Young people in Southern Italy and the phenomenon of immigration: what is their perception?

In Italy, the issues of immigration, integration and perception of the phenomenon are extremely topical and have prompted a rather heated debate. Lacking official data on the citizens’ “sentiment”, a survey was carried out through a questionnaire addressed to about 1,200 students attending the Apulian high schools. The aims are mainly two: to ascertain possible misperceptions or information gaps and to better understand young people’s opinions about the positive or negative effects of the immigrants’ presence in our communities, and their behaviour to facilitate the integration process. Some relevant misperceptions are highlighted, and the respondents’ perceptions are detected by means of exploratory analyses, heterogeneity indexes and multiple correspondence analysis.