This project contributes to the important and growing field of family and migration studies. While most studies of migration focus on economic and political aspects, it is now well known, yet under-researched, that families and family relationships are critical to successful settlement. With the movement to European Union of increasing numbers of migrants originating from outside Europe, ‘migrant families’ have become crucial for migration policies and public opinion.

The notion of the family has become politicised as a trope, a site of expression of diverse moral orders, set of beliefs and values, ideas and practices by reference to which migrant groups are identified. In many Western societies, public discourse typically represents immigrant families as ‘problematic,’ their cultural practices reckoned unacceptable for pragmatic or ideological reasons. Beyond this external perspective exists the real practices enacted in diverse sectors of family life (parenting, in our specific case) which show a more complex and multi-faced situation, one of hybridation of knowledge and practices. How these processes are entailed can say much about social inclusion/exclusion in specific contexts. I use the domestic/private sphere of the family to ask questions of marginality and marginalization, social inclusion, connection and security, the relationships between cultural values and personal goals.

This project focuses on migrant families and their social inclusion in Trentino through the analysis of parenting practices. The domestic sphere is very meaningful for this aim because the family stage depicts migrant women at a crucial point of interface with host country services through pregnancy and early childhood needs. The project explores –through qualitative research- the interrelationships between immigration, social inclusion, motherhood/parenthood and personal and family identity. It will be examined how experiences of resettlement and parenting interrelate, and the tensions that emerge as women negotiate state institutions associated with resettlement and parenting.

Researchers: Roberta Raffaetà (referent), Silvia Gherardi (supervisor)
Period: 2010-2013
Funding: Co-funded by Marie Curie Actions - Marie Curie 7PQ PCOFUND-GA-2008-226070-TRENTINO