Migrant families in Switzerland : intergenerational dynamic facing integration

Migrant families have recently become a focus in Swiss political agenda as immigrant policy experienced a strong development in the last decade, away from labour market policy which was the dominant perspective in migration management in Switzerland. In this context, paradoxically migrant families are often casted in an ahistorical „traditional“ frame and conceptualised as the place of a reproduction and therefore opposition to change. The author challenges this perspective by pointing at various empirically based findings dealing with intergenerational mobility and relations. She shows how migrant families appear rather as the place of negotiation of sustainable change both for the individual and the group.