De Honore et Limine: Transgenerational Masculinities, Respectability Governance, and Boundary Drift at the Edges of Criminalization in Migrant Families

Drawing on ethnographic observations and 30 interviews with three migrant-origin families in Italy, this study shows how masculine authority governs moral boundaries across three generations. Four mechanisms emerge: reputation–respectability governance, blocked recognition and status substitution, institutional contact as a turning-point amplifier, and intergenerational boundary drift. The study’s central contribution is to identify fathers as intermediaries who enforce inherited norms while making practical exceptions that sons later use to challenge their authority. Masculinity thus operates as family governance that can sustain restraint while making rule-bending defensible.