Consumo televisivo y vida cotidiana. El caso de los inmigrantes asiáticos en Mesina (Italia)

Abstract

Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to put together practices of TV consumption of a sample of migrants in the town of Messina (Italy), in order to understand if these can be transformed into strategies of social integration: analizing the structure of consumption; but also studying the meanings migrants give to these consumption practices. At the same time, our aim is to get closer to the perceptions the migrants participating in our study have about the possibility television has to create stereotypes about migrations and integration as social phenomena. This research has been carried out through semistructured interviews to a sample (intentional, no stratified sampling) of 60 people, between 30 and 50 years old, coming in equal proportion from China (20), Philippines (20) and Sri Lanka (20), which are the three most numerous nationalities among the Asian migrant population in the town of Messina. The results of the investigation reveal that the use of television has been useful for the interviewed people in order to improve their skills in the Italian language, in understanding the cultural characteristics of the reception country. However, the members of the sample do not recognize themselves in the representations that television builds about them; through migrants’words the reality of migrations that stands out on television is a reality of the phenomenon that is conveyed as problematic, inmigration as a threat; a tale that does not acknowledge any respect for differences and that contibutes to create a feeling of intolerance for some ethnic groups considered as more dangerous for the safety of the country.