Il capitale sociale nello studio delle migrazioni. Appunti per una prima riflessione

The essay deeps the concept of social capital and its declination in migrations studies. The thesis affirmed is that of the importance of social capital in migrations processes explications. In fact, social policies often consider human capital concept instead of that of social capital, ignoring the strong implication of the social and relational dimension in migrations causes, entrance policies and those of immigrant’s integration. In this way a fracture between empirical reality and governance policies on migrations is produced. The analysis concerns the process of immigrants’ settlement in host society underlining the ambivalent nature of sociality resources that give opportunities but, at the same time, represent some limits. Social capital is described as a collective good, specifying the risks of an excessive behaviour in civil society capacity of self-organisation and in informal resources that groups and networks have. In fact, a lot of new comers are unemployed, but most of them find the first work throughout ethnic networks, that is mobilising social capital. In this case the Author reflects on the possibility to transform the ethnic networks, so useful in migration experience, in a mechanism that may facilitate the access to social services and involve immigrants in the definition of social policies which would be able to conjugate services universality and their differentiation with the aim of personalisation. Final observation consists in a recommendation to avoid thinking that social capital could be the only solution at every problem existing in migration policies; rather, its relevance in adaptation processes may be limited at some ethnic spaces of society and labour market.