La ricerca approfondisce il processo di costruzione di identità di genere ed etniche in migrazione, attraverso l’intreccio di più assi di rappresentazione delle proprie appartenenze: l’asse dell’etnia, del genere e della classe. L’approccio metodologico parte dalla ricerca-azione per proporre un modo di condurre ricerca impegnato, relazionale, emozionale, il cui scopo è promuovere individui e gruppi in logiche di empowerment sociali. Il metodo privilegiato è l’etnografia, svolta in contesto transnazionale, basata sulla costruzione di relazioni di fiducia e combinando metodi visuali, interviste biografie e ricerca tra pari per ricomporre il quadro multifaccettato dell’esperienza dei giovani migranti e raggiungere un’ampia gamma di attori impegnati, con ruoli diversi, nella realtà studiata. L’esperienza migratoria dei giovani rom connette il Sud Ovest della Romania a Milano, attraverso dei circuiti e legami di parentela transnazionali. I giovani partecipanti nella ricerca sono coinvolti nello spazio delle economie della strada, praticano quotidianamente l’elemosina, la musica di strada o il borseggio. Alcune pratiche, nell’incontro tra gruppi in migrazione, si polarizzano in posizioni antitetiche, arrivano a simboleggiare la tradizione e a mediare la differenza tra i rom e i non-rom oppure tra gruppi diversi di rom. Tale lo statuto delle pratiche di genere associate alla verginità, ai matrimoni e al controllo dei corpi e della sessualità delle giovani ragazze. Attraverso il mantenimento della forte distinzione tra le traiettorie di genere, gruppi portatori di stigma rivendicano attributi identitari valorizzati: una sistemazione famigliare essenzialmente diversa, utilizzata discorsivamente per riproporre la differenza, in termini etnici e di statuto, nei confronti del gruppo “maggioritario”, e degli altri gruppi rom. Giovani uomini e donne contestualizzano gli scenari, le stilistiche dell’esistenza, associate alla tradizione come all’“occidentalizzazione”, e separano le loro performance di genere tra i diversi spazi della loro vita in migrazione. Definiscono nuove appartenenze in grado di costruire identità valorizzate e ricompongono permanentemente il sistema di pratiche, in un continuo dialogo tra “noi” (i gruppi di appartenenza) e “io” (l’identità individuale). / The research is focused on the process of gender and ethnic identity construction in migration, on multiple axes that represent migrant’s belongings: ethnicity, gender, and class. The methodological approach is based on the action research perspective and proposes an engaged, emotional and relational way of doing research, in order to promote individuals and groups in social empowerment processes. The privileged method is ethnography, in a transnational context, based on building relationships of trust with participants and combining visual methods, biographical interviews, and peer research in order to narrate the complex picture of migrant youth experiences and to reach all the actors involved. Young Roma’s migratory experience connects the South West of Romania to Milan, in transnational circuits and kinship networks. The participants are involved street economies: they beg, play music, or pickpocket on a daily basis. Some of the practices, in the encounters between groups in migration, come to symbolize tradition and mediate difference between Roma and non-Roma, or between different groups of Roma. Such are the practices related to the virginity of young girls, matrimonies and the control over the bodies and sexuality of young girls. By maintaining strong distinctions between gendered life paths, stigma afflicted groups reclaim valued identity attributes related to an essentially different family order, discursively used in order to re-state ethnic and status differences between “us”, the “majority” group, and other Roma groups. Young men and women contextualize these scenarios, the traditional as well as occidental “stylistics of existence”, and separate their gendered performances in the various spaces of their migrant life. They define new belongings able to construct valued identities and permanently challenge the systems of practice, in a continuous dialogue between “us” (in-group) and “I” (individual identities).

Domestic, not foreign affairs drove Soviet policy on Jewish emigration during the period of 1968-1989. This study challenges the prevailing view that fluctuating levels of exit from the USSR were correlated to the climate of relations between the USA and the USSR. The analysis also considers Soviet-German emigration for comparative perspective. Extensive historical background, with special emphasis on Soviet nationality policy is provided.

This thesis is on the Turkish-speaking community, comprising Turkish-Cypriots, Turks from Turkey, and Kurds from Turkey, and ethnic community football in London, which has been conceptualised as a transnational social field. It is intended as a contribution in the debates on the growing importance of issues of diasporic communities, their identity politics, and cultural integration in a context of ‘super-diversity’. There are three major analytical themes. The first is transnational diaspora politics, which is redefined to comprise any relationship of power or interest by mobilising diasporic connections. I argue that the Turkish-speaking community uses ethnic football as a means for communal mobilisation around and representation of their ethnic identity in the public space of London, a city of unique political-economic and symbolic significance for the Cyprus Conflict which helped create the Turkish and Greek Cypriot football leagues in London. I show that the Turkish-speaking community has ever since used football to create and maintain a bridge between London and all the different locations of the community including Cyprus, Turkey, Germany, and beyond. The second major theme is collective identities and how they are (re)produced, represented, and manifested in the diaspora. I argue that the nature of the field of ethnic football as a familiar, open, and welcoming space conveniently positioned between the Turkish-speaking private sphere and the British/Londoner public space has been a major factor accounting for the effectiveness of various identity projects to be pursued within this field. Lastly, after presenting the historical link between modern competitive sports and masculinity, I claim that the one defining aspect of all the ethnic identities reproduced within the field is their masculine character. The last analytical theme is the cultural integration of immigrant communities. Without adopting a normative definition of cultural integration, I have considered the implications of involvement in ethnic community football in terms of belonging, social inclusion, marginalisation, and the psychological development and well-being of the individuals involved. The presented and analysed discussion rejects any automatic causal link between involvement in sports and integration or that involvement in mono-ethnic sporting organisations and segregation. Having reviewed a few exemplary organisations, which used football for integration purposes, and the nature of the ethnic community leagues, I have also argued in this thesis that the field of ethnic community football, again due to its specific nature, structure, and position between the private and public spaces, offers a great potential to be engaged by local and national governments in the service of integration policies.