The foreign population in the Italian local labour market areas

Mauro Albani, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Antonella Guarneri, Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)
Frank Heins, IRPPS.CNR, Rome

In Italy the number of foreigners has increased significantly over the last decade and the range of countries of origin has greatly expanded. The distribution of foreign citizens on the Italian territory is deeply affected by the supply in the labour market, as well as by the migratory chain. On January 1st 2011 about 4.6 million foreigners resided in Italy (7.5% of the total resident population). Foreigners are concentrated geographically in the North and Center where the probability of finding a regular job is higher. The aim of this study is to analyze the spatial distribution of the foreign population, with a focus on specific nationalities. The strong relationship between the labour market and the distribution of foreigners suggests using the 686 Local Labour Market Areas (LLMA) as the territorial grid of reference. The geography of immigration in Italy is analyzed using data from Istat surveys on the foreign population, which provide every year the number of foreigners residing in Italian municipalities classified by gender and age and by citizenship. Foreigners temporarily present and without a resident permit are excluded. On indicators that measure incidence, structure and growth of the foreign population a principal component analysis, followed by a cluster analysis, is performed. The resulting clusters (grouped LLMAs) are analysed in a socio-demographic and socio-economic perspective. One of the most important features is the incidence of the foreign population with a range that varies between the cluster ‘Italy without foreigners’ (2.5%) and ‘India in Italy’ (13.8%). Furthermore, foreigner’s nationality plays an important role in differentiating the clusters. A close link between certain nationalities and the productive specialisation of some LLMAs seems to emerge. Whereas many nationalities (Romanians, Albanians, Moroccans, ...) are dispersed geographically or over the different clusters, others are concentrated (Chinese, Indians, Tunisians, ...).