Migration and (legal) irritants. Italian family law and gender equality

The essay focuses on the intersection between the evolution of Italian family law and some examples of “migration dilemmas.” The analysis of such a topic starts from the underlying opinion that, in the field of the family, the image of women as depositories of biological and cultural reproduction must be rejected not only when it flows from migrants, but also when it is espoused – in a two-way and ambivalent sense – by the majority as well. In taking this approach, the essay aims to compare cases relating both to migrant and Italian women, not so as to find the “domestic counterpart” of migration case-law, but to uncover the paternalistic attitudes very often shared by minority and majority groups.