Families without borders? The case of new Italian migration to Paris

Since the financial crisis of the late 2000s, young adults from Southern Europe - and Italy in particular - have taken to the road of exile once again. These new migrations, still little studied, are presented in the media as a brain drain. Through an ethnographic survey of Italians recently arrived in Paris, this book proposes a different approach, focusing on the role of the family. The new Italian migrations involve young graduates from a precarious middle class, who are highly dependent on the support of their families of origin. Three Italian households living in Paris were followed over a two-year period, along with the members of their "practical kin" mobilized in their daily lives, and residing in Italy, France and Europe. The book revisits the concept of the transnational family, usually studied in the context of migration from the global South, to show the specific forms it takes in the context of European integration. While family reunification policies are increasingly restrictive for migrants from countries outside the Schengen area, the free movement regime confers on European citizens a "kinship privilege", generating new ways of making family across borders and original forms of transnational social protection.