Giovani italiani a Madrid: un percorso di ricerca sociale

Our paper presents a path of social research on young Italians in Madrid. After a brief description of our research field – the new emigration of young Italians after the 2008 crisis – we present our research pathway, which includes two steps. The first step is a quantitative analysis of the foreign population in Madrid, with a special reference to the Italian community. The second step is a series of qualitative interviews with young Italians aged between 20 and 39 years and living in Madrid. The main results obtained in this regard are discussed with reference to: (1) the professional training path and integration into the local labor market, (2) a comparison between the Italian and Spanish reality, (3) attitudes towards the country of origin and the possibility of return, and (4) life in Madrid and the territorial identity of the young people interviewed. As a conclusion, we point out that the migratory choice of young Italians is based primarily on a comparison between the level and quality of life in Madrid and Italy, a comparison that apparently shows the superiority of the Spanish capital with respect to Italian cities. Moreover, among young Italians in Madrid is emerging a distinction between two paths of emigration: a reactive one, motivated above all by the difficulties and failures of life in Italy; and a proactive one, motivated above all by the desire to experience new life and work opportunities abroad.