Crossing Differences : How Young Children of Immigrants Keep Everyday Multiculturalism Alive

This paper examines how children of immigrants use difference in their everyday relations. After a brief critical discussion of how difference is usually conceived in the actual debate about multiculturalism, it proposes a sociological definition of difference stressing its ‘practical’, mundane, and contextual uses. Informed by theoretical approaches to difference which emphasise its political nature, the paper explores the mundane and continuous work of production and overcoming of distinctions–a work, the product of which, requires a certain degree of credibility and stability in order to be effective but that risks losing its effectiveness if it cannot be adjusted to the specificities of the context in which it is used. Interviews with adolescent children of immigrants in Italy show how difference constitutes a relevant tool for claiming recognition and respect as well as demanding inclusion and participation. They also show how to be able to cross differences and identities passing from one context to another is one of the most significant skills for young people living in a multicultural and global world.