The fear of immigrant between stereotype and stigma: an empirical survey on immigrant perception

In recent years, the migration phenomenon that has as directrix the southern Europe, and especially Italy, was characterized by peculiar elements both with reference to the dimensional aspect and to that of the subjects that undertake this path. Although among the attractive elements, as economic-productive structure of the host country plays a primary role, in the last decade, the profound transformations that have affected the phenomenon have substantially changed conditions and migratory motivations. As can be seen, the phenomenon of intolerance and racism has purely sociological and emotional connotations and is based above all on an often stereotypical unilateral vision of the human being contextualized both as an individuality and within the reference community. For this reason, the research work involved the drafting and administration of specific questionnaire in order to identify the forms of migrant social stigmatization, as well as the related connection with the safety perception in urban areas. The definition of the sample was initiated by the territorial scope of choice within which the sample was taken; in detail it was decided to give importance to different urban contexts of Sicilian region in order to highlight how the perception, social and economic, of migrant is changing as a result of the constant focus on theme by the mass media. The first evidences collected have allowed to highlight how the fear towards immigrants is strongly correlated with the social inclusion systems. The sensitization interventions on the theme, as well as those in the intercultural field, have proved suitable, according to initial estimates, to reduce the forms of social stereotype. However, it should be stressed that future research should investigate the interconnections present on theme by increasing the number of variables and subjects involved in the measurement.