Abstract

The essay analyses the social paths of Moroccan and Somali women immigrants in Bologna in the 1990s. First, it considers how their family roles differentiate in migration: for Moroccan women, migratory paths are linked to the event of marriage, whilst Somali women undertake paths of geographic mobility that confirm their unmarried status. Then, the analysis proceeds considering how these women move inside complex and changing networks of relations, between country of origin and places of destination, identifying, finally, opposite ways of urban inclusion: if Moroccan women live a foreign city like a land of conquest, where it is right and opportune to transplant their daily lives, for Somali women the migration experience goes beyond the city, which is lived in a transitional way, in expectation of further movements.