Negotiating Italianità: Ethnicity and Peer-Group Formation among Transnational Second- Generation Italians in Switzerland

Many studies focusing on the second generation have looked at how migrant youth create new spaces of belonging, shaped by the plural social systems in which they grow up. Drawing on research on second-generation Italians in Switzerland, this paper analyses such processes of negotiation and discusses the importance of peer groups.

It looks at the various positionalities developed by members of the second generation and demonstrates that rather than solely motivated by ethnicity and shared culture, these are also shaped by factors such as shared interests with peers. By moving away from a primary focus on ethnicity, which dominates research on migrant youth, the paper shows why members of the second generation consciously or unconsciously reify or disregard their migrant backgrounds.