Le istituzioni locali e il mondo associativo per la costruzione di una rete in materia di cooperazione, cultura di pace, integrazione multietnica, promozione dei diritti umani e della solidarietà fra i popoli.
Immigrants in Europe: numbers and fears
According to the XVII Statistical Dossier on Immigration presented by Caritas-Migrantes recently in Rome, about 4 million immigrants live in Italy, or to be more precise 3.690.000. High numbers are registered in the whole of Europe: about 50 million immigrants that is one third of immigrants from all over the world. Some Europeans react to this phenomenon calmly, others – with fear.
Data- The most updated estimates presented in the Dossier place Italy in the third position in the immigrant presence ranking, after Germany and Spain. At the same time, they remain dispersed in all the regions, while the places of highest immigrant concentration in other countries are capitals, like in France where 40% of foreigners live in Paris or in the United Kingdom with one third of immigrants living in London. In Italy Milan and Rome areas receive more immigrants compared to other towns, even though foreigners make only one fifth of all the immigrants living in the country. Surely, Lombardy takes the lead among the regions receiving majority of foreigners – more than a million that is about one fourth of the total number. Emilia-Romagna and Veneto also have a considerable increase exceeding half million. It seams that Italy receives immigration flows mainly from the East, first of all, Romania – 600.000 or 1/6 of all immigrants. Moreover, since Romania and Bulgaria entered the EU, our country has become among the fist in the EU immigration ranking. New community members are fortunate because now it is easier for them to come and live in Italy due to the privileges obtained after their entry to the EU – from access to the labour market to voting rights.
In general, however, the receiving policies in Italy are quite deficient and problems of cultural integration exist in almost all regions. The situation at schools is one of the most urgent: immigrant minors represent one forth of all foreign population and only 5,6% of all school pupils. However, racist and discriminatory attitudes continue to exist – even though only 218 effective penal cases were registered out of 10.000 recommendations in 2006.
Stability and fear- One out of two European citizens thinks that its country needs immigrants. In fact, the migration phenomenon seems to be structural – foreigners tend to stability, even if sometimes integration policies are deficient, and they work in the sectors of the labour market where the native population refuse to work. But unfortunately, the other half do not think in these terms and, on the contrary, foster the feeling of fear of immigrants considering them the main source of insecurity, not so much from the point of view of public order, but social security. In their perception, presence of foreigners would lead to increase in unemployment, even though in reality they carry out work necessary for the community, but refused by the native population. According to the Dossier, one of the factors affecting fears of European citizens refers to irregular flows, over and above, presented by mass media as a permanent and unstoppable phenomenon. Inadequate entrance quotes, deficiencies in the mechanisms of match of labour demand and supply, “black” and precarious jobs are perceived as the further weakening of regular jobs. Let alone the way in which TV and newspapers present arrivals of clandestine immigrants and their expulsion – the recent news in Italy. In our country mass media often overstate fears of Italians presenting foreigners as a threat to public order. In reality, in Italy only 0,3% of regular immigrants commit crimes, which is less than numbers of crimes committed by Italians. So, probably, regularization and more flexible access of immigrants to European countries with adequate integration policies would lead to decrease in numbers of clandestine immigrants and so our fears of insecurity.
