Migration in Italy: Between facts and public perception | Southern Europe | bpb.de

The Italian debate on immigration and asylum has been dominated in the last ten years by arrivals over the sea: These were very visible, often created dramatic pictures and became the object of heated debates and political campaigns to combat them. The result was a highly dramatized representation of immigration, that was dissociated from the actual data.

How migration is perceived

Most Italians believe that immigration to Italy has increased greatly in recent years. An Externer Link: IPSOS survey in 2015 found that Italians believe that 26 percent of residents are immigrants, while the actual figure is around nine percent. It is the widest gap between perception and reality among the EU countries included in the survey. Some politicians, including the current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, are endorsing the right-wing conspiracy theory of the "great replacement" of the population (by Meloni termed “plan for ethnic substitution”), thereby contributing to its spread. Many Italians also think that asylum seeking is the main reason for a seemingly large increase in immigration; that immigrants are mainly young African or Arab males, of Muslim religion. Another widespread belief is that Italy was left alone by its European partners, becoming the main landing place for flows of asylum seekers: the "refugee camp of Europe" (Giorgia Meloni).

Data on migration

According to statistical data the number of foreign citizens living in Italy has grown very little in the last ten years: from 4.6 million in 2013 to 5.3 million at the beginning of 2024, including immigrants’ children born in Italy. At the end of 2023, there were about 445,000 refugees and asylum seekers in the country (including around 165,000 Ukrainian refugees), that is less than 10 percent of the total foreign population. Furthermore, immigration to Italy, as in the rest of Europe, is (slightly) predominantly female – partly due to a large demand for domestic and care workers, wo are generally women –; 47 percent of immigrants originate from other European countries (as of the beginning of 2023), and approximately three-fifths come from countries with a Christian cultural tradition.

As for asylum, in 2023 Italy received about 136,000 first-time asylum applications out of 1.1 million submitted in the European Union, (far) fewer than Germany (330,000), Spain (161,000) and France (145,000).

Migration policy

Despite the discrepancy between factual data and the public perception of immigration and asylum the issue of migration substantially contributed to the political victory of the populist 5 Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle) and the League (Lega) in 2018 and the affirmation of the political right led by the Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) that won the 2022 general election. The governments resulting from both general elections in 2018 and 2022 have taken initiatives to counter arrivals across the sea, limit the granting of refugee status, and hinder relief operations promoted by NGOs. With regard to foreign migration policy, since taking office Meloni has renewed the bilateral agreement with transit country Libya, introduced by the centre-left government in 2017 to curb the number of migrants arriving on Italian shores. She has also made several trips to Tunisia, aiming to secure the collaboration of Kais Saied's government in stopping the departures of migrant boats. Added to this can be the recent agreement with the Albanian government on the establishment of two reception facilities in that country, where Italy wants to take asylum seekers intercepted in the Mediterranean to have their asylum applications examined. This is explicitly intended to deter people arriving by sea. In recent years, Italian governments have repeatedly clashed with their traditional European partners, especially France and Germany, accusing them of supporting search and rescue operations of NGOs while refusing to take in shipwrecked people rescued at sea.

At a European level, the Meloni government expressed itself in favour of the New Pact on Immigration and Asylum (April 2024), believing that it satisfied its requests for greater restrictions on asylum seekers, for greater rigor in the examination of applications and in repatriation procedures, and greater commitment on the external front to combat departures and transits. Subsequently, the Meloni government, together with other European governments, requested to enforce the possibility to expel asylum seekers also to third countries with which they have some kind of connection, for example having transited there.

While trying to deter asylum seekers and migrants coming to Italy across the sea, the current Meloni government has widened legal channels for labour migrants, mainly for seasonal and low-skilled workers, authorizing the entry of 452,000 workers from third countries in the period 2023-2025 to counteract rising labour gaps. However, new entries are held back by inadequate rules, bureaucratic slowness and improper use of the procedure (e.g. fraud). A certain number of facilitated entries are also provided for workers trained abroad with Italian funds.

A double migration policy is therefore being designed: hostile to refugees, moderately favourable to workers, even without providing adequate integration measures for the latter.