Silvia Aru, Francesca Mazzuzi, Dipartimento di Storia, Beni Culturali e Territorio, Università degli studi di Cagliari, IT
The paper aims to present the preliminary results issuing from an ongoing research on new paths of Sardinian emigration. We are carrying out this research for the Sardinian Research Center (CEDISE). The study focuses on generations of young people who decided to emigrate in the last decade, a period marked by the effects of the international economic crisis.
The analysis proposed is based on semi-structured questionnaires submitted to a sample of informants via internet. We would like through the data drawn from the questionnaires to go deeper than the fixed picture given by the statistical data usually available to analyze migrations. Why young Sardinians decide to leave the island? What is the socio-cultural background of the new migrants? At what conditions the newcomers get to settle down in a foreign country? Finally, are these permanent settlements or rather a temporary moves?
The research has two main objectives. Firstly, it aims at mapping the location of the Sardinians in the world, of their income activities and the problems they face in the new country. Secondly, it wishes to raise the debate on the impact of the emigrations upon a territory marked by a high depopulation. In fact, Sardinia historically has been struggling, and still nowadays, with the impoverishment of its human, cultural, social and economic resources linked to wave of emigrations.