Measuring the Integration of Immigrants: Critical notes from an Italian experience

The paper describes an instrument developed in Italy by the ISMU Foundation to measure the level of integration of immigrants present in the country. The instrument consists in an index based on data collected by means of a structured questionnaire. The paper first describes the technical characteristics of this instrument and the main results obtained from its first and experimental use with administration of over 12,000 interviews in Italy. There follow some critical notes on the limits and potential of the application of synthetic indexes in the analysis of migratory processes, and particularly in study of the integration of immigrants.