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The first aim of this research is to offer up-to-date knowledge about the new Italian mi- grants, by focusing on the social, cultural, and linguistic features characterising the post-2008 crisis wave. Thus, my first research question is:

1. What are some of the traits that compose the socio-cultural linguistic profiles of the new Italian migrants?

This question is partly answered through the review of the few studies on the new wave carried out so far (see section 2.5.), and partly through my study conducted with the purpose of suggesting updates in the descriptions provided by the previously-mentioned studies. As already explained, the studies reviewed in that section were carried out before the new migra- tion had reached its peak, which happened in the two-year period from the end of 2012 to the beginning of 2015 (Tintori and Romei, 2017). Since the post-2008 crisis wave grew substan- tially during this period, the studies conducted previously can only provide a partial image of it. My investigation suggests that the image of the highly educated migrant needs to be chal- lenged, since it is no longer representative of the entire wave. This question generates five sub- questions, here listed:

90 1.a. What challenges do post-crisis Italian migrants in London pose to the image of the brain drain?

1.b. Which are the socio-cultural features of novelty characterising the post-crisis wave in opposition to the post-war wave?

1.c. How do post-crisis migrants situate themselves in regard to the historical Italian community in London?

1.d. What are the linguistic features that distinguish the post-crisis migrants compared to the post-war migrants?

1.e. What are the linguistic features that might suggest a similarity between the two waves?

Socio-cultural investigation of the post-2008 crisis wave is important because it provides the background to my analysis. As I explained in Chapter 2, the traditional studies of Italian migrants relied on a strong concept of community (and speech community). By contrast, post- 2008 crisis migrants seem to reject the classical idea of community and this represents a novelty in the panorama of Italian linguistic migration studies. Since new migrants no longer adopt the traditional means and spaces used to strengthen the linguistic patterns characterising tight-knit migrant speech communities (traditional rituals, ethnic neighbourhoods, family businesses, community media, etc.), I needed to understand whether new means were established and how speakers cope with the absence of the traditional ones. This part of the investigation forms the basis of the linguistic analysis conducted which started after the formulation of the second research question, set out below:

2. What type of multilingual practices do the post-2008 migrants engage with during in- group gatherings?

A preliminary phase of investigation (explained in 4.3.1.) suggested that post-crisis mi- grants uses all the linguistic resources (e.g., Italian varieties, English and dialects) at their dis- posal when they gather together. The multilingual practices of post-2008 migrants are de- scribed as translanguaging (see 3.6. for a definition). A close, in-depth analysis of these social gatherings provides an understanding of the connection between contexts, situations, speakers, social communicative expectations, addressees and addressors. Furthermore, the study of these elements tells us how the contemporary migrants exploit the new linguistic resources they have

91 at their disposal and whether translanguaging has indexical meaning for the participants. This leads to the third question:

3. How do post-2008 migrants deploy the languages of their linguistic repertoires to con- struct, negotiate and display their social identities, in agreement with the principles of social identity construction?

The present research aims to investigate not only the linguistic repertoire of post-2008 crisis migrants but also their use of this repertoire. Italian migrants’ linguistic repertoire usually includes varieties of Italian and English, and in some cases Italian dialects (as mentioned in 2.1., 2.5. and better explained in 4.3.1.4.). The participants use these linguistic resources in everyday conversations to start processes of identity construction and negotiation. The speak- ers involved in this project showed the need to negotiate social identities inherited by the Italian socio-cultural system, to perform new transnational social identities (as the professional ones), and to construct their migratory social identities in relation to those who remained in Italy. For this reason, I wanted to obtain spontaneously occurring conversations in which speakers would engage with multilingual practices (reviewed in 3.6.). Participant observation yielded a dataset which has been analysed qualitatively to understand the situations in which multilingual prac- tices are nourished. The qualitative analysis of the natural speech of the participants was then able to yield answers to the following sub-questions:

3.a. What indexical meanings does translanguaging add to the content of the conversa- tions?

Indexicality (reviewed in 3.2.1.) refers to the property of one stylistic element or one linguistic practice to index a set of features. By engaging with translanguaging, post-crisis mi- grants index their new transnational identities. Participants also discussed the indexicality of some features characterising their multilingual practices and which inform the social identity of the wave.

3.b. What are the processes of membership the participants rely on to categorise them- selves? Are these connected with their multilingual practices and how are these linked?

Post-crisis migrants acknowledge that the post-crisis wave is not homogeneous, and they refuse a priori traditional labelling (concepts reviewed in 3.3. - more specifically in 3.3.1. and 3.3.2.). My study wants to show the relation between self-categorisation dynamics (discussed in 3.3.) and the engagement with multilingual practices.

92 3.c. How do the post-2008 crisis migrants present themselves? How do they position themselves in relation to other migrant and non-migrant speakers?

One technique this projects’ participants deploy concerns the identification of a other which gives participants the opportunity to highlight differences and therefore to determine features relevant for the groups participants belong to. As emerged from the literature review in 3.4.1. and 3.4.2., these new migrants refer to several others while refusing traditional others (as the host society).

The questions above are answered with the in-depth qualitative analysis of passages of conversations and narratives in relation to participants’ answers given in their interviews (pro- cesses of data collection explained in 4.3.). Consequently, I investigated more participants’ understanding of translanguaging. Thus, the last research question is:

4. What are participants’ attitudes towards translanguaging and what are the implications of these attitudes for the negotiation of affiliation to the post-2008 group?

I investigated the awareness of the speakers engaging in translanguaging, their opinions about their migratory (linguistic) experience, their contextualisation and understanding of the type of phenomena produced, and their agreement on the use of them as in-group talk markers. As mentioned, these practices do not always have the function of displaying new identities. They may be indices of in-group talk, and they are deployed functionally in order to signal affiliation and disaffiliation with the new wave and with the status of being a migrant. To an- swer the third question, the sub-questions generated by it, and the fourth question I decided to triangulate the spontaneous data with interviews. In this way, the perspective of the protago- nists regarding such migratory phenomenon enriched my reflections and interpretations which are elaborated through my investigation.

Having listed the research questions that prompted this study, this chapter now proceeds with the presentation of the methodology chosen. The core results of this investigation are yielded by the qualitative analysis of the data, and, therefore, I now further explain my decision to opt for this methodological approach.