Pakistani Families in Italy During COVID-19: A Survey on Problems, Needs and Resources in the Relationship with Education and School Services

Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to investigate how families of Pakistani origins residing in Italy experienced the pandemic. The paper presents the opinion of 152 parents (81,6% fathers) regarding their children wellbeing and the school-families relationship during Covid-19 (data was collected through a specific session of a broader survey: Gigli, Borelli & Raja, 2021). Data shows that participants’ worries about the consequences of pandemic on their children mainly concern the compulsive use of technology, sleep problems and difficulties integrating at school. Another aspect that was stud-ied regards the participation to parents’ informal class chats (on instant com-munication software): most respondents participate passively, but the majority thinks they are useful tools to get information. The relationship between school and families was also investigated: more than 90% of participants believes that the sanitary restrictions have worsen the communication between school and families. Participants’ level of satis-faction with school appears to be low. The worsening that emerges could be due to a linguistic gap, to difficulties integrating and to the lack of specific dedicated attention from schools towards families, during intense periods of the pandemic crisis.