Migrants’ Attitudes to Informal Childcare in Italy and France. A Complex Relationship between Country of Origin and Country of Destination

Eleonora Trappolini, University of Milan-Bicocca
Elisa Barbiano di Belgiojoso , Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca
Stefania Rimoldi , Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca
Laura Terzera, Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca

Childcare is one of the exigencies that emerges once migrants have established themselves in the emigration country with their family. However, migrants’ childcare choices are still an under-researched issue. Using the ‘Social Condition and Integration of Foreign Citizens’ survey (2011-2012) for Italy and the ‘Trajectoires et Origines’ survey (2008-2009) for France, we examined differences in the need for informal childcare and parental childcare choices between the migrants living in the two countries. This comparative analysis is an interesting case study because we assume that parental choices may depend both on migrants’ country of origin, and on the considered context and institutional setting of the host country. Results suggest that migrants’ choices are the result of a complex relationship between norms and beliefs of the country of origin and the context of family policies and the availability of public childcare services in the destination country. We found that the use of informal childcare is higher for migrants in Italy than in France even among the same origin areas. Nevertheless, childcare solution varies across migrants’ country of origin reflecting cultural values and beliefs. Finally, we also detected that the household composition and the occupational status of parents strongly influence migrants’ choices of childcare.

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 Presented in Session 4. Migrant Populations: attitudes and contextual factors