Researching Integration in Multiethnic Italian Schools. A Sociological Review on Educational Inequalities

The article offers a review of the main sociological studies on school integration of students with an immigrant background, carried out in the past 15 years in Italy. Italian research on this topic is still not recognized at international level, but Italy can be considered an interesting case study due to the recent, rapid and exponential increase of immigrant students and the contradictions emerging from the attempt to turn an inclusive educational model into integration practices. The review identifies educational achievements and interethnic relationships as crucial components of school integration in multiethnic schools, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of the Italian sociological research. Finally, a model for the analysis of school integration of immigrant students will be proposed, which combines individual, relational, institutional, structural, and personal agency factors.