Where do we go from here?: The impact of immigration on the educational pathway of Sri Lankan women growing up in Ital

This multiple case study of five Sri Lankan women explored their lived experiences as second generation immigrants in Rome, Italy, in order to better understand their various pathways to higher education and their choice of whether to pursue that education in Italy or elsewhere. The study attempted to explore the financial, political, cultural, and educational challenges that impacted the decisions these women made, including the process of navigating between the Sri Lankan and Italian cultures. Utilizing an interpretive qualitative approach and a combination of purposeful and convenience sampling, I selected and interviewed women who had either been born in Italy or moved there prior to or during primary education, conducting interviews with them via Skype at their various locations around the globe. From these interviews, a narrative of each participants' life was constructed, followed by cross case analysis of themes brought to light by the participants themselves. Findings indicate that although economic opportunity was a significant factor in the participants' decisions to pursue higher education and career outside of Italy, the greatest motivation was their parents' desire for them to move beyond the constraints of Sri Lanka and Italy and into the best possible future they could have. The women navigated the tension between conservative Sri Lankan culture and western Italian culture in different ways, but their parents' decisions to enroll them in an international school profoundly impacted both their integration into the Italian system and their expectations of moving beyond Italy post-graduation as much or more than other potential that exist within the Italian immigrant experience.