Italian Sociological Review

Introduction. Sayad and Migrants’ Descendants: A Renewed Gaze

Andrea Calabretta, Marianna Ragone, Gennaro Avallone — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Despite being widely known and cited, Abdelmalek Sayad remains an author subject to divergent representations and interpretations and frequently reduced to a superficial use of some of his most famous concepts. Contrary to this simplifying reading, Sayad’s work crosses different fields of study and is characterised by a particular reflexive depth. Through migration, the author is able to analyse the dynamics of social and symbolic inclusion and exclusion, the construction and modification of social hierarchies at both local and international levels, and social change and conflict at large. In this sense, Sayad also offers important and little explored keys to understanding the experiences and trajectories of the children of migration. This introductory contribution aims to draw attention to the way Sayad has studied migrants’ descendants, highlighting how his approach is helpful for the renewal of this field of study. The contribution concludes with a presentation of the papers that are part of this Special Issue.

Generation of ‘Immigrant’ Generations

Andrea Calabretta, Francesco Della Puppa, Marianna Ragone — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In addition to the age factor and the way in which the passage of time and history can be seen as a succession of generations, the concept of generation must also be thought of as a mode of classification that is necessarily contested. Immigration poses a question of generation that is special in that it, firstly, involves the addition of an external factor in the evolution of a society and, secondly, involves the creation of a new type of generational identification within that society. The social milieu of immigrants therefore represents a laboratory where all the latent meanings engendered by the relationships between the individuals and the group and between the different generations may be studied.

Within the State and Without the Nation: Unraveling the Nation-State’s Dual Role in the Lives of Migrant Descendants Through Sayad’s Critical Sociology

ZAKARIA SAJIR, Yoan Molinero-Gerbeau — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the dual identity challenges of migrant descendants within the system of immigration built by nation-states, drawing on Abdelmalek Sayad’s critical sociology of migration. It highlights the tension between their status as legally recognised citizens and culturally marginalised ‘others’. The discussion underlines the nation-state’s struggle to reconcile its homogeneous national identity ideals with the realities of global migration, often failing to integrate these individuals fully. Central to this analysis is the distinction between ‘state’—legal-political institutions—and ‘nation’—cultural-linguistic identities. This division places migrant descendants in a liminal space, navigating their dual identities as insiders and outsiders. The article critiques the conventional integration paradigm that places the onus of assimilation on these individuals, suggesting that nation-states should instead adapt their structures for true inclusivity. The paper calls for reevaluating the nation-state, proposing a more inclusive and pluralistic approach to national identity that acknowledges the layered identities of all citizens, especially migrant descendants. This reconfiguration aims to ensure their full participation in the nation-state’s social, cultural, and political life. By shifting the responsibility to nation-states, the article aligns with Sayad’s critique of migration policies, emphasising the need for structural reforms that transcend legal recognition to achieve genuinely inclusive practices. This approach is vital for addressing the disparities and tensions within contemporary nation-states and moving towards a more equitable society.

The Fathers’ Illusion of Redemption, Their Children’s Perception of Pain: Migratory, Family, and Intergenerational Trajectories of Italian-Bangladeshis Relocating to London

Francesco Della Puppa — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article is the result of a broader research project on the onward migration of Bangladeshi migrants in Italy who, once they have acquired Italian citizenship – and so a European passport – set off on a new migration to London, just before the “Brexit” referendum. The empirical evidence for the article comes from 40 in-depth interviews 1) with Italian-Bangladeshi men who have either already onward-migrated or are planning on doing so, and 2) with some of their children. The main motivation for this onward migration is the investment of first-migrant fathers in their children. Born and socialized in Italy, this so-called “second generation” have formal Italian citizenship, but are still subjected to processes of racialization and experience discrimination in public spaces and in political and media debates, and are also at risk of following their fathers into unskilled factory work, despite having acquired educational qualifications. The strategy for dealing with this “effect of destiny” is a “leap forward” into a context perceived – and idealized – as more meritocratic and governed by multiculturalism in which their presence would not need to be justified. However, the new migration is experienced by their children as a form of uprooting, similar to what their fathers experienced.

Descendants of Migrants in the Italian Context: The “Social Construction of Illusion”

Davide Girardi — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For the past two decades, young people with a migration background or born in Italy to immigrant parents have progressively become an increasingly important component in numerical terms, especially in a country marked by a demographic crisis that is now well established. Nevertheless, this numerical prominence has not yet been translated into adequate social recognition. On the contrary, the repeated stalling of proposals to reform the institution of citizenship suggests that it is possible to use Sayad’s category of “illusion” to speak of the “social construction of illusion”. This paper analyses the characteristics of this process, which sees the children of immigrants who grew up or were born in Italy particularly affected in the following dimensions: a flattening of linguistic requirements within schooling, without the opening to a broader socio-cultural recognition; a reduced social mobility compared with their parents, reinforced by the phenomena of educational channelling; a symbolic invisibility continually reproduced by the lack of reform (by birth) of the institution of citizenship. In this framework, the “voice” dynamics implemented by young descendants of migrants (especially through associations) constitute an important attempt to deconstruct this process. However, there is a need for inclusive policies with a strong symbolic connotation, capable not only of increasing the actual chances of social mobility of young descendants of migrants, but also of getting them out of the illusion of a “quasi-citizenship”. Only in this way will it be possible to prevent the “frustration of second generations”.

Not Just Holidays. The Social and Symbolic Significance of Summer Returns for Tunisian Descendants

Andrea Calabretta — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sayad describes migrants’ holidays in their country of origin as a pathology that highlights the contradictions of migration (2001), from the guilt of emigration to the mutual accusations between migrants and non-migrants (Sayad, 1999a). Hence, it is interesting to look at summer returns from the perspective of the ‘illegitimate children’ of migration, that is migrants’ descendants (Sayad, 1979a, 1979b), who are characterised by an even more ‘ambiguous’ positioning between the society of immigration and that of emigration than their parents (Sayad, 1994).

Based on these premises, this paper examines the summer return experiences of 35 migrants’ descendants, focusing on their relationship with native peers and families of origin and analysing their representations of their home country. It draws on qualitative interviews conducted in 2020–2021 with Tunisian descendants who grew up in Northern and Southern Italy.

Inspired by Sayad’s insights, this paper uses the holidays of migrants’ descendants in Tunisia as a means to explore their positioning in symbolic struggles and social hierarchies, both in their country of origin and in Italy. Rejecting the idea of a ‘homogeneous’ migration (Sayad, 1977), the paper links the diverging holiday experiences of research participants to different ways of ‘integrating’ into both societies, reaffirming the continuity of the emigration-immigration nexus.

The Embedded Experience of Racialised Space. The Case of the Descendants of Algerians in Marseille Through the Sayad’s Gaze

Marianna Ragone — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this contribution, we will attempt, in line with the legacy left to us by Abdelmalek Sayad, to start from spatial conditions in order to analyse more broadly the national/not national representations made by the descendants of Algerians, born and raised in France. The investigation will be based on ethnographic research carried out in the Belsunce neighbourhood in Marseille, which began in September 2022 and ended in September 2023. The questions the research aims to answer are: what is the representation of spaces made by young descendants of Algerians? How does the neighbourhood participate in the production and reproduction of the national/non-national categorisation (Sayad, 1979) that affects the descendants of migrants? The article therefore questions the description of Belsunce made by some young descendants of Algerians women and men who live there or work there. Through their words, their reflections and the observation of the spatial practices they implement, it is possible to notice how Belsunce, and therefore Marseille as a whole, is the product of the persistent effects of the colonial organisation of space and also how the neighbourhood participates in the reproduction of processes of colonial categorisation and racialisation; French/non-French, national/non-national, civilised/uncivilised, integrated/barbarians. Confirming that space is not only structured but also structuring.

Islam as a Reaction to Exclusion: The ReDiscovery of Muslim Identity Among Arab Immigrants’ Descendants in Marseille

Enrico Maria la Forgia — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For many “Beurs” - a slang word referring to French citizens who are descendants of Arab immigrants - (Sayad, 1994), Islam is a marker of identity (Ballard, 2018). Since they are often identified through negative stereotypes by French whites, the construction of Muslim identities might be understood as a coping mechanism against racism: Islam can provide a positive identity. In this frame, Sayad’s approach could enlighten the re-discovery of Muslim identity among Arabs’ descendants. In fact, despite “Beurs” are not proper immigrants, they seem to experience a double absence (Sayad, 1999). On one hand, their Frenchness is questioned by white French, on the other, they are physically absent from their grandfathers’ homeland. Hence, for many of them, the myth of the return does not entail a physical movement to the ancestral countries but a re-discovery of Islam as the main feature of their personality and community. The paper analyses some of the patterns of identity retrenchment enacted by “Beurs”. We ask: How does this identity-retrenchment take form? Which actors are involved? How is it connected to the exclusion operated by the French State? The research, conducted in Marseille between 2019-2020, draws on 33 interviews with “Beurs” and key informants (heads of cultural/religious associations) and considers the analysed identity retrenchment as intertwining with the ethnic-based exclusion enacted by the French State - that imposes a hierarchical ethnic classification of the national population (Avallone, 2018) -, and as a reaction to a modern continuum of Sayad’s double absence: Their trajectories are hence more understandable.

Between Shadows and Knowledge: Doing Sociology in Time of War

Gustavo Dias — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Book review of Amín Pérez (2023), Bourdieu & Sayad Against Empire: forging Sociology in Anticolonial Struggle. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Sayad Abdelmalek (2014) – L’école et Les Enfants de L’Immigration. Paris: Seuil, 238 pp.

Andrea Calabretta — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Book review of Sayad Abdelmalek (2014). L’école et Les Enfants de L’Immigration. Paris: Seuil.