Italy: internal migration in a low-mobility country

This final chapter in the national case-studies section of the book takes the case of Italy. This is traditionally considered a ‘rooted’ society, but with some historical exceptions like the periods of intense international emigration overseas between 1890 and 1914, the guest worker migration to other European countries between 1950 and the early 1970s (Bonifazi, 2013a; Pugliese, 2002) and the concurrent internal movements from the South to the Centre-North of Italy (Bonifazi, 2013a; Bubbico, 2012). As noted in Chapter 4, internal migration in Italy continues to be a relatively rare event compared to most other countries, but as we shall see, the frequency of people changing address has not fallen much since the early 1980s and indeed has risen somewhat in recent years. Impressively, as shown below, one of its migration-data time series spans the best part of a century, with data on inter-municipality moves starting in 1929. The length of this series provides an excellent basis for trying to separate out the role of short-term period effects from any longer-term trend in migration intensities. This chapter, therefore, aims to describe the long-term trends of migration within Italy and identify the main factors that explain the intensity of internal migration and its changes, but with a particular focus on the developments taking place in the last 25 years. Our chapter starts by setting out the distinctive features of the national context, including the tradition of low migration rates and the evolution of migration patterns over the decades since records began. There follows a brief description and assessment of the data sources available for monitoring internal migration for Italy. The third section examines in more detail the levels and trends in internal migration over the last quarter of a century. The fourth section assesses the various potential factors responsible for the relatively low migration propensities as well as for the most recent trends observed. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of substitutes for internal migration, such as international migration, temporary movements and other forms of mobility.