MIGRATION: Italy to Be Home to 10 Million

By Sabina Zaccaro Reprint | | Print |

Sabina Zaccaro

ROME, Oct 31 2007 (IPS) - Regular migrants have reached 6.2 percent of the population of Italy, above the European average of 5.6 percent. In the next 20-30 years, Italy is destined to become one of the EU countries with the highest population of migrants and people of migrant origin – more that 10 million – according to an annual report on migrations released Tuesday.

Italy has at present a population of 58 million.

The &#39Statistical Dossier on Immigration&#39 put together by about 100 migration experts across all 20 Italian regions, is jointly published by the Catholic charity Caritas and the Rome-based Migrantes foundation.

With a total of 3.7 million migrants in 2006, 700,000 more than in the previous year, Italy together with Spain has the highest migrant population after Germany. In terms of annual increase, "these two Mediterranean countries do not have equals in Europe, and even exceed proportions in the United States, which registers over one million new entries per year," the report says.

Across the EU, an area with around a half a billion people, immigrants with foreign citizenship numbered about 28 million at the beginning of 2006. This number grows to approximately 50 million if those who have acquired citizenship meanwhile are included. This presence is set to grow, says the report, going by forecasts on demographic and labour needs.

The study finds that a fifth of immigrants in Italy live in the provinces of Milan and Rome. Six in 10 immigrants or people of immigrant origin are settled in the northern regions, roughly a million in the central areas, and more than half a million in the south.

Of this number, 32 percent originate from non-EU countries, in large part Russia, Turkey and the Balkans; 22 percent from Africa; 16 percent from Asia, particularly China and India; and 15 percent from the Americas, mainly Latin America.

Over the last few years, the dossier reports, female presence has grown more markedly than male presence in most regions, mainly due to the growing demand for family services and domestic work. At the end of last year the population of women was 1.8 million, 49.9 percent of the population of immigrants or people of immigrant origin.

The employment rate among the women is quite high, 58.4 percent, a trend in all European states. They are principally employed in domestic work and care, hotels and restaurants.

The report says the bureaucratic burden remains challenging for immigrants, who are given little information on arrival, and must wait long to obtain or renew their residence permit.

Migrants associations have recently organised demonstrations in some Italian cities, such as occupation of the central post office in Rome in September. These groups say that only 120,000 of the 900,000 requests made last year to renew residence permits have been processed. Often, immigrants pick up their permits only to find they have expired.

The report says integration is another alarming aspect. Recent studies commissioned by the ministry of interior show that most Italians, while taking for granted that immigration will continue to increase, are still divided over the idea of integration and peaceful co-existence, and continue to consider the migratory process a threat to their security.

In 85 percent of cases, according to the interior ministry, people&#39s perception is based on news reports. They believe that the number of irregular immigrants is 50 percent more than regular migrants. "This is pure imagination," says Franco Pittau, coordinator for the dossier. "That would mean 4.5 million irregulars, and this is absolutely unreal.

"What can really help people is reasoning, instead of fear," Pittau told IPS. "For example, with the new countries joining the EU, for the first time the irregular presence will fall under 100,000."

Security, he said, is of concern to migrants as well as Italians. "Restrictive immigration policies are not necessarily good policies," Pittau said. "Effective policies rely on fair entrance procedures and wider attention to integration."

The National Anti-discrimination Office stated that among the 10,000 cases brought to its attention last year, 218 episodes of discrimination were of ethnic and racial origin and occurred at the workplace, but also in relations with public services and banks.

The multi-faith presence also seems to be challenging. Muslims living in Italy number more than one million, the second largest religious group in the country. The number is certain to increase with new arrivals and births. In May this year Muslims had 735 places of prayer or religious association, more than twice as many as in 2000.

According to the study, religious pluralism through immigration includes Hinduism and Buddhism, but also different forms of Christianity through the Orthodox and Protestant faiths.

"For this reason, this year&#39s study is dedicated to the European year of intercultural dialogue (2008)," said Caritas director Vittorio Nozza. "We do hope that next year&#39s celebrations for dialogue and peaceful co-existence among peoples of different origin and religions will encourage legislators to adopt social policies effectively responding to the needs of an inter-ethnic society."