La cittadinanza marginale. Pratiche di rappresentazione ed espressione della cittadinanza dei/delle migranti residenti nel distretto di San Lazzaro di Savena (Bologna)

The research project was developed through five main stages which were realized in the course of four years, between december 2002 and december 2006: definition of the problem, preliminary analysis, data gathering, data analysis, presentation of results. The research has the aim of realizing a study on the practices of citizenship activated by the people who are in a condition of social marginality. The definition of the problem has been carried out through the analysis of the basic literature- national and international - concerning the social exclusion, the civil participation and the right of citizenship in postmodern and intercultural societies leading to the definition of the theoretical frame of "marginal citizenship". Thanks to a preliminary analysis of the context which was developed in the course of two years in Bologna, we were able to focus the area of the survey and the subject of the study in the practices of citizenship of the immigrated people living in San.Lazzaro District (Bologna),with a case study on the Moroccan people who represent a meaningful percentage of inhabitants in the six small towns of the above-mentioned area : San Lazzaro di Savena, Ozzano dell'Emilia, Monterenzio, Monghidoro, Loiano e Pianoro. During the preliminary analysis, as required by the Committe against the social exclusion of San Lazzaro District, the research project became firstly an instrument to examine the quality of life and the level of participation of the immigrated people in the life of the community where they live. Secondly it became part of an analysis of what was necessary (both at district and province level) for the creation of a institutional representative body for the immigrated people living in the area. At the same time, with the collaboration of local accounts, we have defined the instruments of data gathering. so that they could be integrated with the characters and the needs of the context where, in a second moment, they would be applied. In our work on the field we have used the following instruments: a questionnaire on the relationship with the local community addressed to 98 immigrated people living in San Lazzaro District; two series of deep semi-structured interviews on the practices of citizenship with eight men and eight women of Moroccan nationality living in San Lazzaro District; a focus group with three young Moroccan women living in San Lazzaro District on the meaning of living in a country where they weren't born. The observation of the context and the data collection allowed us to describe the migratory dynamics in San Lazzaro District, the relationship between the immigrated residents and the local community and their practices of civil participation. Starting from the empirical results, we defined a profile of the practices of citizenship of the migrants living in the above-mentioned district and their role and effect on the local system of citizenship. The results of the preliminary context analysis allowed us to describe the migratory dynamics and the policies of insertion, reception and organization of the new residents coming from foreign countries. The results of the questionnaire showed the effects that these policies and intervention strategies can have on the relationship between the immigrant people and the new local community in which they live. Finally the case study on the residents coming from Morocco, which was realized through in depth semi-structured interviews and a focus group, deepened the representations that the migrants, in the described conditions, develop of their being citizens and their practices of citizenship in a new territory. Besides the registration of the information and the discourses which are more meaningful for the study object, it was very important the observation of the kind of interaction that each of the three means of enquiry created. In fact the three different instruments of gathering information originated discursive and reflexive practices on citizenship in interactive situations which differ in the level of mutuality between the two participants (interviewer and interviewed). This led to find out some important features of the practices of participation activated by marginal people. The conclusions of the research project allowed us to build a model which is coherent and empirically documented about the practices of citizenship realized by the people immigrated in the local community we examined. On this basis we tried to verify the opportunity of the development of a plural citizenship in a local community starting from the projects and the practices of participation that the marginal citizens activate. The research work has finally favoured a wider reflection on the practices of marginal citizenship and their reflexive and retroactive function in connection with the citizenship system in a postmodern and intercultural society.