The purpose of this project is to disseminate an accurate knowledge on immigration and to challenge stereotypes on migrants, especially those related to economy.

Since Italy became an immigration country, xenophobic thinking, racism and stereotypes have spread in the public opinion. The financial and economic crisis affecting Italy since 2008 has intensified this tendency, increasing discrimination and exclusion into the labour market and reducing the access of migrants to financial instruments and services.

The fear of diversity is often used by politicians to achieve consensus and by media to gain attention. The lack of reliable data on immigrants facilitates this mechanism, and this is why the superficial and untrue information circulate more easily than accurate and scientific knowledge.

Besides, communication issues between the different actors involved (politicians, media, research agencies, universities, public opinion) constitute further obstacles to an efficient diffusion of knowledge. Thus, the average knowledge on migrant population is very limited and superficial. with this project, the Fondazione Leone Moressa aims to improve and strengthen the general awareness of the phenomenon, with a focus on economic issues.

Project’s activities include data collection and analysis in order to dismantle false beliefs, to provide a representation of immigrants more accurate, and ultimately, to fight discrimination. The research covers the stereotypes and discriminatory practices within the economic, professional and financial spheres. Various researches have already showed that migrants suffer from systemic discrimination in these areas. They are often under-paid and under-employed in comparison with their actual educational level and their skills. They also experience a very low occupational mobility, even after a significant amount of years spent in the hosting country.

The project is composed by two main actions:
1) Review and analysis of stereotypes diffused among media and population on immigration, through:
- content and textual analysis of media (newspapers, TV, internet), in order to identify how migrants are mostly represented with regards to their economic and financial behaviors and conditions;
- surveys conducted through the CATI method (Computer Assisted Telephonic Interview) among Italian families in order to capture the families’ perception with regard to presence of migrants and how media affect this perception.
2) Data collection and analysis on specific issues (Istat, Ministry of Finance, Banca d’Italia, Infocamere, Eurostat). Results from this analysis will be compared to the stereotypes identified during the Action 1.

A particular attention will be given to the diffusion of the results, since the widespread dissemination of knowledge is a key goal of the project. The results will be disseminated through diverse instruments:
- A research report
- A page, on the Fondazione Leone Moressa website, completely dedicated to economic discrimination
- A set of conference and seminars
- Publication of articles (based on official data) in the media

The increased public awareness about the role of migrants in the economy of the hosting country, through dismantling the stereotypes, appears as a particularly meaningfully result in an economic conjuncture marked by the crisis which has hit the occidental world in 2008. This crisis has, in fact, exacerbated and favored the diffusion of some representations already existing on migrants and economy, emphasizing the competition for few low skilled and underpaid workplaces, unethical or unfair economic behavior, a financial management advantaging the country of origin and damaging the hosting country. The emphasis on these representations, in an already hatred atmosphere given by diffused social difficulties, has obviously improved the rising and spreading of xenophobic and racist attitudes and movements. We retain thus particularly important, in this moment, to provide and diffuse a scientifically accurate knowledge on the economic and financial dimension concerning the migrant population, in order to discourage the discrimination which can derive from false beliefs. 

Considering that the project aims at sensitizing the Italian public opinion and to improve the information about migrations, the positive impact of this project is the wide dissemination of the final publication. In this sense, the final event registered more than 100 participants. Many sites posted news about the event or the publication, such as ANSA med, Vita, Redattore Sociale, Articolo 21, Stranieri in Italia, Huffington Post, Radio Radicale, Neodemos, Gruppo Abele.
The results of the research have been converted into 9 recommendations, addressed to journalists and migration operators. These suggestions will be disseminated among journalists, associations, institutions and other bodies.  

The main objectives of this project were to disseminate an accurate knowledge on immigration and to challenge diffused stereotypes, especially in the economic and financial dimension.
The public echo of the final publication (including public presentations, web and social network campaigns) allow to consider a positive widespread of the key concepts. Then, the final recommendations were diffused among journalists and migration operators at national level. Thanks to the network of partners and to other similar projects, the attention of the media on migrations has changed, in the terms they used, but also on the attention to economic themes and the acknowledgment of the “value” of immigration.
On the other hand, among the difficulties we underline the increasing movement of racism and xenophobia that continues to influence the public opinion.

The final beneficiaries of this research and dissemination project are migrants themselves, since the knowledge acquired and diffused through this project is explicitly addressed to fight economic discrimination.
The other targeted groups by the dissemination were policy makers, institutional actors in charge of policies and interventions involving migrants, journalists and citizens. 

The project has been implemented with the contribution of Open Society Foundations. Fondazione Leone Moressa provided two internal researchers and experts in immigration and data analysis. The external resources includes publishing expenses, newspapers subscription, elaboration software and databases.