Italian, but not too much. The challenge of the second generation

While everyone is focusing on the migrants crossing, the asylum seekers and the ports people want to close, the main challenge for a long term vision of migration in Italy is actually the integration of the second generation. A heterogeneous population of around 1.3 million people, 826,000 of whom are children in school and 30,000 are university students. Not everyone likes the term “integration”. Some people prefer the milder “coexisting” or “interaction”, while others use the more political “inclusion”. Integration that is cleansed of misunderstandings requires three different dimensions: the first is structural (find a decent job); the second is relational (establishing a network of friendships); and the third is personal (develop the necessary skills to be part of society). We must question whether the public institutions and society as a whole are promoting the actions needed to stimulate the integration of this second generation. The issue of citizenship is a typical example.