Social integration refers to a state of substantial and consensual involvement by all subjects, whether collective or individual, in a society’s general system of institutions, norms, and values.
An example is the social integration related to the phenomenon of migration from the south of Italy to the north in the first postwar decades, in particular in order to look for work. One of the first definitions of social integration dates back to the mid 1960s. Under this definition, social integration is the “mutual exchange of human experience on the psychological level ... a cultural exchange from which a broader and more mature perspective emerges, which must involve an insertion of the immigrant into the new social structure as a vital and functional part that enriches the whole” (Alberoni and Baglioni, Sociology Studies Year 2, Fasc. 4, October-December 1964, pp. 347–70). As evidenced by the definition, these migratory movements should not lead to the formation of ghettos in the cities and metropolitan areas; such ghettos are avoided because of an attitude of openness on the part of the immigrants, and a capacity for reception and insertion, and for accompaniment and dialogue on the part of the resident population.
The first definition of the social integration of foreign immigrants was coined by the first Commission for Integration, established in 1998 within the Ministry for Social Solidarity. The definition was taken from the Commission’s first report on immigration, published in 2000, which described social integration as “a process of nondiscrimination and inclusion of differences as part of a continuous and daily attempt to maintain both universal principles and particularisms, which prevents situations of marginalization, fragmentation, and ghettoization that threaten social balance and cohesion and affirms universal principles such as the value of human life, the dignity of the person, the recognition of freedom for women, and the development and protection of children, principles about which no exceptions can be granted, even in the name of the value of differences between peoples” (art. 40 of the Presidential Decree 5/98 establishing the Commission for Integration).
The goal of integration into the job market cannot be described merely as the need for beneficiaries to achieve economic autonomy at the end of the 12-month project, but rather as the need that they become an active part of local economic networks, becoming not only income earners but also possessors of rights with respect to their labor contracts. In this way, economic autonomy becomes economic integration into the local job market and into the relevant legal framework and social context.
The subjects interviewed frequently referred to integration as a path on which the protagonists are the immigrants who must enter into a new community, understand its rules, and learn its history, culture, and language, as well as the host communities, which must be open to gaining an understanding of the languages, cultures, and sometimes religions of diverse people, and to applying that understanding to the Italian context.
As respects integration into the job market, the Humanitarian Corridors program benefits from a number of legal and economic instruments, including “job grants” available as a result of European and national contributions and traineeships at various local companies financed by the diocesan Caritas for a short time. Both of these mechanisms are aimed at establishing personal contacts between employers and beneficiaries, who, having recently arrived in the area, often face great difficulties in developing these contacts and in understanding how the local job market works in terms of the competencies needed and the types of jobs that are available.
