From island to island: Sri Lankans’ settlement model(s) in the main urban contexts of Sicily (Italy).

The so-called “Sri Lankan Diaspora in Italy” is the result of a migratory flow historically linking Italy and Sri Lanka. Indeed, Sri Lankans represent a long-established foreign community in Italy, with a notable presence in Southern Italy, particularly on the island of Sicily. Since large cities are Sri Lankans’ preferred locations for settlement, this chapter offers a preliminary comparative spatial analysis of the settlement behaviors of Sri Lankans in the primary urban centers of Sicily: Palermo, Messina, and Catania. The work aims firstly to compare the settlement patterns of Sri Lankans across different urban contexts, assessing whether specificities prevail over macro-level similarities. Secondly, it attempts to detect possible spatial concentration of Sri Lankans at the intra-urban level and to verify spatial correlation with other variables proxies of socioeconomic heterogeneities in urban neighbourhoods. Multiple linear models have been run to assess the city-level influence of several socioeconomic predictors on the Sri Lankans’ distribution. Moreover, geographically weighted regressions are implemented to assess the spatial dependence between Sri Lankans’ location quotients and the covariates at the local level. Each spatial covariate has been interpolated into a unique geographic reference grid, in order to harmonise different types of areal unit and to perform comparisons between cities. Findings suggest that, despite moderate overall segregation, Sri Lankans concentrate in central affluent areas, revealing complex social polarization processes. Influenced by socioeconomic and demographic dynamics, their distribution reflects ethnic and migratory dimensions. While Sri Lankans gravitate towards wealthier Italian households, they also settle where foreign presence rises, indicating evolving ethnic segregation dynamics possibly influenced by gentrification and demographic shifts.