Italy: The Promised Land? Journeys of Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers Towards Labour Market Integration

Abstract

Migrants and asylum seekers have faced important hurdles in integrating in the Italian labour market. The segmented and ethnicised nature of this coupled with their often-uncertain residence status significantly contribute to such difficulties. Building on previous studies that looked at the role of policies and structural factors in migrants’ labour market integration, this chapter adopts a biographical perspective to investigate how pre-migration experiences as well as turning points after arriving in Italy have shaped migrants’ and asylum seekers’ labour market integration trajectories. Using biographical narratives, we look at specific events and actors (people or organisations) that marked turning points and provoked epiphanies – whether negative or positive – for the migrant. Our findings highlight the fragmentation of the Italian labour market and the many hurdles that migrants experience. They also highlight how pre-departure experiences and networks at destination contribute to building migrants’ resilience and help them turn their migration experience into a positive one.