Mixed Marriages a Primary Dimension of Interculture

As has already been pointed out several times in recent years by the Caritas Dossier, which is an important reference for those who deal with immigration, an important reference point for those who want to realize the state and the migratory dynamics in our country, immigration is a structural dimension of our society, both in terms of integration into non-marginal sectors of the labour market. , and in terms of genuine social inclusion. This is, moreover, a phenomenon whose indicators have been increasingly consistent, especially since the second half of the 1990s.

An indicator of the extent and social roots of immigrants is mixed marriages, which have been defined by Mara Tognetti Bordogna as unions consisting of “a bond that is created between an indigenous individual and a foreigner” and which in fact constitutes the encounter between two cultures, in terms of lifestyles and habits in what we might consider one of the primary relationships of the social fabric (Mara Tog Bordonettigna , Family ties and immigration: mixed marriages, L’Harmattan, Turin, 1996).

This makes this type of union an important relational reality of an intercultural type, where the effects of the encounter and comparison between cultural worlds often very distant from each other, not necessarily conflicting, are expressed on a daily basis.

Mara Tognetti Bordogna, who has been dealing with the topic for years, provides oasi readers with a concise and exhaustive picture of the current state of mixed marriages in Italy, both in statistical terms and in terms of reflection on the current modalities and dynamics of the phenomenon.

Mixed marriages in Italy: trends and dynamism