by Camilla Azzini
Children’s rights in Action – Research in Italy
MIGRANT CHILDREN: ROMANIAN MINORS AND THEIR FAMILIES IN ITALY
In the framework of “Children Rights in Action” project, coordinated by L’Albero della Vita Foundation and co-funded by the European Union Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme.
Research was conducted from March 2011 on a sample of 242 Romanian families living in Rome, Milan and Turin. The research investigated the migration effects on children migrating from Romania with their families.
The research results show that:
• As evidenced by the research, most frequent obstacles to integration are those legal/bureaucratic procedures related to the access to healthcare and welfare systems.
• Only 75,2% of the children benefits from pediatric care. 61,1% of the interviewed families had linguistic problems related to the integration and 19% had problems with school integration.
• 93,5% of the interviewed children is regularly enrolled in school, but 12,3% of males and 10% of females lost one or more years due to their migration process.
• First in promoting the integration are compatriots already living in Italy and second are Italians, especially those whose parents worked or are still working.
• Only 9% of Romanian parents living in Italy would like their children come back to Romania.
• Most of the Romanian children living in Italy are ashamed by their nationality and they hide it to avoid discrimination related to confusion between Romanians and Roma people. In this sense, media have a central role in stigmatizing the nationality.