Recent Developments | Italy | bpb.de

Yet, immigration from Albania did not come to a halt. Since 1997 Albanians have been represented among the two largest immigrant groups. Between 2003 and 2004 alone their number grew by 40%. All in all, immigration from Eastern European countries has significantly increased in recent years thus majorly changing the composition of the immigrant population. Most striking is the increase in the number of Romanian and Ukrainian citizens on Italian territory (cf. Table 2). Between 2003 and 2004, in only one year, the Romanian community grew by 140%, becoming the largest immigrant group in Italy in three consecutive years. Likewise, the Ukrainian population rose from 15,000 people in 2003 to more than 117,000 people in 2004, an increase of 700% in just one year. This was also an effect of the large regularization of irregular immigrants which took place in 2002/2003 (cf. "Irregular Migration"). Apart from the growing presence of citizens from Eastern European countries in Italy the Chinese population has also experienced significant growth in recent years (cf. Table 2).