Beyond the Complementarity Postulate. How Immigration Challenges the Sustainability of Italian Accumulation Regime

The European migration regime has been traditionally based on the temporary labour model. Coherently with the processes of social construction of migrants’ role, this model has encouraged migrants’ “natural” concentration in the lowest ranks of the professional hierarchy which, in turn, has produced a condition of structural disadvantage, often transmitted to the second generation too. Despite the significant efforts for the inclusion and the equalization of migrants and their offspring, migrants’ participation to the labour market continues to mirror a model of subordinate incorporation. This latter, in its turn, is consistent with many phenomena typical of current accumulation regimes which have implied a general degradation of working and retributive conditions. The Italian experience is emblematic, as proved by many indicators which show a tendency towards the ethno-stratification of the labour market and the society. All these phenomena make migrants’ condition paradigmatic with regard to the sustainability of the current accumulation regime.