Abstract

Research on social mobility in Italy has shown that social class has been, and still is, a crucial factor conditioning individual opportunities in the field of schooling and work. This article draws upon thirty life stories of middle and working-class people with the same social background. They were born in Turin during the Italian "economic miracle" from working-class-Southern Italian families. By analysing their life stories, the aim of this article is to reflect upon some of the mechanisms that have made intergenerational social mobility particularly difficult for the offspring of immigrants workers in the city of Turin during decades of extraordinary expansion of educational and working opportunities. It is shown how subjects position within the social and urban space, as well as their migratory background, produced a specific configuration of economic, cultural and social resources available to them. These resources were intertwined with processes of social identification and stigmatization showing how, in the context studied, early school leaving and working-class jobs were commonly seen as «natural» and unproblematic life choices.