Inside The Stories of Young Roma. Everyday Life and Complex Transitions

In this chapter we present and analyse a selection of biographies regarding Roma youths growing up in the municipality of Milan, focusing on a phase of life associated with adolescence. We have selected segments of biographies that precede – and in some way prepare for – adult status and in which we can find a period of experimentation and separation from the family environment, characterised by new experiences that the youth have to deal with themselves. The main identifier for this stage of life is the experience of integration within the schools throughout the territory. We can thus interpret the school or, more precisely, the investment of families in school attendance, as the trigger that sets off this phase of life given that it is from this that the trajectories we present open up to a range of experiences that take the young person has outside the family environment, putting them in daily contact with other peers.