The participants from Italy part of project ”Entrepreneurship 4 Integration” wrote an article about the sitation of refugees in their countries. Enjoy reading!
According to a great number of Italians there is an immigrants’ invasion. In their opinion Italy is a land of conquest by foreign people. But is it true? How many immigrants are there in Italy?
In Italy, the number of refugees has more than doubled compared to 2014, from 94,000 to over 200,000, from 1.5 to 3.4 per thousand inhabitants. Despite this growth, Italy is in the last place in Europe for the incidence of refugees on the total population. According to Istat data, foreigners residing in Italy amount to 5,039,637 (8.4% of the population). But the incidence of the foreign population on the total Italian population is constantly growing.
Among the three most numerous communities historically present in Italy there are Romania, Albania and Morocco, but their growth has almost stopped because many of their members have become Italian citizens. In the last year it can be observed a significant growth in the number of residents from countries of North Africa – Egypt and Tunisia above all – and of the Indian subcontinent: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the growth of presences from sub-Saharan African countries that had marked the previous years slowed down: Nigeria, Senegal but also Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Mail.
These people flee their country cause of ethnic, religious, racial, political and cultural persecutions. Those fleeing armed conflict, human rights violations or persecutions can be defined as refugees or humanitarian migrants. This condition affects their destination, since there are countries, as Italy, which have the obligation to welcome them. In Italy the immigrants rescued on sea or the ones who irregularly entered the national territory are taken to government centers located near the areas of disembarkation or main entry into the country for initial health assistance, photo-signaling and identification. Those who manifest the desire to apply for asylum in Italy are transferred to Centri di prima accoglienza (Cpa), first level reception facilities, where they stay for the necessary time in order to carry out the identification operations (if not previously carried out) and to initiate the procedure for the asylum request. Whereas the second step consists in the System of reception and integration.
The integration of refugees in Italy still is a great issue. In fact, it could be said that the Italian system is capable of welcoming but unable to integrate due, above all, to a disproportionate development of centers that should be for a temporary accommodation but end up becoming almost permanent without, however, providing the services (such as teaching Italian or other integration projects) of widespread reception. Thus, Italy is a welcoming country, which, however, does not give the immigrants the opportunity to integrate in the Italian society.