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The Geography and Economic Sociology of Recent Immigration to Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Russell King  and
Jacqueline Andall
Russell King
Affiliation:
School of European Studies, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QN, UK, Telephone: 01273 678744, Fax: 01273 623246, E-mail: R.King@sussex.ac.uk
Jacqueline Andall
Affiliation:
Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK, Telephone: 01225 826826, Fax: 01225 826099. E-mail: J.M.Andall@bath.ac.uk
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Summary

This article provides an overview of the geography and economic sociology of recent immigration to Italy. Its main purpose is to offer a contextual framework for the mainly place- and nationality-specific studies which follow and make up the main contributions to this special issue of the journal. Throughout our account, stress is laid on the regional diversity of the immigrant experience within Italy, and on the diversity of migratory types and nationalities which have entered the country over the last twenty-thirty years. In the final part of the article we make a brief analysis of the Italian political response to the country's relatively new status as a receiver of large-scale immigration.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 4 , Issue 2: Special Issue: The Italian experience of immigration , November 1999 , pp. 135 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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References

Notes

1. Favero, Luigi and Tassello, Graziano, ‘Cent'anni di emigrazione italiana (1876–1976)’, in Rosoli, Gianfausto (ed.), Un secolo di emigrazione italiana: 1876–1976, Centro Studi Emigrazione, Rome, 1978, pp. 9–64.Google Scholar

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3. For details see King, Russell, Patterns of Italian Migrant Labour: The Historical and Geographical Context, University of Bristol, Centre for Mediterranean Studies, Occasional Paper, 4, 1992, pp. 2–4.Google Scholar

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7. These are comprehensively evaluated in Bonifazi, , L'immigrazione straniera in Italia, pp. 105–70.Google Scholar

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15. Acquisition of a permit makes it much easier for the immigrant to return home, safe in the knowledge that the permit will guarantee re-entry to Italy. Field research among the Bangladeshi community, most of whom were initially undocumented, revealed that, once a permit was obtained, the first thing many Bangladeshis did was to go home. See King, Russell and Knights, Melanie, ‘Bangladeshis in Rome: a case of migratory opportunism’, in Gould, W.T.S. and Findlay, A.M. (eds). Population Migration and the Changing World Order, Wiley, Chichester, 1994, pp. 127–43.Google Scholar

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20. Bonifazi, , L'immigrazione straniera in Italia, p. 151. A correction factor applied to the under-registration of minors yields the following revised estimates: 0–18, 11.3 per cent; 19–40, 62.5 per cent; 41–60, 20.3 per cent; over 61, 5.9 per cent. Caritas di Roma, Immigrazione dossier statistico '98, p. 119.Google Scholar

21. See the tables in Bonifazi, , L'immigrazione straniera in Italia, pp. 154–5.Google Scholar

22. Or to 125, 565 according to anagrafe registrations for 31 December 1996; see di Roma, Caritas, Immigrazione dossier statistico '98, pp. 117, 119, 177.Google Scholar

23. Ibid., pp. 165–72.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., pp. 190–201.Google Scholar

25. Not included in the table are several important countries with more or less balanced populations, for example the USA, some West European countries and also some groups from the developing world, such as China (67.0 per cent male) and Nigeria (51.7 per cent female).Google Scholar

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31. See, for example, Campani, Giovanna, ‘Donne immigrate in Italia’, in Cocchi, G. (ed.), Stranieri in Italia, Istituto Cattaneo, Bologna, 1990, pp. 3–16; Raffaele, Giovanni, ‘Le immigrate extracomunitarie in Italia’, Studi Emigrazione, 29, 106, 1992, pp. 194–225.Google Scholar

32. Organizaçao das Malheres Caboverdeanas em Italia, Capo Verde: una storia lunga died isole, D'Anselmi, Milan, 1989. See also Jacqueline Andall's article in this issue.Google Scholar

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35. Zanfrini, L., ‘L'immigrazione straniera nei mercati del lavoro’, in IRER (ed.), L'immigrazione extracomunitaria in Lombardia: il ruolo delle politiche regionali, IRER, Milan, 1991, pp. 13–49.Google Scholar

36. For a formal application of dual labour market theory to the case of immigration into Italy (and Southern Europe in general) see King, Russell, Fielding, Anthony and Black, Richard, ‘The migration turnaround in Southern Europe’, in King, Russell and Black, Richard (eds), Southern Europe and the New Immigrations, Sussex Academic Press, Brighton, 1997, pp. 1–25.Google Scholar

37. Pinto, P., ‘L'inserimento di lavoratori stranieri in imprese italiane: il caso di Bologna’, Il Corriere Calabrese, 2, 1, 1992, pp. 33–9. See also Faïçal Daly's article in this issue.Google Scholar

38. Ambrosini, , ‘Cittadinanza economica e cittadinanza sociale’.Google Scholar

39. Bonifazi, , L'immigrazione straniera in Italia, pp. 160–1.Google Scholar

40. Lombardy's share of the total rose from 13 per cent in the late 1980s to more than 20 per cent in the mid-1990s, while Lazio's fell from over 30 per cent in 1987–8 to barely 19 per cent in 1997. For the detailed annual trends for all Italian regions, see di Roma, Caritas, Immigrazione dossier statistico '98, p. 93.Google Scholar

41. Ibid., pp. 326–41. Rome is the ‘capital of immigration’ in Italy for several reasons: its airport, its foreign embassies and its vast informal economy including a buoyant demand for domestic workers among its many wealthy and middle-class families. Also relevant here is its key role as a religious centre: in Rome 21.5 per cent of sojourn permits are issued for religious reasons, compared to less than 5 per cent nationally.Google Scholar

42. An important footnote to this map, and to all discussion about the geographical distribution of immigrants in Italy based on official registrations, is the likelihood that the incidence of undocumented migrants is much higher in the South of Italy. This is because of the greater importance of the informal economy and the higher degree of precariousness of immigrant work.Google Scholar

43. For this, published data are available only for 31 December 1994; see Bonifazi, , L'immigrazione straniera in Italia, pp. 167–9.Google Scholar

44. Knights, Melanie and King, Russell, ‘The geography of Bangladeshi migration to Rome’, International Journal of Population Geography, 4, 4, 1998, pp. 299–321.Google Scholar

45. dell'Agnese, Elena, ‘Profughi politici e rifugiati economici in Italia: il doppio esodo albanese del 1991’, in Gentileschi, Maria Luisa and King, Russell (eds), Questioni di popolazione in Europa: una prospettiva geografica. Pàtron, Bologna, 1996, pp. 69–81.Google Scholar

46. See Liegro, Luigi Di, Immigrazione: un punto di vista, Edizioni Sensibili alle Foglie, Rome, 1997; also his periodic introductory essays in the annual Caritas dossiers—for example, Luigi Di Liegro, ‘Immigrazione: al di là dell'emergenza’, in Caritas di Roma, Immigrazione dossier statistico '96, Anterem, Rome, 1996, pp. 7–12.Google Scholar

47. See Zincone, Giovanna, ‘The political rights of immigrants in Italy’, New Community, 20, 1, 1993, pp. 131–45.Google Scholar

48. Bossi, Umberto, Vento del Nord: la mia Lega, la mia vita, Sperling & Kupfer, Milan, 1992.Google Scholar

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50. It has recently changed its name to DS, Democratici di Sinistra.Google Scholar

51. Plenty of evidence exists to support the contention that Italian public opinion perceives immigration in an increasingly negative light. An Institute of Population Research survey in 1987–8 indicated that half of Italians thought that there were too many foreigners living in Italy. When the survey was repeated in 1991 the proportion had risen to three-quarters. Another survey carried out in 1991, this time by the Doxa Institute, showed that 61 per cent of respondents felt that there were only or mainly disadvantages to immigration, and 41 per cent of Italians thought that the biggest disadvantage was that ‘foreigners take away jobs from Italians’. See Bonifazi, Corrado, ‘Italian attitudes and opinions towards foreign migrants and migration policies’, Studi Emigrazione, 29, 105, 1992, pp. 21–41.Google Scholar

52. Law 40, commonly referred to as the Turco–Napolitano law.Google Scholar

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