SEARCH RESULTS

The Settling dynamics of immigrant populations differ according to their own perception of the very periurban areas there are moving into. Such areas have developed specific characters and processes of attracting and including the new-coming groups of migrants. The hypothesis we are putting forward is that the groups of migrants can credit a periurban area with a sense of home, and can recreate solidarity bonds within the periurban area they settle down into, according to which opportunities the area itself provides them with. Settling dynamics are aimed at both defensive goals (e.g. one’s identity and peculiarity) as well as active and expansive goals, such as the utilitarian fruition of available resources, which change the periurban structure.

Il contributo illustra l’esperienza di un percorso di ricerca-intervento, realizzato dal gruppo dell’area di Psicologia del lavoro e delle organizzazioni dell’Università Cattolica di Milano presso la Direzione Affari Generali della Regione Lombardia. L’iniziativa ha coinvolto 38 dirigenti impegnati in un processo di cambiamento orientato allo sviluppo di una cultura organizzativa centrata sui risultati e la trasversalità operativa. Il lavoro di ricerca è stato drammaticamente attraversato dall’incidente che ha portato allo schianto di un velivolo sul grattacielo Pirelli, sede amministrativa della Regione. Il tragico evento ha determinato il generarsi di processi di coinvolgimento ed attivazione organizzativa, caratterizzati da partecipazione, efficacia, innovazione, che i dirigenti avevano prefigurato come aspettative di cambiamento migliorativo per il futuro. Vengono approfonditi i rapporti tra l’emergenza legata all’incidente critico e le conoscenze organizzative, sviluppate e consolidate nella precedente azione trasformativa e formativa realizzata in Regione. La possibilità di consolidare nei processi organizzativi quotidiani l’impiego delle nuove conoscenze apprese dipende da un lavoro di sviluppo delle condizioni nelle quali i soggetti si sentano autorizzati ad attivare le loro risorse e conoscenze implicite, anche in assenza di emergenze drammatiche.

Italian emigrants in Canada between cultural and economic aspects The article is divided into four parts, beginning with the presentation of the context of the problematic at hand; the analysis of the background is next, followed by the re-contextualization of the object of analysis, and finally a gamut of points of view is rendered. The analysis is contextualized through the role of Canada as the host country, and thus the new frame of reference, to several waves of Italian migration ending around the early fifties of last century. Notwithstanding this historical richness, the person who had left Italy for Canada is generally still seen as a stereotypical figure (poor, uncultured, generally from the south of Italy), and not worthy of any greater recognition. Such an experience can be brought to focus around, then summarized according to, the role of the ‘oriundo’. The oriundo is that particular figure the mask of Italian displacement which can be ‘spectacularized’. A case in point would be the in-depth analysis of the role of the multimedia operation CHIN International in terms of identity-formation paradigms and their application in the Italian Canadian community. Another important aspect, as far as this oriundo construction is concerned, is the historical event of the internment of Italians during WWII. An historical event that is assumed to have laid the base for a certain reality of division within the Italian Canadian community. This division is still felt today in political terms since it is still being argued whether such a move by the government of Canada was indeed necessary the corollary being the request by certain representatives of the Italian Canadian community for the Canadian government’s acknowledgement of this ‘injustice’. In short, the experience of the political internment disrupted a linear, historical sequence of immigration in Canada and contributed to a ‘silencing’ of the experience.