Women on the move and successful integration. The challenge of decentralised reception in the city of Bologna

Abstract

The prolongued lack of attention to the multidimensionality of migrations’ feminization in migratory studies and the over-mediatisation of the landings have resulted in a gradual proliferation of reductive representations of women in migration, mainly linked to passivity and innocence. The article analyses some situations in which the intersection between being migrants and being women emerges as a determining factor in the life course and in particular in the integration processes of asylum seekers and refugees in the landing Country. Therefore, the italian reception culture and the role of the former reception system (SIPROIMI) will be analyzed, paying particular attention to some possible paths to follow in order to enhance successful integration processes, which are respectful of all kinds of membership. The theoretical reflections will be accompanied by the results of a small qualitative research carried out in a reception house for women and single-parent family units of the former reception system (SIPROIMI) in Bologna. The research is aimed at investigating some possible strategies to set up individual integration projects that respond to the needs and desires of the women welcomed in the reception house and that tend to their greatest possible autonomy.