The 2022 Immigration Statistical Dossier was presented in Milan, at the same time as the other regions of Italy, created by the IDOS Study and Research Center, in collaboration with the Confronti Studies Center and the San Pio V Institute of Political Studies. more relevant, on a national scale, Idos underlines that as regards “the migrants landed in Italy between 2021-2022, the declared nationalities are attributable to countries that are most suffering the pressure of climate change”.
Among the first countries of origin are Tunisia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, Ivory Coast, Eritrea, Guinea, Pakistan and Iran. “We are talking about countries dependent on Russian and Ukrainian wheat, as we have seen in the case of Egypt,” explains Idos.
“Areas of the world exhausted by drought interspersed with floods, the rise in temperatures above the average of the rest of the world and the consequent famines that are starving tens of millions of people.”
In the overall national panorama, at the beginning of 2022, non-EU citizens legally residing in Italy were 3,561,540, a number that grew by 5.6%, compared to the previous year (when they were 3,373,876) and which, however, still remains lower than the 3,615,826 at the beginning of 2020 and the 3,717,406 at the beginning of 2019.
As for Lombardy – the data was collected with the collaboration of Anolf Milano, Cisl Milano, Cgil Lombardia, Uil Milano and Lombardia – it is confirmed as the region with the highest number of foreign residents, with a share of 23% of the national total. We are talking about 1 million and 193,910 Lombard citizens of foreign origin (data as of 31.12.2021) which represent 12% of the total. Immigrants arriving in Lombardy come mainly from Romania (167,453), Egypt (94,586), Morocco (96,688), Albania (89,057), China (75,065), Philippines (57,954).
In seventh place Ukraine, despite the emergency linked to the Russian invasion of last February 24, with 54,754 immigrants, followed by India (49,270), Peru (42,935), Pakistan (42,218). Just over half, 50.9%, are women, 22.5% are minors. Almost 70% of those arriving in Lombardy are “long-term residents” while 28% are foreigners waiting to acquire citizenship. The percentage of born to foreign parents in 2020 in Lombardy is also significant: 22%.
In Milan, 9.5% of foreign citizens residing in Italy live, surpassed only by Rome for just over 26 thousand units. The Lombard capital recorded an increase of 7.7% in 2021 compared to 2020. Brescia confirms itself as the fourth Italian province for the number of resident immigrants and, together with the provinces of Bergamo and Mantua, each recorded an increase of about 2 thousand units. In contrast, the province of Como recorded a significant decline in the number of foreign residents: – 3,377 units, equal to 7%.
In the first place among the reasons why foreigners emigrate to Italy is that linked to family reunification: many come to join a part of the family that has already settled in our country. Often, women with children ask for reunification. 34.9% arrive in Italy, however, for work reasons, 5.6% are holders of a form of protection, 3.7% asylum seekers.
“The data give us a precise indication: alongside a constant flow in Italy, the situation of demographic crisis will increasingly create a need for European countries”, explained Claudio Mor, immigration manager of Uil Lombardia.
“Hence the need for which we expect initiatives aimed at welcoming the person rather than rejection. Furthermore, let us not forget that the factors that push immigration, wars, famines and climate change are destined to increase with the consequence that we will increasingly witness a movement of people who are looking for an opportunity to be able to live with dignity in a changing society. quickly”.
According to Mor, it is in fact necessary “to put one’s hand to the rules that regulate migratory flows. Those same decrees that today are “penalizing” migration. We strongly ask that the regulations begin to program a system of decree flows that allows regulation and allows people to transit without having to be placed at the mercy of organized groups that exploit these poor people ”.