Schooling for two futures: Italian Associations on the Education of Italian Children in Switzerland (1960-1980)

Source: https://www.academia.edu/download/57824684/SchoolingfoTwoFutures_2015.pdf

Abstract

In the post-war era, millions of Southern European workers migrated north for employment. This
economically driven labour-migration had strong socio-political consequences – especially in the field
of education. The compulsory education for the children of the migrated workers proved to be a
challenge for the authorities of the sending and receiving countries as well as for the immigrants
themselves. This paper focuses on the educational policies of Italian associations in Switzerland in
the 1960s and 1970s, which corresponded to the immigrants’ uncertain situation between temporary
sojourn and permanent residence in Switzerland. In the view of the Italian organizations, the edu-
cation of their children had to be aligned for a possible school career either in Switzerland or in Italy.
They agreed that educational disadvantages in Switzerland had to be avoided as much as possible, as
the chance of reintegration into schools back in Italy had to be guaranteed. Thus, they were in search
of the best schooling for two possible futures. However, in the long run it was not only their struggle
for an adequate education for migrants’ children, but also a new law in Italy that succeeded in trans-
forming elements of compulsory schooling in Switzerland towards a more transnational education.