Introduction

Abstract

In sociological literature, the life pathways of children of immigrants have always been a controversial topic, at least when compared to the comprehension of the social pathways of first-migrants. Rooted for the most part in ambivalence, the situation of immigrants’ descendants is more complex to analyse: for them, difference is simultaneously both a resource and a constraint, identifications deal with reification and relativism, belonging with differentiation and adaptation, and behaviours with contingent rules related to the context and normative patterns linked to cultural roots.