Between Perception and Reality. Migration to Italy in the Last 20 Years Abstract

GeoJournal, 1993

AB STRACT: During the 1970s Italy changed from being a country of mass emigration to one of mass immigration, taking over from Germany the role of Europe's main recipient of immigrants from less developed countries. By 1991 the officially registered tbreign population in Italy stood at 860,000; however, clandestine migrants push the real figure above 1 million. Italy was generally unprepared for this immigration and policy has been slow to evolve. Analysis of residence permit data show that the immigrants come increasingly from Third World, especially African, countries, and that there is a relative concentration in the north of Italy. One third of the immigrants are Moslem. Employment data are scarce but indicate that around two-thirds are involved in low-grade service sector activities (street-trading, domestic service, hotel work etc.). There is a high degree of occupational specialisation amongst certain national groups (Senegalese street-hawkers, Tunisian fishermen, Filipino domestics etc.). The immaturity of the immigration is also revealed by marked gender and age assymetry. Five main causes are suggested as being behind the immigration: ease of entry; Italy's increasing prosperity; segmentation of the Italian labour market, opening up specific niches for immigrant employment; dominance of push factors from the countries of origin; and the demographic collapse in Italy. Within Italy, the reaction to immigration has not been very favourable. Opinion polls indicate that Italians have mainly negative and stereotyped views of immigrants and there is disturbing evidence of growing racism. Further inflows of immigrants are likely, whatever policies Italy attempts to put in place.

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 ...

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

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.

Italian Economic Journal, 2021

Recently in Italy immigration has been at the centre of public debates. Nonetheless, the still growing literature has focused mainly on the experience of old settlement countries and has looked at single aspects of the phenomenon. In order to guide effective local policy intervention, we offer an exhaustive view of immigration in Italy. We combine the presentation of stylized facts from available data, based on descriptive analyses, with a review of existing studies. Our conclusions tell that evidence available for Italy does not match the policy relevance of the issue and also identify areas where solid evidence is needed.

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.

2009

Il presente Working paper contiene il Policy oriented executive summary e il rapporto nazionale preparati dal gruppo di lavoro dell’IRPPS-CNR nell’ambito del progetto di ricerca europeo IDEA (Mediterranean and Eastern European countries as new immigration destinations in the European Union). Lo scopo principale del progetto e il confronto delle tendenze del fenomeno tra i paesi europei d’immigrazione, per migliorare la conoscenza delle esperienze migratorie nazionali. Il rapporto, dopo una breve introduzione dedicata al nostro passato di paese d’emigrazione, analizza tendenze e caratteristiche dei flussi migratori internazionali negli ultimi decenni, ed esamina dimensioni e struttura della popolazione straniera residente in Italia. Vengono anche esaminate le politiche migratorie e di integrazione e le diverse conseguenze del fenomeno sulla societa italiana.

Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 2004

This article reconstructs the historical development of foreign settlement in Italy. It shows how Italy is part of a number of different migratory patterns, some of which are interconnected, while others are quite strongly differentiated. This diversity means that the standard images that link Italian immigration with a high degree of social marginalization do not correspond to the more complex realities, and by focusing on short-term aspects simply conflate highly differentiated patterns of migration into one single type. The article begins by reconstructing the patterns of foreign settlement in Italy since the time of Unification and then goes on to analyze the mechanisms of contemporary migrant flows to demonstrate how these derive from very different sets of motives and expectations. The motivations also explain why different immigrant groups respond to the different forms of regulation adopted by the Italian state. The article concludes by reviewing the data presently available on the numbers of foreigners currently in Italy, which indicate that over the last twenty years those numbers have decreased.