Discrepancies Between Aspirations and Practices During the Transition to Adulthood: Transnational Families in a Life-Course Perspective

• In Event: Constructing Possibilities for Equal and Inclusive Education

Abstract

The socio-economic inclusion of the children of immigrants’ is a crucial challenge for equality and social cohesion in contemporary societies. However, during the transition to adulthood, disadvantages related to the migratory background persist. Yet, the experiences of youths with transnational families becoming adults are still little explored, especially in the southern Europe.
The paper investigates from an intersectional and life course perspective the trajectories of 56 families with immigration background, starting from the school experiences of the children who graduated in Italy in 2012, 11 of which were re-contacted between 2019 and 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. Based on the analysis of 104 interviews with 56 children, 17 parents and 22 key informants (staff of schools and educational services), the article explores the gaps between aspirations, expectations and practices concerning the transition from secondary to tertiary education, the entry into the labor market and the transition to parenthood, through a longitudinal qualitative approach.
The research highlights the role of school tracks, intergenerational exchanges and the segmented labour market in shaping the children of immigrants’ transition to adulthood. Migrants’ previous educational paths tend to influence their post-graduation trajectories, trapping those who attended vocational institutes in secondary level qualifications. Students’ expectations regarding the transitions to adulthood, their peer groups, the transnational families’ economic resources and intergenerational obligations effect the children’s perspectives on tertiary education, as well as their expectations and experiences in the labor market. Job insecurity and gender discriminations are associated with childlessness or postponement of the transition to parenthood. Higher education is seen as a means of overcoming these difficulties and becoming middle-class adults.
The advantages of using the transnational family as a lens through which understanding aspirations and experiences becoming adults emerged, at the intersection of gender, generation, class, citizenship.

Author

• Arianna Santero, University of Turin