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The paper analyzes the role of the so-called second generations concerning the issue of the «marriages of convenience» between Italy and Ethiopia. The work ethnographically analyzes the relation between transnational marriage alliance and citizenship value beyond its finalistic perspective. Drawing on the analysis of the social structures allowing transnational mobility through marriage, I will use a mobility perspective to analyze the «convenience» of this phenomenon from children of immigrants’ side. The paper aims at shedding light on the social value of citizenship between second generations involved in this phenomenon beyond its instrumental value, and as a gauge of social legitimation. By connecting marriages with their social positioning in a transnational social space and considering the social structures reproducing their differential relation in the national public space, the paper will show how «marriages for mobility» can well be considered as practices of Italianness among second generations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]