Variation in transnationalism among Eastern European migrants in Italy

For a long time, migrants were assumed to assimilate inevitably over time. The classical assimilation theory argued rather convincely that the longer migrants stay in the host society, the more they will be integrated in the host society and the less they will remain connected to their home country. In reality, however, different degrees of assimilation and transnationalism occur across migrant groups. While some migrant groups are characterized by a high level of integration and a low level of transnationalism, others are marginalized and excluded in the host society and do not have strong ties with their homeland either. Moreover, some empirical evidence supports the idea that integration and transnational ties are not necessarily substitutes, but can be complements: transnational activities can facilitate successful adaptation by providing opportunities for entrepreneurship and economic mobility, high education of migrants increases political participation in the host country, employed people are remitting more money, and so on. Accordingly, the theory of segmented assimilation emphasized the importance of contextual factors in determining the degree of integration and did not consider any more the ties with the home country as a barrier to integration. Up to now, transnational migration scholars have focused on demonstrating the complementarity between integration and transnationalism and the persistence of the latter over generations. Transnationalism of first-generation migrants, usually considered as the core element of their migratory projects, is taken to some extent for granted. Less attention is paid to variations in transnationalism within migrant groups and changes in transnational practices and sense of maintaining connections over one’s life course, in particular for the first-generation migrants. Hence, this study addresses this relevant issue by examining the transnational behaviour among the first-generation Eastern European migrants in Italy, with a special focus on the relationship between duration of stay on the one hand, and the strength and manner of transnationalism and integration on the other hand. Data come from an unique dataset, the Integrometro survey, carried out at the national scale between 2008 and 2009 in Italy, a country which has started to turn into a mass immigration country since the 1970s. It encompasses a large number of Eastern European migrants (N=5534), currently representing half (49%) of the foreign population in Italy, allowing us to study nationalities that have been overlooked by migration research in transnational topics. Moreover, the data set contains rich information on different aspects of transnationalism and integration, allowing us to examine the relationship between migrant’s transnational behaviour and integration in detail.