Modes of social and occupational insert, practices cultural identity and possessions. The example of young adults of Spanish and Italian origin in Switzerland.

Abstract

This article is about the young descendants of the Italian and Spanish immigrants, the ways of socioprofesional integration in the Swiss society and also about the way they have of living their pluricultural situation. The authors try especially to analyses the connection between young adults’, the different kinds of social and professional integration of these young adults, their sociocultural practices (social relations, languages they use, etc.) and their expressions of identity. The relation between these processes are studied by comparing the young who are naturalized Swiss with those who are still foreigners. The introduction of a control group made up of young Swiss people by birth of a similar social spheres allows to interpret the results in a wider context.