Paper short abstract:

The research presented here explores the relationship between immigrants and the landscape in which they live in order to understand how it can foster their integration process. Field research made use of qualitative methods, in particular autophotography, involving both foreign and local teenagers living in the Veneto Region (Italy).

Paper long abstract:

The research, which was carried out in the framework of the LINK Project (Landscape and Immigrants: Networks, Knowledge), holds the idea that landscape may be considered as an "instrument of cultural intermediation", and as such it may potentially encourage intercultural dialogue in multicultural settings.

Every landscape can be seen as the product of the interrelation between a given population and its place of life: in this sense, it constitutes an important reference point for peoples' identity. Given this premise, the research aims to understand which role landscape plays in immigrants' everyday experience. The main directions of our enquiry are the following: to explore immigrants' perception of landscapes in the host country; to understand how new feelings of place belonging are constructed; to compare foreigners and Italians' landscape perceptions highlighting potential differences played by landscapes in identity construction; to identify shared views of landscape roles in view of a better social cohesion.

Field research was conducted among foreign and local twelve years old living in a densely populated neighbourhood in the city of Padua, and in the small town of Borgoricco, both located in the Veneto Region, in the north eastern part of Italy. The research made use mainly of qualitative methods, in particular autophotography, semi-structured interviews, and focus group.