Minors and migration flows. Universal, cross and trans-cultural rights

Rome, 31 March 2008
NIHMP Conference Hall

Obiettivo Psico-Sociale non-profit association
in collaboration with

National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (NIHMP)

and

“Melpomene” Laboratory of the Faculty of Educational Science of the “Roma Tre” University

Present

Minori e flussi migratori
Universalità, trasversalità, transculturalità dei diritti
(Minors and migration flows. Universal, cross-culture and trans-culture features of rights)

Edited by Patrizia Giganti and Maria Franca Iorio
edizioni Kappa, 2008

The National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty, the Obiettivo Psico-Sociale non-profit Association and the “Melpomene” Laboratory of the Faculty of Education Science of the “Rome Tre” University present an anthropological, psychological and social work aimed at analyzing the ongoing changes among migrant minors. The book is addressed to specialists and information media workers.
Foreign minors, 678,428 in 2007, are a remarkable and growing group in Italy; it is calculated that 9% of newborn babies in Italy have foreign parents.

Minors are 18.4% out of the total of migrants and on average they are compulsory-school-age children. As new citizens they suffer from a double disorientation due to the development years and to the problems related to migration itself. Both first and second generation migrant minors experience the after-effects of being torn between the hosting society and their families.

This situation creates personal problems often leading to school dropouts, which are higher in certain communities like Bulgarians, Albanians, Macedonians and Rumanians, or to exclusion which may easily lead to illegal actions such as thefts, extortions, drug trafficking and minor prostitution, a phenomenon affecting on average 16-year girls.

The book, published by Edizioni Kappa, focuses the attention to the situation of migrant minors. It was edited by pedagogues, psychologists, educators, sociologists and doctors working to determine the characteristics and the problems of migrant minors and to meet their needs. Specific studies have been carried out on: a) the relationship between Italian and foreign minors and the violence of which black students are often victims at school; b) the right to citizenship of children born and grown up in Italy; c) the right to education; d) the protection of juridical rights; e) the right to health and access to medical services.

Very often foreign minors are the weakest and most exploited group among migrants and suffer from the disorientation caused by family reunification or from loneliness if they are unaccompanied.