Racial Integration in schools in Italy and in Germany: A small study with surprising results

Abstract

A master thesis of a psychology student from Sapienza University Rome has focused on comparing racial integration in school classes in Italy and Germany. Integration has been operationalized through sociometry. The study has been conducted with 9-to-11 old children in spring 2013 at a primary school in Rome and an integrated comprehensive school in the Land of Hessen / the Frankfurt area. The results translated into a picture of segregation in the German school, into a picture of integration, instead, in Italy. The results are in line with the OECD results (PISA), but neither significant, nor methodically unimpeachable. They are reported because they merit further consideration and serve as a template to explain and discuss differences between Italy and Germany. German psychology tends to be politically ‘abstinent’ – and risks missing the boat, the boat of the many refugees arriving in Europe. In order to integrate or even include them in a not too distant future, psychological intervention would be necessary.