Antonio GOLINI & Salvatore STROZZA

Dep. of Demography

ãLa Sapienzaä University of Rome

In the framework of the Metropolis project, Italy decided that in the initial phase it would focus on six metropolitan districts: Rome, Milan, Turin, Naples, Bologna and Palermo.

The aim of our paper is to supply a freshly updated picture of migration in the whole country, and then detail the six metropolitan provinces and their capital cities .

The picture which emerges from the paper is fragmented and incomplete as happens when researching into migration. That notwithstanding, facts and figures have to be supplied considering migration flows directed towards large cities and migrant populations play a vital role in all spheres, from the technical to the social and political one.

Large cities attract foreign migrants for a number of reasons, the following having emerged from the study of the various stages of individual migration cycles:

Rome plays a special role in that it has Italy’s largest airport, it is the capital city of the country and lastly it is the main centre of Christianity.

Large cities are the most important magnet areas since they attract more immigrants than other areas and their migrant communities are more visible.

The concentration of new arrivals in the above described context and specifically in some urban areas has a snowball effect and the distribution patterns follow definite models. Any action project requires an ex ante knowledge of numbers, trends and flow characteristics as well as an assessment of the overall migrant communities (stock) in the area.

In view of the above, local information systems on immigration and on employment of foreign labour were set up where possible. Such systems pooled official data and information from ad hoc surveys carried out at regular intervals to gain a better understanding of the situation along with information on illegal migrants#�

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In 1996 I.S.MU of the Cariplo Foundation established a Statistical Observatory to monitor every six months numbers and the main structural features of immigration in the Milan area using samples and official statistics (Blangiardo, Terzera, 1997).

However, for the time being this appears to be a unique experiment which is why it is considerably difficult to produce a comprehensive picture of foreign citizens in large Italian cities or municipalities.

Before attempting a comprehensive picture on the stock and flows of foreign migrants to Italy’s large cities, it is best to highlight the most important principles used in the paper and also to offer an overview of available data.

Using the law as a yardstick both migrants from abroad and foreign citizens in Italy can be classed as either legal or illegal immigrants. The distinction between the two depends on whether or not they entered the country of destination legally - that is to say with the appropriate visa - and more specifically whether they had the required papers. As for those already in Italy they are classed according to whether they have a legal permit to stay (PS) or not, or to whether it has expired.

Illegal immigrants can be further divided into two groupings:

According to Birindelli (1990) legal migrants can also be grouped under two headings:

For the purpose of the present paper foreign immigrants will be classed according to three categories: a) settled legal migrants; b) semi-settled legal migrants; c) illegal or irregular migrants.

The above categorisations do not only bear a statistical or formal meaning, they also hold political and practical implications since they correspond to different needs and problems which then require ad hoc targeted responses.

Official surveys usually point out just the regular component of the phenomenon and the principle mainly adopted in our country to identify, within a wider range of surveys, the immigrants-related flows and stock, is based on citizenship. This principle, adopted by the majority of the EU countries, allows to point out almost completely in Italy, at the moment, the so-called first generation of immigrants and a large part of the population, still numerically low, of the second and third generation. In fact, the low number of citizenship certificates released is also due to the prevalence, in general, of the jus sanguinis within the Italian law concerning naturalisation (Law n. 91/1992). In the future, as it has already been done in some EU countries (Krekels, Poulain, 1996), it will be necessary to adopt a composite principle which considers, along with citizenship, some further variables, such as, for example, the country of birth, in order to achieve a more accurate identification of the population with foreign origins (Strozza, 1996).

Table 1 illustrates the main flows and the stock of foreign people by available source. The Table also gives a break-down by tier of local government and indicates whether data are available at Municipal (City) level. Flows are registered as migration or as natural events (births and deaths among foreign citizens) and additional information is provided on naturalisation.

Table 1 - Flows and stock of foreign people in Italy: main sources. Data are by the smallest statistical (geographical and administrative) unit.

Source: our data

Data - with the exceptions of visas granted on humanitarian grounds - are published region by region and in theory should be available by Province. A breakdown by Municipality is currently not available.

Until 1991 Italy was unable to supply data on the size of yearly flows or of entries and departures for foreign citizens.

Since 1992 data on non EU legal immigration are available, divided into: a) employed persons, b) family re-union and c) political asylum.

These are the only headings covered by the planned yearly immigration flows. Figures however do not give actual entries in to Italy but authorisations and permits- which may either precede or follow actual entry.

Table 2 shows the figures for legal non EU immigration to Italy over the past five years: there have been about 35-40,000 people excluding those who were granted entry for a number of humanitarian reasons, and whose numbers peaked in 1993.

Table 2 - Legal Immigration of non EU Citizens, Italy 1992-1996.

Note: (a) Estimates for Somali and former Yugoslav nationals

Source: Our up-date by Natale and Strozza, 1997, pages 78 and 82

Data were published regionally -with the above mentioned exception - and in theory ought to be available by province. A breakdown by Municipality appears not to be possible.

Data on settled legal immigrants are more comprehensive: figures are available since 1980 by Municipality in the Population Registers where entries and departures are recorded.

However, registrations from abroad (immigration) tend to take place even years after entry into Italy, while cancellations (departures) are underestimated as the foreign citizen has no real interest in communicating the actual date of departure (residence discontinued).

Data are published by the Italian Bureau of Statistics (ISTAT) region by region though data could be processed on a municipal basis since information is collected on an individual basis.

Population Registry Office collection of data on deaths and births among foreign nationals have become available since 1984 as the form now includes a question on citizenship. This means that deaths, births and marriages can be classed accordingly. In any commune, Population Registers collect data on births and deaths of settled immigrants just by sex.

Clearly the universes of these two collections are very different : the registry records all the accountable events in its districts, regardless of people being illegal or irregular migrants, whilst the Population Registers only records facts concerning the stable and legal immigrants.

Naturalisations have to be considered as well as the above: they can be described as part of the settled legal foreign citizens joining the local population. The Ministry of Interior collects data on citizenship granted using the number of applications presented to the Police Headquarters by foreign nationals and those presented to the City Governments and then forwarded to the Police by the foreign spouses of Italian citizens (Caritas, Rome, 1995).

As indicated in Table 1, the main information sources on foreign residents are the population census, the overall number of PS at a given date and the Municipal Population Registers.

Since the 1981 census, Istat has collected data on temporary resident foreign nationals as well as the legally resident ones. The aim was to include some of the more marginal and hidden parts of foreign immigration

It proved quite difficult to register temporary residents in 1981 and in 1991 Istat tried to by-pass the problem by introducing some changes . The census figures were not convincing: legal or illegal semi-stable residents appear to have been underestimated especially in large Municipalities (Natale and Strozza, 1997).

Currently the most reliable source of the Administration is the Ministry of Interior data on valid PS.

Although the form used in the survey states the Municipality of residence or where they are staying the information has not been used to date, nor is it clear how reliable it is. In fact considering the very high degree of inland migrant mobility such figures are not going to be exceedingly reliable. Ministry figures on regular legal permits are also not very reliable: adults are over estimated because of duplications and expired permits, while minors who do not hold their own permit (though there are exceptions) are underestimated as they are part of household-family permits (Istat, 1991).

Settled Legal Migrants (SLMs) are also accounted for in the Municipal registrations introduced in 1986: data are collected from Municipal Population Registers and passed to Istat.

The study highlights the traditional difficulties encountered in the direct measurement of the phenomenon, due to the administrative approach to surveys and to the large number of illegal and irregular foreign people that escape this type of data collection. In the case of a focus on Italy’s large cities there are additional difficulties.

The analysis that follows debates the actual situation of foreign nationals in Italy, and has to take all the above caveats into consideration. This is why it will mainly consider data on PS and foreigners registered in the local Population Registers, so that the data used is both reliable and updated. Samples of foreign nationals in some areas of the country have been included to offer an initial approximation on the size of irregular and illegal migrants.

A study of the numbers and trends of legal migrants can be performed on PS after having deducted those expired. The figures used in this study have been carefully reviewed and both duplicates and expired permits have been eliminated (Istat, 1966; Ferruzza, Gabrielli, Giovannelli, Turi, 1996)

Between the end of 1989 and the end of 1995 regular permits rose from about 430,000 to nearly 730,000 - that is a 68.7% increase (see Table 3).

Table 3 - Valid Permits to Stay by Geographical Distribution. Italy, 1989-96.

Note: (a) Istat estimated figures (1997). Figures for Southern Italy and the Islands were obtained processing data on the entire Southern part of the country islands included,.

Source: our results based on data from the Ministry of Interior, that is permits minus those that expired, for 1989 and 1990 (Natale and Strozza, 1997) and also for 1991-95 on data from Istat (1997b).

Considering that very few minors actually hold a permit, one can estimate that in 1995 there were about 820,000 foreign nationals in Italy (Natale and Strozza, 1997) .

The geography of permits highlights a concentration in Northern and Central Italy totalling 80% of permits issued throughout the nation.

Northern Italy has experienced a higher growth rate than other areas of the country and has experienced a growth of legal immigrants -from 41% in 1989 to 51% in 1995 (see Table 3).

A close scrutiny of permits over the considered time highlights growth in 1990 and a decline in numbers throughout 1992. The trend over the two years can be attributed to the ex-post regularisation that mostly took place in 1990 and partly spilled over in 1991, a established by the Martelli Law (Law 39/1990). The impact of the so called ex post regularisation was that roughly 220,000 immigrants received legal PS but some were unable or failed to renew such permits in 1992.

A particularly marked increase was observed in 1996 and Istat is expecting the grand total of legally immigrants to top 1 million by the end of the year (see Table 3). The surge is the result of a more recent moratorium (the Dini Decree — D.L. 489/1995) and subsequent extensions that saw 255,000 applications, 85% of which were accepted by the end of 1996 (see table 4) .

Note (a) Regularisation or ex-post legalisation rates as a percentage. Figures were obtained by comparing 1990 regularised immigrants to 1989 PS, and then regularised in the 1995-6 period to the permits issued at the end of 1995.

Source: data processed by the Authors on Ministry of Interior data (for 1990 ex-post legalisation are drawn from Natale and Strozza, 1997).

Overall indications on the geographical distribution and on the incidence of illegal and irregular migration can be obtained by studying the data from the two moratoria. Specifically, regularisation rates are important especially when compared to valid permits at a previous date as they ought to supply a geographical distribution of illegally migrants - although approximations are possible.

In 1990 the rate was especially high in the islands, while in 1995-96 it peaked in other Southern regions (see Table 4). These indications confirm the general idea - confirmed by case studies, see further in the text - that there is a bigger share of illegal and irregular migrants in Southern Italy.

Nearly one third of all PS were issued by the Rome and Milan Police Headquarters, and a large part of the remaining permits was issued in large municipalities. In all about half of all legal foreign immigrants present in 1989 and in 1991 were in seven provinces and in 1993 and 1995 in the top nine provinces (see Table 5).

The six case studies are in bold, with the addition of Florence and Vicenza where the number of legal foreign residents is quite high.

Two indices were used: the Gini concentration index and the dissimilarity index. The former indicates the level of concentration in the area compared to a yardstick, a uniform distribution in the instance. The latter enables us to compare immigrant and autochthonous distribution patterns. The concentration index was particularly high - around 0.6% - an higher than the one for resident Italians - 0.419 in 1991. The dissimilarity index did not display very high values although it highlighted a noticeable difference in the distribution of foreigners compared to Italians, mainly attributable to the large numbers in the major urban centres.

An in depth knowledge of the size and features of this phenomenon are essential if the appropriate social and economic measures are to be sought, especially as most of the measures will have to be implemented by the Local Authorities in the area (regions, provinces and municipalities).

Rome and Milan are the provinces with the largest number of foreign nations, and this is true both as absolute values of foreign citizens holding PSs as in terms of their relative incidence in relation to the local population. In fact in the case of the former in 1995 Rome had issued 140,000 PSs and Milan 90,000, and their relative incidences were much higher than national figures as they were 3.8 and 2.4 in 1995 (see Table 6).

Key: CR = the concentration ratio is equal to zero in the event of an even distribution of the residence permits among the 95 provinces of Italy. It is equal to 1 when all permits are concentrated in one province. RCI = the relative dissimilarity index is equal to zero if the province’s distribution is equal to that of the total resident population. The more different from the overall population (or any other reference population) it is the closer to 1.

Looking at the remaining four case studies, Turin and Naples issued more than 20,000 PSs and the overall incidence of foreign nations over the local population was lower and in any case below national values.

The distribution of foreigners in the six regions is as follows: the Province of Rome absorbs 90% of the Latium’s foreign nations, while accounts 70% of all population of the region. The Provinces of Milan, Turin, and Naples play account for large parts of foreign residents in their regions, while Bologna and Palermo account for smaller shares of their Regions’ immigration (see Table 6).

Source: see Table 5

At the end of 1993 immigrants holding PSs in the six provinces shared neither the same structure by gender nor the country or area of origin.

It is important to note that citizens from More Developed Countries (MDCs) make up a large albeit diverse section of the immigrant population. Their settling creates fewer socio-economic problems compared to immigrants from developing or Less Developed Countries (LDCs).

The Provinces of Naples and Palermo offer two opposite examples: in Naples over 50% of the immigrant population are from MDCs and the figure is nearly 60% among the women; Palermo barely has 10% from MDCs (see Table 7). Palermo’s Province also has the highest percentage of Africans (over 50%) and above all from the Mediterranean Rim (nearly 30%) although the absolute figures are quite small.

The Provinces of Bologna, Milan and Turin have a large North African population, who account for about a third of the male legal residents (see Table 7).

Rome has a more varied picture compared to the other provinces, and a larger percentage of citizens from Eastern and Central Europe -especially Poland-, from SE Asia - the Philippines- and Latin America.

The sex ratio among legal immigrants highlights a slight prevalence of men, with one notable exception, Naples. However, the apparent gender balance is the result of gender skewed communities. A more detailed study shows how in general foreign nationals from MDCs and Southern, Eastern and Central Africa, as well as East Asia and Latin America are prevalently female communities unlike the North African and Middle Eastern communities which are overwhelmingly male. Western African and Eastern European nationals have a more gender variability probably because of the different mix of citizenship among the migrants in the six provinces (see Table 7)

Note: (a) Excluding Eastern Europe

Source: Ministry data processed by the Authors

Note: (a) The overall estimate of the percentage of adult illegal immigrants assume the same pattern as that found among legal immigrants. (b) Percentages in brackets were calculated on fewer than 30 interviews and can therefore be strongly influenced by random factors. No survey was performed in Palermo where relative values were obtained on the basis of data from other provinces. (c) Estimates by province and area of origin resulted from multiplying permits to stay by the quota of PSs issued to adult immigrants and then by an expansion factor equal to the inverse of the share of adult foreigners resident in the 1991 census. (d) Estimates for illegal foreign nationals was obtained by multiplying the number of PSs by the ratio between the percentage of irregular immigrants and its complement (100 - the figure) and by a factor able to account for illegal minors taken to be equal to the share of non settled minors (0-14) registered in the census.

Using data on PSs at the end of 1993 and the surveys carried out - following the method of centres and places of aggregation (Blangiardo, 1993) - in a certain number of areas in Italy was provides an estimate of both legal and illegal immigrants from LDCs and Eastern Europe in the six considered provinces. Specifically, the illegal segments was obtined according to an estimate of the fraction of illegal immigrants obtained according to the answers the interviewees supplied on valid PSs.

As Table 8 suggests the percentage of illegal and irregular immigrants indicates a particularly high percentage in the Province of Naples as well as around Rome and Palermo. The percentage seems much smaller in the Northern Metropolitan Provinces.

The six considered provinces give the following picture: immigrants from LDCs and Eastern Europe are 370,000, 210,000 of whom with PSs (including minors) and 160,000 illegal immigrants. In particular, the latter appear concentrated in two extremely diverse situations: Rome is thought to have a particularly high percentage of Latin American illegal immigrants (in excess of 32,000) and Eastern Europeans (about 31,000) while Naples has a large number of North African illegal immigrants (nearly 17,000) (see Table 8).

As mentioned, data on PSs by municipality are currently not available albeit collected. The only available data are those who are quite settled in the country who are registered in the Population Registers. Tables 9 and 10 offer interesting interpretations, notwithstanding the limited data.

Permanent residents in the six considered large municipalities are rather numerous when compared to the overall number of PSs issued in the Province or when seen in proportion to the general population. For instance, at the end of 1995 143,000 PSs had been granted for the whole province of Rome, 106,000 being registered in the Rome Municipality. Figures for the province and City of Milan were comparable (89,000 and 64,000).

The balance is even more skewed in the case of Palermo, where there were 7,573 permits for the province and 12,732 registered in the Municipality.

Figures indicate the well established communities are growing in large cities bringing the percentage up to 4.9 foreign national per 100 residents in Milan and 4.0 in Rome. However, they also indicate, in Palermo’s case for instance, they may be over-estimates as foreign nationals have no incentive to have their names delete from the Population Register when they go back to their country of origin.

Table 9 -Foreign Nationals Registered with the Population Registers of the Six Considered Large Municipalities. Absolute Values (a.v.) and Overall Population Balance- 1991 to 1995

Source: Data processed by the Authors and taken from the Istat-Population Registers.

Source: see Table 9.

The general picture is that of a growing scattering of the settled foreign residents in the metropolitan areas (around the urban centre). The percentage of foreign nationals in the provincial capital (capoluogo) is declining: for instance in 1991 Rome had 90.2% of all the foreign nationals of the Province, a figure which had dropped to 83.8% by 1995.
Foreign nationals probably settle in the cheaper outer metropolitan municipalities once they have become more permanent residents. Naples and Palermo go against the main trend, and there is an increasing concentration in the capital city.

A more detailed knowledge of structural data, that is gender, age and marital status will favour a deeper understanding of present and future changes. Furthermore, it might help outlining social policies for immigrants. Policy-related difficulties are due to lack of funds ear-marked for immigration and because of the crisis of all the models of immigration/assimilation developed so far. Another difficulty arises because of extremely large number of nationalities in Italy- 185 were counted in 1985. Rome has 171 nationalities and there are children from over 90 countries attending schools.

Source: Rome Municipal CED data processed by the Authors

Data referred to Rome (see Table 11) highlight several patterns in immigrant communities: minors for instance were in a ‘normal’ or expected proportion - i.e.: comparable to that observed in the Italian population - only in communities from other EU countries. In the case of Africa, Asia and Latin America, people on the whole immigrate alone and it is rare to come across families moving which accounts for the smaller number of children and youngsters.

Italy has a growing immigrant community to large cities and their Provinces. Communities are becoming sizeable, as is the case of the Province of Rome (143,000 immigrants) or in Milan’s (89,000), although these figures are still nowhere those found in other large European cities with long standing immigrant communities.

The presence of foreign nationals in large Italian cities, and to a degree in large European cities, generates more difficulties than those encountered in the cities of the New World.

Migrations, and more generally population movements have been and still are the prime if nor unique cause underlying the creation of old ethnic minorities in Europe. Europe’s history is fraught with emigration that can be seen as an escape from situations due to natural disasters or violence, to political situations, or to the establishment or government led decisions- such as annexation, or alienation of land. Yet again it could be a case of socio-economic conditions such as endemic poverty, extremely poor urbanisation pushed to the limit, manufacturing and production or the district being re-organised.

In may cases new arrivals led to reactions in the European populations. In many instances these reactions spread - and still do - turning into refusal and violent rejection.

Ethnic tensions are amongst the oldest and deepest roots of political conflict in present day Europe, and were one to mention but a few cases former Yugoslavia is one of the recent examples, as is the Basque separatist movement, cases of xenophobia or the success of the parties running on a xenophobic ticket in France, or yet again on going Government instability in Belgium.

A number of tenets and attitudes underlie the ethnocentric behaviour patterns of many European peoples. Some of these attitudes are considered acceptable and intelligible by our current cultural discourses and awareness, others are seen as attitudes one can or must not share or even deprecate.

The cultural and political discourse aimed at defending the original environment leads the autochthonous or native populations to feel they are the depositories of the heritage and its symbols . The cultural and political discourses call upon native peoples to do so, to be the locus of the historical and human heritage linked to a place and in particular to a city. In Italy cities are closely linked to the people.

Other ethnocentric attitudes are rooted in the Greek notion of oi barbaroi , the barbarians a notion which strongly influenced a Europe’s and its ethnic groups in their cultural visions. In fact one- possibly every - group believes its culture to be superior to all others. This superiority leads groups to take their culture as a yardstick used to measure other cultures, and it is easy for it to blur, slipping into xenophobic and racially intolerant attitudes.

These feelings and attitudes of intolerance of the host people, may at times -albeit not always and not exclusively because of these attitudes- shape new minorities . These emerging minorities develop from migration and settle into ethnically diverse majorities. The latter wish to safeguard their forms and structure, the socio-cultural models they represent. Regardless of being aware of it for each and every member of the new minority these models represent the guarantee that the person is and feels an individual in full and not a mere dweller stripped of his/her specific nature and attributes (Golini and Ascoli, 1993).

One side of the picture has old or long-settled minorities drawn by the history of Europe: this in itself is quite an outstanding fact as Europe is an extremely uniform continent - like no other -: its political and cultural systems share deep roots, such as the Ancient Greek civilisation, the Roman Empire, Christianity, the ‘Barbarian’ invasions. The latter generated strong differences and channels through language, one of the keystones of ethnic group formation, and through politics, one of the building blocks in the creation of the nation-state.

The other side of the picture shows new minorities, the ones formed by the immigrants who have been settling, specially in post war Europe, by the millions. The above described two-sided mechanisms are at work in this case too: the host community’s feels culturally superior and has its clear stake in safeguarding the historical identity of both its places and its peoples; these factors are compounded to the guarantee the immigrants’ cultural models represent for newcomers.

In Italy, the word ‘foreigner’ is increasingly becoming a challenge, a word full of unanswered questions, fear and threats.

If the integration and/or coexistence policies fail, then de facto fears of the ‘stranger/foreigner’ will be reawakened and rekindled thus damaging relations between and among people, in a national context and with the rest of the world.

Needless to say it is of the utmost importance to have or maintain an identity as well as having the possibility - or again the need - to take from other cultures which are just as rich.

Whatever their history and geography, all European countries are having to face actual or potential difficulties in integrating migrants; the growing diversity between the host countries and the countries of origin; the frequent creation of immigrant ghettos; the marginalisation of most foreign labour; delays and disadvantages in the education process of the second generation.

Difficulties in the integration process tend to carry over from one generation to the other, national public opinion becomes hypersensitive and is mostly fed incorrect incomplete and unbalanced information with political groupings try and develop an advantage from this.

The risk is that discrimination rather than integration will become the permanent feature: if all or nearly all young native Europeans reach the highest levels of education and of professional qualifications, then immigrants will have little or no chance to exercise some form of upward social mobility.

If this is so, then the above described segmentation may become a structural and social tensions a permanent feature of our societies. Italy - as the rest of Europe, and especially of the EU - is far behind in the development of a harmonised and adequate set of principles aimed at promoting immigrant integration or a fruitful coexisted.