New Italian migrants in the UK and Germany: Adaptation, work experiences and issues of identity and citizenship

This report is the second detailed account on Italians’ intra-EU migration within the framework of Growth, Equal Opportunities, Migration and Markets (GEMM) project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Focusing on new Italian migrants’ arrival to the UK and Germany, their adaptation, work experiences, and issues of identity and citizenship, the present report aims to contribute to the emerging literature on Italians’ mobility and lived experiences to other EU destinations. The report contains four parts. The first part analyses empirical material concerning the coping practices of Italians with the institutional environment, and how those who arrived without pre-arranged job get their first employment. In particular, it explores how they cope with barriers when dealing with public administration, and how they overcome difficulties in finding a job due to the lack of language proficiency. The second part focuses on new Italian migrants’ work experiences. Starting from their first steps upon arrival and impressions about the new working environment, it casts light on migrants’ employment paths, that is occupational trajectories and opportunities to make a career; the representations of their position in the labour market; questions of discrimination; and, changes in the way they find job abroad. In the third part, attention moves to migrants’ family and social life in the new context. It highlights aspects related to housing, that is what resources are used to find shelter upon arrival, and how neighborhood is selected. Then, it focuses on issues regarding migrants’ friendships, leisure time, contact with family and friends in Italy, and interest in political affairs of Italy and the new context. Finally, the fourth part brings to the fore issues with respect to citizenship acquisition, identity and sense of belonging. On the one hand, it explores strategies that Italians adopt concerning the acquisition of citizenship in the destination country, and on the other hand, it analyses migrants’ self-representations with respect to their identity and sense of belonging. Brexit effects are also examined in this respect.