B029129 - SOCIOLOGY OF MIGRATIONS

Italian

In the first part of the course: the historical and contemporary causes of
migration; the multilevel governance of immigration policies; the
difference between economic migration and political migration. In the
second part of the course: the concepts of integration and citizenship in
comparative terms between the first generation of immigrants and the
children of migrations.

Ambrosini, M. (2020), Sociologia delle migrazioni, Il Mulino, Bologna (third
edition).
Acocella, I. (2018), Islam in Europa; tra processi di deterritorializzazione
e nuove forme di contestualizzazione, in Ivana Acocella e Renata Pepicelli
(a cura di) Transnazionalismo, cittadinanza, e pensiero islamico. Forme di
attivismo dei giovani musulmani in Italia, Bologna, Il Mulino, pp. 23-45. Attending students will replace the texts with the teaching materials that
will be inserted on the moodle platform.

The course aims to provide students with conceptual and analytical tools
for the study of migration in a sociological perspective. At the end of the
course, the student will have acquired: a general framework on the main
interpretative models of international migration; the ability to use the
appropriate language and sociological categories referable to the figure
of the foreigner and to the models of interaction between the migrant
and the society of arrival; the methodological skills to detect, analyse and
interpret the main transformations of contemporary societies following
migration processes; awareness of the main challenges in developing
effective interventions related to the governance of the phenomenon.

None

Lectures and discussions with students.

Political Science students
The examination will be oral. The acquisition of knowledge of the
conceptual and analytical categories of the sociology of migration
presented during the course will be assessed, as well as the student's
ability to use these tools independently, including for a contemporary
analysis of Italian society.
Social Work students
The examination will be in written form. The written test consists of three open
questions, having the same assessment objectives of the oral exam.
Students from other programs
wiill be able to choose between the oral or the written form of exam.

In the first part of the course, theories (macro, meso and micro)
concerning the explanation of migration processes will be discussed in
order to develop different lines of analysis to understand the
phenomenon. The main dimensions of the international and national
governance of immigration policies will also be addressed, with a focus
on the difference between economic migration and political migration.
Attention will be paid to the various categories underlying the figure of
the “migrant”: “regular migrant”, “illegal immigrant”, “non-EU citizen”,
“EU citizen”, “worker”, “reunited family member”, “asylum seeker” and
“foreign minor”. The aim will be to highlight how these categories do not
depend on “natural” attributes of the migrant, that they are not rigid or
unchangeable, but rather affected by the imprinting of the regulatory
system in the country of arrival. In the second part of the course, the
concepts of integration and citizenship will be dealt with starting from
different theoretical paradigms. The topics will be discussed by
comparing the first generation of immigrants and the children of
migrations. The focus will be on the concept of “methodological
nationalism” and its epistemic consequences on the study of migration.
In particular, the aim will be to highlight the role of migration in the
processes of transformation of contemporary societies.