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In Italy, 9.2% of school students come from a migrant family. Of these, 55.3% were born in Italy itself. With the data revealing a situation in which these young, second-generation migrants face educational disadvantages that lead to structural inequality and social injustice, we ask: which adults are supporting them during their education? We present results from a qualitative study that, to date, has involved 25 young adults from migrant families. The data highlight the importance of primary and secondary agents of socialisation, though they more clearly decry the isolation that 'differentness' brings. The institutional context (schools, job market, welfare/citizenship policies) generates unintentional segregation that leads to social exclusion. In Italy, two issues come to the fore: (1) the inadequacies of the school system (curriculum, teacher training, support of L2 acquisition); and (2) citizenship laws that penalise second-generation migrants.

This study involves 35 research participants: 20 immigrant parents (primarily mothers from South America, North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East) and 15 primary school children, aged 10-11. These children were born outside Italy and primary school was their first encounter with the Italian educational system. We observed their processes of integration through their stories and those of their parents. Our investigation aims to identify factors that support or inhibit their school integration. We adopt an ecological research paradigm, proposing a vision of knowledge as rooted in natural life contexts, focusing on subjectivity. Analysis of the data led to identification of core categories concerning these families' experiences and their children's encounters with Italian schools. This paper focuses on the children's perspectives of their experiences with school.