"Making the most of it". How Young Romanians and Moroccans in North-Eastern Italy Use Resources from their Social Network

The integration of young immigrants is a key issue in European societies. The articles examines how Morroccan and Romanian youths employ their family social networks to move beyond them to get access to other available resources in their context of migration. We find that youth evaluete familiaes as their main source of social capital. But how do they combine family and kinship resources to build their networks? The stydy draws on 57 in-depeth interviews with teenagers from secondary schools in the Veneto region, a paradigmatic area for the increasing ethnic pluralization of italian society. Moving beyond the usual understanding of social capital and social networks we focus first on the relationship betwwen bonding and bridging, in particular the distinction between horizontal and vertical bridging among immigrants. The attention is paid to the agency of youths, stressing their social competences to overcame initial difficulties such as gender iniqualities or the limits of bonding solidarity