The differential impact of the legal status of migrants in Italy on transnationalism: just a matter of time and integration?

This study constitutes one of the few attempts to assess the varying impact of different types of migrant’s legal status on their transnationalism, and to investigate to what extent these variations can be explained by differences in their length of residence and level of integration. Integrometro, a large-scale migrant survey conducted in 2008–09 in Italy, allows us to compare holders of dual nationality with those who have a long- or short-term residence permits, and with undocumented individuals. Variations in strength of transnational ties across these groups are examined for four dimensions separately and simultaneously: remitting, return intention, feelings of belonging to the country of origin, and interest in the home country. Findings show that migrants with a short-term residence permit or no documents are the most transnational, followed by those with a long-term residence permit or other types of authorisation; the least transnational are migrants with dual citizenship.