Investigating Italian Parcel Migration to London - Project Proposal

This project proposal outlines a study investigating the practice of Italian parents sending parcels to their children studying in London. The research aims to explore the parcel as a 'migrant object,' examining the motivations and emotions of senders, the experiences of receivers, and the significance of the contents, particularly Italian products. The study will employ a multi-faceted approach, including interviews with parents, students, and the owner of an Italian shop in London, alongside personal observations and analysis of relevant literature. The research will address three key areas: the sender's perspective on product selection, the receiver's experience and expectations, and the role of Italian products and shops in maintaining cultural connections. The project seeks to understand the material and psychological dimensions of this practice, shedding light on the ways in which parcels facilitate and reflect the ongoing relationships between Italian families and their children abroad.

Project proposal
I have decided to investigate the process of sending parcels from Italian parents to Italian
students living in London. In this research, I will focus on parcel as an object of migration
with its contents, both in literal and metaphorical way.
My study wants to understand 3 macro concepts:
Question from the sender’s side:
Which are the most common products sent by parents and why or how does the content of
the parcel change, depending on the Italian region it comes from?
How do parents feel like during the whole parcel’s migration progress? (preparing, sending
and receiving). Why is this practice so important for them? Which are some of the most
common objects that parents can’t avoid sending?
The receiver’s side:
How do students feel like during the whole process of parcel migration? What are some of
the things that they always ask for and why?
Italian products and Italian shops:
How do the products contained in the parcel, different from the ones that are sold in
London?
What do they buy the most?
I would conduct an interview with the owner of my local Italian shop to find out the answer
to the above mentioned questions.
Case study 1: The sender’s side:
I will interview my parents, my schoolmate’s parents (Italians) and refer to an Italian
blog called “my daughter and I” where Italian parents share their feelings about having their
“children” living far away and mention the parcel sending act as something vital for them in
order to keep their blood connection.
It is curious to observe that parents need to send parcels to carry on, establish and re-
establish a sort of never ending connection with their sons and daughters and the one who
don’t do so are seen as “careless”.
In order to identify the entire process of parcel recieval, My parents are about to send me a
parcel so I asked my father to film every single step on this “vital event” to actually
understand and prove how all of the above is true.

The aim here is to understand what happens when a parcel is sent from an Italian parent to
Italian student, under a material and psychological point of view.
2. The receiver’s side:
Beside using and sharing my personal experience and point of view, I will also interview my
closest schoolmates Claudia, Amina and Luca. We all come from different parts of Italy.
Hence, it will work perfectly for the aim of my study.
I will do this, in order to understand If we actually feel all the same way about receiving a
parcel. Which are the similarities and differences in our insight or anticipation of what would
come in the parcel or to understand the difference between our guesswork.
In this way, I want to find evidences regarding the parcel sending process and the
perception of the parents.
3. Italian products and Italian shops
To understand how and why the products sent in the parcels are unique, I decided to
conduct a tour around the most famous Italian shops in London and to interview the owner
of my local Italian shop to find out the products that are bought most, by his and how the
parcels sending practice affects some product’s selling.

Bibliography
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330.
Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Halton, E. (1981). The meaning of things: Domestic symbols and the self.
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Io & mia figlia: come ho affrontato il trasferimento all’estero. Access date:27.10.2019. Retrieved
from: https://www.eazycityblog.com/it/io-mia-figlia-come-ho-affrontato-il-trasferimento-allestero/
Miller, D. (2001). Home possessions: material culture behind closed doors (pp. 1-231). Berg.
Parkin, D. (1999). Mementoes as transitional objects in human displacement. Journal of Material
Culture, 4(3), 303-320.
Petridou, E. (2001). The taste of home. Home possessions, 87-104.
Wang, C. (2016). Introduction: The ‘material turn’in migration studies. Modern Languages Open.