transitions to both endogamous and exogamous marriages among women, while men usually spend more time finding a partner and achieving economic stability. Despite this general picture, our analysis shows different and original pathways shaping transitions to marriage by reason of migration and considering a number of demographic and migratory characteristics

In the international literature, the principal task of grandparents is generally recognized as helping their children in providing childcare. Most of those studies analyzed grandparental childcare on the whole population, and few have focused on co-resident grandparent(s), which turns out to be an understudied topic in the European context. Further, most of them investigated the effect of childcare on grandparents’ health status. However, the elderly population can both provide and receive care. Using two Italian surveys released by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, the “Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizen (2011–2012)” and the “Multiscopo–Aspetti della vita quotidiana (2011)”, the study aims to analyze differences in grandparental childcare provided by co-resident grandparents between Italian and migrant households, considering both the role played by grandparents’ self-rated health (SRH) and gender. We identify four grandparents’ profiles by combining grandparents’ SRH and their attitude towards looking after their grandchild(ren). Subsequently, we apply multinomial logistic regressions, and we compute average marginal effects to facilitate results interpretations. Results display that migrant co-resident grandparents are less likely to declare bad SRH and no-childcare and are more likely to declare good SRH and to provide childcare than Italian grandparents. Moreover, when considering gender differences, the real role is revealed: we find that women have a higher probability to report poor health and care for their grandchild(ren) than men. Such findings illustrate that grandparents’ cohabitation decision is based upon the difference between their need for care and offer to care, and second, in addition to migrant status and SRH, gender is a determinant of grandparents’ childcare: women look after their grandchild(ren) more than men, whatever their health status.

Using the ‘Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizen’ survey (2011-2012) for Italy and the ‘Trajectoires et Origines’ survey (2008-2009) for France, we examined differences in the need for informal childcare and parental preferences in childcare (grandparents, other family and extra-family members) between migrants in Italy and France according to family demographic and socio-economic characteristics, migrants’ background and contextual factors. Results suggest that migrants’ choices and preferences are strongly affected by the household composition, mother occupational status and migrants’ country of origin. Furthermore, our results highlight the role played by the destination country, which can shape migrants’ choices and options. The use of informal childcare is higher for migrants in Italy than in France, even among the same origin areas.

This paper examines the determinants of sexual satisfaction among Italian young men and women at the beginning of their adulthood, taking into account the different stages of sentimental and sexual transitions. We based the analyses on the data collected in 2017 by the SELFY Survey on a sample of 7842 university students in Italy. Results of the logistic regression models highlight that, above all, sexual satisfaction is positively associated with the frequency of intercourse within a stable and exclusive relationship. Furthermore, results highlight the essential role of all transitions, sexual and sentimental, in enhancing sexual satisfaction, both in a positive and negative direction. Religion has a positive effect too, but only among students who have not yet had intercourse, expressing a protective effect of the adherence to beliefs. Significant differences between young men and women emerged mainly concerning performance, other conditions being equal.

This paper contributes to the quantitative literature on social support networks for childcare in Italy. As italy is a country characterised by a familistic welfare model, women who lack kin-based support networks, which are indeed a useful tool in this type of countries, may be disadvantaged. We considered foreign working women that have at least one cohabiting child in preschool age, and, using large scale survey data, we defined and built their ECSEN (Effective Children Support Ego-Network). We synthesized the networks observed into five main typologies through a cluster analysis, followed by an aggregative inductive procedure. This allowed to single out the support given by kin members and by other children, and to highlight situations of potential social frailty. We then identified three situations of interest that we further analysed through logistic modeling. Results underline the crucial role of living arrangements and of kin’s availability in shaping the ECSEN, highlight that, differently from other family behaviours, cultural background and country of origin play a marginal role, and identify some Italian specificities.

The internal movements of migrants are less frequently studied than international migration, although they have important labour, social, welfare and immigrant policy implications. By assuming the family as the unit of analysis, this paper examines the mechanism of selection between the foreigners who move internally and who do not, in Italy. Hypotheses are that having a family, improved economic performance, incorrect information about the first location, and discrimination, increase the propensity to move. Data come from the Italian survey “Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens” (Istat 2011–2012). Results of the models show that internal migration is positively associated with family commitment, scant knowledge of the first destination, and no welcoming network. The paper enlarges the literature by stressing the intertwines between internal and international migration and the family commitment as the main driver of internal mobility of foreigners in Italy.

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 eflecting 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

Migrant families have become relevant in Italy during the past decade and Lombardy is one of the Italian regions with the largest foreign presence. The aim of the article is to contribute to the international debate on the relationship between couple formation and migration event. Using data from the 2010 ORIM (Osservatorio Regionale sull’Immigrazione e la Multietnicità) sample survey and event history techniques, we look at the main determinants of the transition to couple formation. The results show both the presence of significant time-related interrelations between the two events and the importance of the gender role in migration. Migrant men have a low propensity of couple formation in the period around the migration event. Their length of stay at destination is positively related to such propensity. Women have the highest likelihood of transition to couple formation in proximity to the migration event. However, interesting differences in the timing of union formation persist by origin backgrounds.

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.

Through a statistic survey on the phenomenon of crime towards the economic activities in the Milan area, this paper proposes a set of indicators of the likelihood of being a victim of a criminal event in correspondence of a specific context. The methodology allows to point out estimates on the extent of the phenomenon, its nature and incidence, as well as on its peculiarities at sectorial and territorial level.

Over the last decade the number of families in Italy with foreign members has increased considerably transforming immigrants from ‘labour force’ to ‘population’. However, the family settlement in the host country has taken place differently among migrants depending on their countries of origin. Focusing on gender and origin, we identified different family migration patterns. The analysis is based on a pooled dataset obtained from 12 repeated cross-sectional surveys (Osservatorio Regionale per l’integrazione e la Multietnicità, ORIM 2001-2012) on migrants living in Lombardy. In profiling the differences in family behaviours of migrants of different origin, the results highlight the clear role of gender. The behaviours of women and men with the same origin match revealing a specific profile

Si propone un’analisi aggiornata delle caratteristiche strutturali della popolazione immigrata presente in Lombardia, con l’obiettivo di coglierne gli aspetti più significativi assumendo, come chiave di lettura e di interpretazione dei cambiamenti intervenuti nel corso dell’ultimo anno (anche in relazione alle mutate condizioni di vita dei soggetti di interesse), le specificità e le differenze di genere.

BACKGROUND: The international literature highlights the strong impact of the high risk of childbearing shortly after migration on period fertility, thus establishing a link between reproductive behaviors and migratory transitions. OBJECTIVE: The present study aims to analyze how migration affects motherhood and the role played by country of citizenship. Although most of the literature has focused on analyzing post-immigration fertility behaviors, in the present work we follow the women for their entire fertility period. METHODS The data were collected in the 2010 ORIM survey, conducted by the Region of Lombardy and the Ismu Foundation. The survey covered about 8,000 immigrants in Lombardy, of whom 3,848 were women aged 14 years and over from less developed countries or Central/Eastern Europe. Using Event History Analysis, we applied discrete-time logit models to study the transition into motherhood. RESULTS: Moroccans are characterized by a strong interrelation effect between fertility and migration. Moroccans and Albanians are the national groups with the highest risk of having a first child during the years shortly after migration. Migration does not seem to have any effect on the fertility behavior of Romanians, who have a lower risk of having a child regardless of their migration status. CONCLUSIONS: The study confirms the importance of the interrelationship between migratory and reproductive behaviors. It also highlights the different effects by country of citizenship, where different citizenships are often associated with different migration patterns and distinct gender roles.