M. Carolina Brandi, Le migrazioni qualificate dall’Europa dell’Est verso l’Italia / Skilled migrations from Eastern Europe toward Italy (Presentazione / Presentation pp. 515-519), pp. 515-699

Sveva Avveduto, Adriana Luciano, Introduzione / Introduction, pp. 520-522

M. Carolina Brandi, Modelli interpretativi e politiche di accoglienza delle migrazioni qualificate / A comparative analysis of skilled migration models and immigration policy, pp. 523-541

The scientific debate concerning the representative model of skilled migration started about half a century ago, but it is still far to be concluded. Two schools of thought are confronting each other, one claiming that the concept of “brain drain” is still valid, the other sustaining the thesis that, in the present “knowledge based society” skilled migration must be considered as a “brain circulation”, bringing positive effects to both to the host and the sending country. Though recent studies revealed that, in the present day, the classic push and pull analysis of skilled migration is no more valid, on-field researches have demonstrated that the “brain drain” model of skilled migrations is still the one that better describes the migration of intellectuals and professional (mainly in the health care sector) from a developing country to a developed one, even when positive effects on the sending country, such as economic and cultural remittance are taken into account. Despite of the scientific debate, it is a matter of fact that the immigration policy of most of the developed countries are presently tuned to maximize the arrivals of skilled immigrants. Two strategies are applied in order to obtain this result: a demand-driven one, where the selection of the immigrants is basically left to the employers or an offer-driven one, where the would-be migrants are encouraged to apply and then selected on the base of a scoring system. However, it has also been shown that there is no way to ensure the complete compliance between the demand and the offer of foreign skilled work: the increasing flows of skilled migrations are thus also generating the increase of the so-called “brain waste” phenomenon.

Roberta Ricucci, Il riconoscimento delle competenze: un percorso ancora complesso / The recognition of qualification: an obstacle race, pp. 542-556

Various studies have progressively shown that many immigrants coming to Italy are highly qualified in terms of professional skills. In the meantime it is more evident the mismatch between qualifications and insertion in the labour market. This article focuses on the issue of non-recognition of foreign educational credentials in Italy, describing, through the survey data, the various difficulties immigrants meet in their attempts: bureaucracy (both in Italy and in their countries of origin), lack of proper information and shortage of money and time to invest in order to collect all necessary documents.

M. Carolina Brandi, M. Girolama Caruso, Loredana Cerbara, L’inserimento nel mercato del lavoro degli immigrati altamente qualificati provenienti dai paesi dell’Europa dell’Est: i risultati di un’indagine qualitativa / Job insertion of skilled immigrants from the Eastern European: results of a qualitative survey, pp. 557-579

Within the framework of the National Research Council project launched in 2009 on the subject Job insertion of skilled immigrants from the Eastern European countries in the province of Roma, a qualitative survey was performed on the current situation of graduate immigrants (mainly residents in Roma and Torino) coming from Eastern European countries. The survey examines the job and social insertion of highly qualified migrants from Eastern European countries in Italy, focusing on the correct use of their skills, the problems associated with the recognition of their educational qualifications and access to the professions. It is clear that the push factors for this particular migration flow are definitely more important than the pull factors: in practically all the cases the process actually stems from an unsustainable economic situation in the country of origin due to the mechanisms triggered by economic changes produced by political changes. The majority of highly skilled Eastern European migrants has chosen Italy as its country of destination because many of their relatives and friends, from whom they can usually obtain essential help in the early stages of their migration, already live there. Multivariate analysis and clustering techniques allowed us to recognize five groups inside our sample: a small group of “fully satisfied workers”, who get a good jobin their respective fields relatively easily; three groups encompassing migrants with different situations before and after their arrival in Italy, who had a moderate success. These three groups gather one half of our sample. Two more groups include workers who are presently in serious trouble and the migrants who definitely failed to properly fit in the Italian labor market.

Enrico Allasino, Roberta Ricucci, Tra il sapere e il fare immigrati qualificati dell’Europa dell’Est a Torino/ Between knowing and doing: Eastern European killed immigrants in Torino, pp. 580-607

The paper focuses on the characteristics of immigrants coming from Eastern Europe to the Piemonte region (and specifically Torino) and their insertion in the labor market. Economic needs and family reasons are the main causes that push them to leave their home countries. This is why it is impossible to consider this group as an expression of skilled migration: they are highly qualified but they are not looking – in the first instance – for a qualified job. They know, especially women and men at the age of forty to fifty, that they can easily find a job in the domestic and building sectors, and they accept these low-qualified jobs even though they are teachers, engineers, technicians. Previous skills and abilities come out afterwards and sometimes they guarantee a kind of a career: men become entrepreneurs while women become cultural mediators, nurses, and social workers.

M. Carolina Brandi, Intellettuali romeni a Roma tra brain drain e brain waste / Romanian Intellectuals in Rome on the threshold between brain drain and brain waste, pp. 608-627

This paper analyzes the peculiarities of the Romanian high skilled migrations in Rome through the “life stories” of many Romanian intellectuals who migrated to Italy collected in 80 in-depth interviews. It emerged from our interviews that highly qualified Romanian immigrants can be subdivided into a minority that has succeeded in finding a job corresponding to their qualifications, another group that has succeeded in obtaining, usually at the cost of huge efforts and after many years, a satisfactory position, though in a sector that is different from their qualification, and the ones that have instead been trapped in a situation of underemployment. Many of the causes of dissatisfaction and failure plaguing skilled Romanian migration are red tape involved in obtaining visas and work permits, when Romania was not yet a member of EU, failure to get official recognition of their qualifications, and lack of intellectual labor market in Italy.

Andrea Pelliccia, Storie di migrazione e di lavoro: il caso dei polacchi nella provincia di Roma / Stories of migration and work: the case of Polish in the province of Rome, pp. 628-557

This paper analyses the life stories of Polish high skilled immigrant workers who live in Rome. By the interaction of some theoretical levels belonging to the macro area (structural, economic, political and cultural variables), the meso area (social and migration networks) and the micro area (individual factors and family strategies), I argue various issues on the subject. I start off with the reconstruction of their lives in their country of origin and with their migration plan within a wider historical analysis of Polish immigration in Italy. On the socio-cultural side, I try to comprehend the social inclusion process and I focus on the presence of a chain migration and of the Polish social network (formal and informal) useful, for example, for finding a job or for reinforcing the sense of cultural belonging. The analysis of the academic and career paths plays an important role in looking into possible problems with the correct use of the professional skills and acknowledgement of the university course credits in the light of the brain waste. Finally, I try to understand the Polish high skilled immigrant workers’ future plans and how they are influenced by the outcomes of the migration projects.

Teresa Ammendola, Ana Alejandra Germani, Il mercato del lavoro della provincia di Roma: il contesto e il punto di vista degli osservatori esperti / The role of qualified immigration in the Province of Rome: the context and the viewpoint of privileged witnesses, pp. 558-681

The following article offers an analysis of the role of qualified immigration in the labor market of the Province of Rome from the viewpoint of privileged witnesses working in different institutional frameworks (trade unions, entrepreneurial associations, voluntary groups and local authorities such as the Lazio Region, the Provincial Administration and the Municipality of Rome). The first part of this paper proposes a quantitative analysis of the presence of foreigners in the Province of Rome and the main traits of its labor market according to the main statistical sources available in this territorial domain. The second part corresponds to the main results of a focus group and a series of qualitative interviews sponsored by the Provincial Administration’s Statistical Bureau. The principal objective of the qualitative analysis is to confront the viewpoints of privileged witnesses on some of the most controversial issues regarding qualified immigration and the local labor market.

M.C. Brandi, M.G. Caruso, L. Cerbara, Le opinioni degli italiani sulle migrazioni qualificate dall’Est Europa / Italians opinions on East European skilled immigration, pp. 682-699

A telephone survey dedicated to collect information concerning the opinions of Italians on the Eastern European skilled immigration, performed in January 2010, shows a country mainly concerned by unemployment, where just a minority, but not a negligible one, believes that immigration is a serious problem and Eastern Europe is only superficially known. However, many believe the Eastern European immigration is excessive and not a few are convinced that it increases the rate of criminality. In this framework, our survey shows an attitude concerning skilled migration from Eastern Europe much more benevolent than the one concerning general immigration from the same area. A large majority of our compatriots actually believe that it is appropriate that a graduate could practise his profession in any EU country, that it is wrong that a graduate from Eastern Europe receive a lower wage than an Italian performing the same job, that Eastern European graduates do not take jobs away from Italian graduates. Furthermore, Italians believe appropriate to enrol Eastern European graduates for qualified jobs when qualified Italian workforce is inadequate to the demand. This benevolent attitude does not explain the frequent cases of failure and the much more frequent cases of success only after a long and hard process of social ascent of Eastern European skilled migrants. In our view, these facts can be explained in two ways. First, the lack of qualified jobs in Italy, due to the peculiar nature of the Italian economy, forces most of the Eastern European graduate immigrants, fleeing from unemployment in their home countries, to accept unskilled jobs. Second, when graduate immigrant enters in this low level segment of the job market, they are not recognized by Italians as members of an elite group, but confused with the mass migration from Eastern Europe with regard to which Italians are much less benevolent.

Franco Pittau, Antonio Ricci, I romeni in Italia e il rischio di una integrazione al ribasso / The Romanians in Italy and the risk of a bearish integration, pp. 701-714

This article offers a general view of the presence of Romanians in Italy, its evolution and the reception accorded to them. It refers to official statistical archives and field researches as its sources in order to outline a common cognitive basis in which to insert the different in-depth analyses conducted about this collectivity.

Silvia Carbone, L’imprenditoria cinese a Messina / Chinese entrepreneurial activity in Messina, pp. 715-737

The inclusion of foreigners within independent business is one of the main aspects of immigration in Italy which is considerably growing. Sometimes immigrants find in the entrepreneurial activity the only possibility of social growth and mobility. If on one hand, this aspect brought about a variation of several typologies of jobs carried out by immigrants residing in Italy, and on the other hand it changed our economy by giving a dynamic and innovative contribution to it and increasing the competition on the market. Moreover, autonomous social-cultural activities organized by immigrants are becoming widespread, facilitating in this way the process of integration with the local people since the source of autonomous income reduces the risk of social exclusion and micro-criminality. This research on Chinese entrepreneurial activities in Messina aims to an in-depth analysis of the social and cultural dynamics which brought the Chinese entrepreneurial reality to a success within the Italian economic system. Through a direct analysis of Chinese immigration within a regional context, the author tries to focus on the situation of the city of Messina by investigating the phenomenon under a demographic and quantitative profile in order to better identify strategies and modalities of the professional insertion of Chinese entrepreneurs. At the same time, it tries to point out the opinion and reaction of the local people towards these silent workers who are perceived as a threat by local traders and restaurateurs.

Alessandra El Hariri, Seconde generazioni e associazionismo / Second generations and the tendency to form associations, 738-757

Today migration is at the heart of an emotive public debate in Italy. Italian approaches to issues of migrant reception and integration, like those of any country, must be read on one hand in the context of advanced globalization and, on the other, in the light of historical and cultural factors specific to Italian society. These are particularly relevant when discussing second-generation migrants, who represent a sort of “test case” and a privileged observation post for the capacity of integration in our society. The emergence of a second generation brings to the surface new issues of integration and access to resources. In fact, second generation migrants are often cut off from access to resources that are in contrast readily available to their Italian counterparts. This gives rise to a strong demand for forms of aggregation that keep pace with the times and allow the development of a collective identity. Hence the drive towards the forming of associations, which represents the only possible path since a return to the country of origin is no longer an alternative: the second generation have grown up in Italy and feel Italian.