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Integration Lab
Puglia
The Division for Citizen Security, Migration and Social Anti-mafia Policies of the Regional Presidency draws up the three-year plans for migration policies. It oversees and coordinates the activities for Puglia Region relating to policies on reception, social and health care, integration and training for migrant populations.
Visit the website PUGLIA INTEGRAZIONE, the portal dedicated to the Apulian integration projects.
As one of the six regional partners, Puglia tested the tools and instruments developed under REGIN. It informed and worked with public officials and stakeholders to understand the key role of integration in providing social cohesion (training and capacity building sessions) and promoted and facilitated interactive and innovative activities to foster inclusion.
In collaboration with the CPMR, it also supported the selection of regional practices and experiences for a database and linked interactive map to highlight the learning process of developing actions and instruments to promote inclusion and integration in European regions.
PILOT INTEGRATION ACTION
MIGRANT YOUTH AS CULTURAL BROKERS, A FOCUS ON FAMILY-SCHOOL INTERACTION
The Region of Puglia conducted a pilot study (in Italian) on migrant youth as culture brokers. Culture brokering (CB) refers to the ways in which children and youth with a migrant background serve as mediators between their families and aspects of the new culture.
Quite often, young migrants enact these roles in the family-school interaction. This situation has become exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic during which many migrant families experienced intersectional disadvantages with online learning, as many did not have an in-depth understanding of the Italian school curriculum and requisites.
There are several risks related to CB, but the literature also sheds light on potential opportunities for young people. Young migrants behaving as culture brokers may feel protective of their family members thus enhancing their self-esteem; further, they may increase their cultural competencies thus pursuing positive psycho-social adjustment; overall CB could be understood as an active form of migrant youth participation in school and community life.
Indeed, it is crucial to get an in-depth knowledge of such a situation to foresee interventions to foster young people’s well-being: in-depth interviews with young migrants, their parents and teachers were conducted to gain information about CB, how these practices relate to acculturation processes, psycho-social adjustment and well-being of migrant youth as well as family-school communication and parents-children relationships.
In this respect, a qualitative methodology was used according to the ecological standpoint and action-research approach that values the mutual interaction between subject-environment and participants’ perspectives on their own experiences. In line with an emic perspective, the qualitative method was chosen to understand how migrants perceive the culture brokering mediation activities to avoid ethnocentrism.
For further information about Puglia’s pilot integration action, please check our REGIN Catalogue of Integration Actions.
REGIN project
Projecte finançat pel Fons d’asil, migració i integració de la Unió Europea
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