Agency e capitale culturale come fattori di integrazione di donne migranti in Sicilia

Abstract

This study analyses the integration process in Sicily carried out by migrant women. It goes beyond the emergency narratives formulated in recent decades and focuses on their agency and the cultural capital they have at their disposal ex ante and which is gradually implemented in the countries of entry. Based on ten biographical interviews with highly educated women who have been residents for a long time, the study highlights their role as “outsiders within” in an intrinsically dynamic process. Cultural capital is not understood, in a “rucksack approach”, as a burden, but as a transformative resource that requires negotiation, validation and new forms in situ. The acquisition of the Italian language emerges as a fundamental step, acting as embedded cultural capital that facilitates the overcoming of relational barriers and the conversion of cultural resources into social capital, which also allows for a more general reevaluation and reappropriation of one’s identity. Integration is therefore shown to be a complex process, requiring the ability to navigate and transform cultural and social capital in order to overcome institutional obstacles of varying degrees.