Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Europe, composed of states with millennial traditions, is now inhabited by citizens from many other countries. In the EU-27, an area with around a half a million people, immigrants with foreign citizenship account for approximately 28 million (at the beginning of 2006), but this number grows to approximately 50 million if those who have acquired citizenship in the meantime are included. This presence is set to grow, according to forecasts on demographic and labuor needs. Free movement of workers is one of the key elements of European unification, therefore migration has marked Europe throughout its history. According to data from the 2007 Eurobarometro, if 48% of European citizens believe that an immigrant presence is necessary in certain economic sectors, almost as many express uncertainty about the presence of foreigners, in particular regarding the unemployment rate. Immigrants account for 5.6% of total population with important variations: 0.5% in new member countries (Romania and Bulgaria) and between 4% and 8% in the states of the EU-15. There are also important concentrations in certain regions: in France 40% of foreigners live in the Paris region where one resident out of eight is a foreign citizen; in the United Kingdom over one third of the foreign population lives in London’s metropolitan area; in Spain approximately half of all immigrants are based in Madrid or in Catalonia. In Italy, however there is a more territorial dispersion and only one fifth of immigrants reside in the provinces of Milan and Rome. In the countries of old immigration, the immigrant presence has remained stable or has slightly decreased as is the case in Germany, while it is increasing in countries with new immigration (those in the Mediterranean).
Two thirds of the immigrant population is composed of non-communitarians:32% from non-EU Europe (in large part from Russia, Turkey and the Balkans), 22% from Africa (of which two thirds come from North Africa), 16% from Asia (with equal numbers of immigrants from the Far East, topped by China, and those from the Indian subcontinent) and 15% from the Americas (mainly from Latin America). The hundreds of thousands of foreigners who gain citizenship in their country of residence are no longer counted as immigrants (in 2005, 162,000 in the United Kingdom, 150,000 in France, 117,000 in Germany and 29,000 in Italy) and account for different percentages of the respective resident foreign populations (5.7% in the United Kingdom, 1.6% in Germany and less than 1% in Italy). When discussing the immigrant presence, those people who were born abroad and who have become citizens must also be taken into account (in Great Britain this number is double that of the 3 million foreign citizens), as must the second and third generations born in-country.
In Italy there are 3,690,000 resident immigrants, 21.6% increase, or 700,000 units in the past year. Italy and Spain have the highest number of legal immigrants followed by Germany. They come mainly from Rumania (more than 130,000 requests), then Morocco (50,000 requests), Ukraine and Moldavia (35,000 each), Albania (30,000), China (27,000), Bangladesh (20.000 requests). The last in the first 10 countries are India, 13,000, and Sri Lanka and Tunisia 10,000 requests each.
The report underlines that in Europe, Italy has a pilot organic experience for rescuing people from human trafficking. Since 2000 no less than 45,331 women, mostly women victims of sexual exploitation received assistance and in one third of the (13,854) job grants were offered. To counter trafficking, it is necessary to intensify at the national and international level, with the dynamic involvement of the migrants, extending categories of person who benefit from assisted repatriation (more than 7,000 since 1991 with the assistance of the International Migration Organisation and foreseeing economic support for the reinsertion of those who collaborate for their identification.
Saturday 3 November Fides will present a Dossier on the theme “The phenomenon of immigration in developed societies ”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 31/10/2007; Righe 39, Parole 550)
