Recent immigration to Italy: Character, causes and consequences

2007

The expansion and the rooting of non European immigrants which is taking place in the more advanced European countries, mirror a world context which is marked by imbalances both in terms of growth and welfare. A correct analysis of migration, of its ...

Finnish Yearbook of Population Research, 2006

Opinion surveys on attitudes towards immigration are becoming more and more important, owing to the increasing role of political debate on migration issues in Western European countries. CNR has conducted four surveys on this topic, collecting data on the evolution of Italians' attitudes towards migration issues. In fact, the fi rst survey was conducted in the second half of the eighties, when foreign immigration was in its early stages. The last survey took place in 2002, when immigration was already well established in Italy. The article focuses on three main issues: the global impact of immigration on Italian society, the immigrants' role in the labour market, and immigration policy. In general, the results of the last survey confi rm a trend that appeared already in 1997, of more balanced and realistic opinion that were less of a response to circumstances perceived as "special emergencies". Highly educated people, teachers and students continue to be the most open and receptive groups, whereas the less favourably inclined and more worried continue to be old people, those with less education, the unemployed, housewives, and retirees.

Being migrants does not mean to know what migration is. Italians has always been migrants, but Italy does not seem aware of it and now seems unprepared for the big challenge represented by the Mediterranean migrations. Social service practices and policies did not keep the pace with times and lost touch with reality, paying back a public perception framed by a particular understandingor better misunderstanding -of immigration and multi-cultural diversity.

In little more than a decade, Italy has become a country characterized by immigration from abroad. This pattern is far removed from what central-northern European countries experienced during the 1950s and the1960s. Immigration has not been explicitly demanded by employers, nor has been ruled by agreements with the immigrants. countries of origin, nor perceived as necessary for the economic system. For all these reasons, immigration has been chaotic and managed in an emergency and approximate way, even though it is deemed useful and is requested by the .informal. as well as the .official. economy. Following presentations of statistics on trends in the phenomenon, three issues are analysed: - how immigrants are integrated into a labour market that has not called them and into circumstances characterized by the absence of public policies to help them in their job search. - whether it is possible to separate regular immigration involved in the .official. market from irregular immigration in the hidden economy, considering advantages of the first and harmful effects of the second for the Italian socio-economic system. - whether it is appropriate to address complementarity between immigrant labour and the national labour force in a country with 2,500,000 unemployed workers and heavy territorial unbalances.

Migration Pathways. A historic, demographic and policy review of four countries of the European Union, Brussels: European Commission Research Directorate, 2001

Labour, 1994

During the 1980s, Italy radically changed its position in the international migration system, from supplier of labour to user of foreign labour. But the nature of Italian immigration is different from that which has marked the post-war process of European development: new immigration flows are no longer an instrument of quantitative rebalancing of labour markets, but instead acquire a function of qualitative rebalancing in sectors where there appears to be a lack of labour supply in particular jobs and qualifications. This paper combines the information available from official sources with those obtainable by the numerous special surveys which have been carried on the phenomenon in the last few years. This framework allows us to underlineeven with the limitations due to still-backward documentationthe characteristics of present immigration, by now firmly rooted in the country but still far from reaching a stable and definitive arrangement.

IDOS-Italian National …, 2004

Social Science Research Network, 2020

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Changing demographics and modified settlement patterns have reshaped the socio-economic context of Southern Europe in the turn of the century. Within this context, Italy has become one of the major European destinations for migrants, as their volume has more than tripled during the years 2000-2010. This paper analyzes the changing demography of (legal) migrants to Italy, as well as their settlement patterns and spatial distribution over time. Since the onset of the new millennium, immigrant populations in Southern Europe in general, and in Italy in particular, have been experiencing rapidly increasing volumes and rapidly changing demographics. The feminization of foreign population, its changing age structure and ethnic composition are some of the most striking features. Meanwhile, noteworthy changes have been registered in the spatial distribution of immigrants. Different ethnic groups follow different settlement patterns and register different levels of spatial dispersion. Though the migrant population in Italy remains more concentrated in the North, disparities between North-Center and South have decreased over the last decade. Analysis at a lower spatial level (NUTS III) shows a higher variability across time and counties, partly due to a changing ethnic composition and the increased numbers of immigrant population.