Migration and intercultural studies

Social change and cultural, economic, political transformations triggered by the international movement of people and the challenges that these changes entail for institutions and civil society represent today a crucial priority for applied social research.

Synergia with its great experience and competencies, has been developing an approach to the analysis and the monitoring of the migratory phenomenon and related integration dynamics focused on their historical development, social characteristics, cultural and economic specificities, all aspects impacting on the processes of social inclusion. We use quantitative analysis and monitoring tools based on sets of indicators, integrated by interdisciplinary qualitative field work, combining theoretical approaches from sociology, anthropology, demography, economics, psychology, history and urban studies.

In the past few years we focused on labour insertion, taking into account also health related aspects, housing needs, problems connected to cohabitation and conflict with the local communities, as well as on the interaction with local services and on the necessity to develop innovative models of mediation and intercultural education.

Synergia has been also analysing emerging phenomena, like the new transnational families and the second generations of migrants, the processes of lobbying and social and political participation of groups and migrant communities, the issue of ethnic business and self-employment.

Within the framework of empirical research and the support to policy planning, we also reflected on the issue of multiculturalism, on new scenarios of citizenship definition, on the factors and conditions of development of social cohesion in urban settings, on recent co-development transnational experiences.