MIGRAZIONI INTERNE E STRATIFICAZIONE SOCIALE NELL'ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA

After having been object of several studies, the analysis of internal migration in Italy decreased since the 80s and the 90s. The most important reasons that could explain this lack of interest are probably related to the quantitative reduction of such phenomena and to the consistent international migration fluxes that started to move towards Italy. The main aim of my work is to re-analyze this topic taking into account the relationship between internal migrations and social mobility. This theme was deeply studied in the 60s and 70s and there is a general agreement that the internal territorial mobility has not increased the possibility of upward social mobility. Nevertheless, the empirical analysis on the international migration shows that the relations between territorial mobility and social mobility are more complex and they deeply change on the basis of migrants’ characteristic. Moreover, it is well-known that the spread of migrants’ social network decreases the migration costs and, hence, raise the probability of migrate. In other words, as network expands the migration flow becomes less selective in socioeconomics terms and more representative of the sending society. The main hypotheses of my work are: a) migrants’ social network decreases the costs of the territorial mobility and make migration more likely for lowers social classes; b) when the costs of migration are lower, the opportunity of upward social mobility related to the territorial mobility could be reduced because migrants used strong ties in order to get a job. The empirical analysis is divided two parts. In first one, I analyzed the changes of the composition of the internal migration flux, and I developed a theoretical model explaining how migrants’ network affects migration decision. In the second one, I estimated the effect of migrants’ social capital on the opportunities of upward social mobility in a longitudinal perspective. The data used here are taken from the Italian Household Longitudinal Survey (ILFI). This is a prospective panel study based on biennial surveys begun in 1997 and concluded in 2005 on a national sample of around 10,000 individuals aged 18 and over. For analyzing the changes of the composition of internal migration flow during the whole last century, I have estimated some ordinal logistic model; while I have applied some event history models to analyze how networks affect both the occupational careers and the social mobility processes of southern Italian migrants.