Portrait values, similarity in aspects of everyday life, Self and group representations in refugees asylum seekers

The break up of existing relationships with family of origin generated by forced migration in foreign countries to seek asylum is one of the most important reasons of family transition and loss of own social identity. Objectives: Explore the values, perceived similarity in various aspects of everyday life between own people and the Italians and Self representations in a group of 60 refugees seeking asylum in Italy from Afghan, Eritrean, Nigerian and Senegalese nationality. Materials: Portrait Value Questionnaire (Schwartz, 1992), used to study the importance attributed to 10 cross-cultural values; six items to measure the grade of similarity between own people and the Italians in occupational, religious, gender, value, educational, and cultural aspects; the Semantic Differentials (Licciardello & Di Nuovo, 2002) to analyze the representation of Actual and Future Self, the group of Italians and own people. Results: The refugees considered highly important the values of security, tradition, followed by benevolence, achievement, and self-direction. Refugees found high similarity between the group of Italians and own people in occupational and cultural aspects. The refugees present in Italy for over one year found high similarity between the group of Italians and own people in occupational (F=4.221, p=.021), religious (F=4.220, p=.020) and value aspects (F=6.129, p=.004). Refugees showed a good representation of Future and Actual Self and expressed a more positive representation of own people than that of the Italians. Conclusion: This study highlighted both the strong bonds with the origins and the relevance of “intercultural contact” to modify own social identity.