UNESCO Chair on Population, Migrations and Development

The Chair “Population, Migrations and Development” established in 2008 aims to further develop the long-term objective of building capacities in teaching and researching, promoting a multidisciplinary scientific approach in the field of development, population and migrations.

The Chair acts as a laboratory creating new knowledge and ideas in order to promote cultural diversity and to work out new scenarios for the future of international migrations.

Education

The Chair offers bachelor courses on Demography, and Population, Migrations and Development, and master courses in Population and Development, attended by Italian and foreign students. The Chair also offers post-graduate and PhD courses on Migration theories and challenges and is actively engaged in promoting quality education for immigrant and refugee students.

The Chair is actively engaged in student and scholar exchanges with prestigious national and international universities and research centres. Among the most recent, it’s worth mentioning the PhD exchange with the University of Dodoma (UDOM) - United Republic of Tanzania, and the scholar exchange with the Ukrainian State Dragomanov University Kyiv.

Community engagement

The Chair undertakes activities aimed at fostering inclusivity for migrant and refugee students in the framework of national and international project:

• “Student Mentorship: towards an Italian Network of Inclusive Universities”, promoted by IOM, the Chair implemented a comprehensive mentorship program, significantly contributing to building a more diverse, tolerant, and inclusive University;
• “UNI(di)VERSITY - Socially responsible university for inclusive societies in the era of migration”, co-funded with the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. Activities have been focused on supporting EU HEIs’ efforts to welcome refugee students and staff, increasing knowledge about outstanding and transferable HEIs’ strategies and approaches towards diversity and inclusion and raising awareness amongst the European academic community concerning the social responsibility of HEIs on inclusion in relation to migration.

Research

As part of the Unesco Chair projects, various research activities have been carried out in the framework of national and international projects, covering the most debated issues of demography, migration, and development.

The core of the Chair’s research activity is the study of population structures and dynamics. Many efforts are devoted to the demographic dimension of human mobility, international migration and issues of integration. The approach is interdisciplinary, and based on strong quantitative information and conducted with rigorous statistical methodology. Other related fields of research include population health and aging, family behaviours change, gender issues.

Current research projects:

Migrants' fertility intentions and behaviours

Understanding how families organize childcare is crucial due to its strong association with women’s workforce participation and its potential influence on forthcoming fertility choices. This research axis primarily examines the influence of formal childcare utilization and the effects of unmet childcare needs on fertility rates among mothers in Italy, with specific attention to native and migrant women. While existing research commonly views migrants as caregivers rather than potential recipients of these services, the reality is that as migrants settle in the host country, the need for childcare becomes a priority in balancing work and parenting responsibilities. Indeed, migrant status may further constrain childcare arrangements and female workforce participation , especially among migrant mothers.

Return migrations

What do migrants know about return? This research axis adopts a multi-method (qualitative-quantitative) approach, focusing on methodological aspects of using qualitative surveys, survey data, big social media data, and textual content to explore the multi-dimensional nature of migratory dynamics. This includes addressing themes such as migration routes and migrant status, aspirations and lifelong mobility, analysis of public discourse on global and European migration phenomena, and the processes of information processing and perception, as well as linguistic content shared on social networks.

Migrants’ health and mortality

Health plays a crucial role in migrant integration, yet evidence on migrant health and the effect of migration on health, healthcare use, and mortality in Italy remains limited and recent. This research axis seeks to understand disparities in health, all-cause mortality, and specific-causes of death between natives and migrants by sex and duration of stay, aiming to assess migrants’ adaptation and potential healthcare discrimination in the host country. Additionally, it explores differences between migrants abroad and their co-nationals in origin countries to gain insight into the effect of migration on health. As highlighted by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), migration serves as a significant social determinant of migrants’ health.

Racial Discrimination and Well-being

The influence of discrimination on the mental health of young second-generation migrants is a complex and multifaceted issue studied in different fields, including demography, psychology, sociology, and public health. Discrimination can manifest in various forms, such as racism, xenophobia, and cultural prejudice, significantly affecting the well-being of individuals who belong to minority groups, leading to negative psychological outcomes undermining one's social identity. This research axis aims to investigate whether the occurrence of mental health problems is influenced by experiences of racial discrimination and determine the strength of this influence among both males and females, using data from “Trajectories and Origins 2” (TeO2) survey, conducted in France by both INED and INSEE.

Migrants' participation in the Labour Market and job satisfaction

This research axis delves into the characteristics of professions undertaken in Italy in recent years in terms of workers' skills and the types of activities performed, as well as the wage gap between Italian and foreign workers to identify the factors that most significantly contribute to the observed gap. (ref. Camilla Pangallo). Additionally, in the framework of the progressive ageing of populations, it is crucial to analyse job satisfaction among older workers with a focus on natives and migrants. Low job satisfaction is associated with reduced job performance and negative effects on mental and overall health. This research aims to investigate how migration status influences job satisfaction among older workers, also distinguishing between migrants who migrated at an older age and those who have aged in the destination country.

Inequalities in education

School plays a crucial role in the social integration of children and adolescents. This holds even greater significance for students from migratory backgrounds, as it marks their initial interaction with the host society’s institutions and their introduction to a culture distinct from that of their family. This research axis aims to analyse the intriguing interplay between subjective well-being and school performance between natives and children of migrants. Additionally, with migrant students and children of migrants now stepping into university, it is important to explore differences in academic performances across Italian, international migrant and second generation students.

Cristina Giudici