Abstract

In this work I seek to understand whether the migratory experience brings, in addition to economic benefits, social advantages for Italian internal migrants. The goal is to understand if geographical mobility corresponds to social mobility, if geographical mobility is a channel through which to ensure greater social mobility, and whether migration reduces inequalities both of distributive and of relational order. I use the social mobility approach based on occupation. I argue that occupational mobility is a broader and more complete social indicator than economic indicators, such as income and wage differentials, for measuring improving living conditions. Furthermore, I focus on intergenerational mobility, on changes in social class that occur from the parents’ to the children’s generation. The main hypotheses to test are the following: upward social mobility experienced by a) high-educated migrants, b) migrants who return to the place of origin after a period spent elsewhere and c) migrants who have moved to Northern Italy. For my analysis I use data from a panel survey, the ILFI (Indagine Longitudinale sulle Famiglie Italiane).