La Dolce Vita” Integration Patterns of Migrants in Italy

Since the end of 1970s Italy has started to turn into a country of immigration and this widespread phenomenon has undergone a fast growing trend, with an annual growth rate of 5.4% in the years 1981-1990 and a much more higher in the recent two decades (14.1% and 13.7%). In the last 10 years migrant population in Italy has more than tripled, passing from 1,300.000 individuals reported in 2001 census, to 4,6 million residents at the end of 2010 and representing over 7% of the total population, as measured by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). Today migration constitutes a permanent aspect of the Italian society and its transformation from workforce into a population is represented by the settlement of high number of families and minors born in Italy. Currently, Central Eastern European (Romania and Albania) and Northern African (Morocco) are the largest communities of immigrants in Italy, followed by the Far Eastern Asia (China and Philippine). Since 2007 the increase in immigrants stocks is largely attributed to flows of Eastern European citizens. The pace of the increase of migration flows from Africa and Asia has decreased in the same period. In Italy one of the most important pull factors has been the decreasing number of natives working in sectors such as agricultural, construction and low-skilled service sector jobs (Allasino, Reyneri, Venturini, and Zincone 2004), where migrants often remain embedded without opportunity of occupational mobility (Reynery 2001). Migration policies in Italy are incorporating the idea (as it was in the past for other recent immigration countries) that migration is a temporary phenomenon. Considering its temporary nature, it is usually treated as an emergency with no typical model of migration policies by the Italian government as result. Migration and especially migrant integration policy issues are often delegated to local (regional) government, to the civil society and to religious associations.