9 - Italian Families in Switzerland: Sites of Belonging or ‘Golden Cages’? Perceptions and Discourses inside and outside the Migrant Family

Summary

Introduction

We celebrate every birthday together and then we are all together at grandma's place, and we also celebrate Christmas there … the family is the most important, you know, among the Swiss I notice, I ask them, ‘When did you move out of your parents’ place?’ and they say ‘At 17’. Then I ask ‘Why?’ And they say: ‘Because my parents restricted me’, the Swiss just take the step, they leave and have no more connection to the parents, it's really different … For me it's really the most important … to have a family that works, to see each other, it's a pleasure, isn't it?

Luca, whose views are cited above, is a second-generation Italian born in the German part of Switzerland in 1972. His parents had migrated from Sicily in the early 1960s. He grew up in an extended network of kin and was raised by his parents and his grandmother, together with his cousins. This large network of relatives provided him with social and emotional stability during his childhood and adolescence, and spending time with his cousins and his uncle of the same age group strengthened his association and identification with other Italians. His relatives were not only family, but also peers with whom he could share many interests during adolescence. Luca is proud of what he sees as his ‘typical Italian family’ characterised by frequent contact with parents and siblings, big family gatherings and a strong sense of support within the family. The family is not just an important element of his everyday life, but through notions of what he sees as ‘the typical Italian family’ he also asserts his Italianness. By pointing to his Swiss peers’ disconnection from their family, he emphasises the difference between himself and the majority society, and distances himself from the Swiss.

In contrast, Antonio experienced his family as a ‘golden cage’. According to him, Italian families ‘always meddle with your businesses’. He was born in Naples and came to Switzerland at the age of two. He revolted against his parents’ expectations of upward social mobility and against their wish for him to marry an Italian woman. Today, he does not have many Italian friends in Switzerland and pities his sister who is married to an ‘oppressive Italian husband’ and perfectly fits into his parents’ expectations.