The migrant’s case: From a multicultural paradigm to intercultural discourse processes.

The research aims to analyse the development of cultural and social identities according to general changes in the family structure of Italians who migrated to the United States. Important was the generational gap within the family structure. Therefore, the interests of this study are mainly focused on interactions and discourses according to generational factors. 20 hours of video-audio recordings have been collected, interviewing family members of Italian origin, migrated to Memphis and Philadelphia (USA). The recordings contain both face-to-face dialogues (traditional interviews) and interactions among various participants during a conversation (talking practices). Qualitative analysis of the textual data made emerge a processual positioning of “doing culture”, with regard to three levels of interaction: 1. Interaction with artefacts (language) – 2. Interaction within everyday contexts – 3. Interaction with normative coordinates and hierarchies of power. The results show a general change of cultural representation among the first migrant generation and following ones. The first generation who moved to the USA seemed to conserve a quite “monolithic” idea of one’s original culture: multi-cultural paradigm. The following generations, already born in the new context, claim a much more permeable perception of culture: intercultural paradigm.