Intergenerational transmissions in
Italian migrant families in Wales
Bianchera, E.*, Mann, R.* and Harper, S.*
*Oxford Institute of Ageing, University of Oxford;
** School of Social Sciences, Bangor University
Outline of talk
• Background to the project, aims, proposed
methodology
• Piloting fieldwork and research activity to date
• Background to Italian migration to Wales
• Emerging knowledge and themes on
intergeneration exchanges
Research focus
• Project Details:
– Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant: “Intergenerational
relationships in bilingual families in Wales” - Harper, S. (PI), Mann, R.
(Co-I) and Bianchera, E. (RF);
– February 2010-January 2012;
• Key research themes:
– Comparative focus on Welsh speaking and Italian families in Wales;
– To examine cultural practices and processes of cultural change (e.g.
acculturation) through a comparative focus on ‘minority’ families in Wales
– Specific focus on family practices in shaping ethnic identities, and in
supporting language transmission, and of the role of grandparents within
this;
– Further understanding of grandparenting and intergenerational
relationships through their application to bilingual/minority language
settings;
– Thereby developing intergenerational approach to understandings of
culture and ethnicity;
Comparison of Italian and Welsh speaking families
• Migrant and “non-migrant” minority settings;
• Intergenerational/family transmission of the Welsh
language;
• Intergenerational exchanges in Italian communities;
• Salience of language to family cultural and heritage
transmission;
• Gender and lineage differences;
• Development of comparative framework; similarities,
differences, matching family structures, social class
backgrounds;
Mixed/Qualitative Methods
• Interview data: Collection of life history autobiographical narratives, in-depth
interviews,
• Relational data on family structures, kinship and community networks; Family
questionnaire, constructing family trees;
• Observational data:, “family focus groups”: observing intergenerational
dynamics in family/community settings (events, gatherings, occasions)
• Secondary analysis: history and archives on Italian immigrants to Wales;
Research and analysis of contextual documents;
Sample and Gaining Access
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Participant families to be accessed via grandparents through initial contacts with
associations, community organisations;
Research locations: Welsh speaking grandparents in North West Wales and Italian
grandparents in South Wales;
Four groups of grandparents: Welsh, Italian and mixed language, with 5 families per
group:
– 1) Welsh/Welsh
– 2) Welsh/English
– 3) Italian/Italian
– 4 Italian/English
At least one member per generation will be interviewed, with an overall number of 5060 interviews;
Grandparents to selecting on the following basis:
– Grandparents of Italian birth, Italian mother tongue, resident in Wales, with
descendent siblings (parents and children aged above 18);
– Grandparents of Welsh mother tongue, resident in Wales, with descendent
siblings (parents and children aged above 18);
Piloting fieldwork, research to date
• ACLI (Catholic Association for Italian Workers); Archives, Little
Italy, Clerkenwell;
– Recently carried out oral history project about Italian emigration to Wales
– Provided access to archives of pictures and interviews; and contacts with
potential participants;
• ‘Amici Val di Ceno Galles’ (Italian-Welsh Association)
– Pilot interviews with two committee members;
– Attendance of talks at conference in St. Fagans National History
Museum: ‘Italians in Wales, a love and War affair’;
• Participant observation at Annual Welsh Italian meeting
‘Scampagnata’;
• Planned attendance of Festa dell ‘emigrante’, annual gathering of
Welsh Italians in Bardi, Italy. Possible contact with Welsh
Italians who moved back to Italy;
• 14 Italian and Mixed families have thus far agreed to take part in
interviews and for possible inclusion in sample
Intergenerational exchanges in Italian communities
• Mediterranean welfare state has been characterised as
‘familialistic’ or ‘kinship-solidarity’ model (Naldini 2003,
Saraceno 2005, Trifiletti 1999);
• Exchanges of family care giving and interaction between adults,
older parents and children occur with greater frequency in Italy
than in northern European countries (Tomassini et al 2004);
• Strong intergenerational ties are manifest through high levels of
co-residence and spatial proximity (Glaser and Tomassini 2000);
• Research on transnational Italian families points to the
maintenance of intergenerational connections and family culture;
• Cited characteristics of Italian migrant families have included:
- high rates of ethnic endogamy; significance of food culture
and consumption; close family bonds; frequent care
exchanges; emotional use of language; (references)
Italian migration to Wales
• Small but not insignificant literature base in Italian
migration to Wales (Hughes 1991,) and more broadly to
UK (references)
• Italian immigration to Wales, mainly South Wales,
began end of 19th century, reaching its peak after the
second world war (1950s)
• Migrants came mainly from 2 areas: Bardi and the Ceno
Valley (Parma), and Livi (Lazio); with smaller
percentages from other areas; but all from the North of
Italy;
• Predominant focus has been on migrants from Bardi,
setting up businesses, catering, cafes.
The Bardi community and ‘café culture’
• Bardi is a small town in the Province of Parma, Italian region of EmiliaRomagna;
• High unemployment pushed most of its inhabitants to emigrate to Wales;
• Between 1918 and 1945, there were more Bardi migrants in Wales (1500) than
Bardi inhabitants (500) (Hughes 1991);
• Integration of Italian immigrants in South Wales perceived as ‘smoother’ than
in France, Germany or US (Hughes 1991, Bugitti 2009);
• Choice of niche trades (cafes, fish and chips, ice cream shops) mean that were
not perceived as an economic threat or in competition with local Welsh
workers;
• Comparative small numbers of immigrants compared to larger waves of
Italian immigration elsewhere.
Welsh-Italian families: intergenerational dynamics
• Current community of Bardi migrants consists mainly of
grandparents who moved in the 1940s/50s and their extended
families;
• First generation Italians who emigrated in the 1950s composed
mainly of Italian couples or single men who married local Welsh
women or returned to Bardi to find wives;
• Dense social life among migrants; continuity of endogamy in the
second generation;
• Establishment of several cultural associations in 1970s,
organising events, trips to Bardi, publication of newspaper;
• Connections to Bardi, many Welsh Italians would buy a second
house in Bardi and retire there;
• Maintenance of grandparent (Nonno) home in Bardi;
• Economic connections through import businesses of Italian
products;
Extract from Pilot interview
• “Our generation will never lose it. Cause we had it. We
had it, we never lose it. We actually we gained a lot
from it because we had the best of both worlds. We
used to be in Wales, speak in English, then able to go to
Italy, understand all of the culture and speak in the
language…The third generation would have gone a step
better or worse if you like. Although they were diluting
they were able to go to University, and get the proper
Italian degrees, because of their capability in the
learning side of it they were able to choose whether
they go to Italy and have a proper job in Italy…so they
gained by that they had a better choice. That’s the
difference between the generations having
opportunities in Italy and here. Are you with me?”
Next steps
• Further theorising on the relationships between
culture, ethnicity and language;
• Finalising methods, interview guides and
selection of families;
• Interviews with Italian families to begin
September 2010;
• Initiating contact with Welsh speaking families
(January 2011).