Giovani musulmani italiani. Appartenenza religiosa, socializzazione e agenzie socializzative

Young Italian Muslims. Religious Affiliation, Socialisation and Socialising Agencies

Abstract

In recent decades, the Islamic community has seen the emergence of new generations of Muslims who find themselves having to negotiate between their Islamic affiliation, their family ethnic culture and their Italian culture in order to be and feel fully included. This causes them doubts and second thoughts about their belonging to Islam, and they experience challenges and conflicts in their relationships with their families, peers and acquaintances. On these considerations, we present a qualitative research, conducted in 2020, which analyses the relational and social dynamics through which young people construct their belonging to Islam. The analysis is based on ten interviews with young Muslims with roles of responsibility in some local and national Islamic associations, which can offer an overall and differentiated view of the phenomenon. The results analyse the young people's socialisation pathway in three agencies considered central in their lives: family, youth association, and social media. On the one hand, the family constitutes a significant space for building belonging to the religion, since it is the first agent that forms according to Islamic values; on the other hand, associations and social media represent spaces of autonomous choice in which the young person builds his relationship with Islam.